Published content is not shown in production

Question

I am facing strange issue with Sitecore publishing. When I am publishing any item from the CM server, it's not reflected in production immediately; while I can see this item on the CD server and preview it as well. It is taking time (in hours) to refresh on production. Sometime when I reset the IIS, it works, but it is not possible for all the time.

Publish:end and publish:end:remote are:

<event name="publish:end">
 <handler type="Sitecore.Publishing.HtmlCacheClearer, Sitecore.Kernel" method="ClearCache">
 <sites hint="list">
  <site>website</site> 
  </sites>
  </handler>
  <handler type="our_app.Site.Events.ClearXO, our_dll" method="OnPublishEnd" /> 
  </event>
 <event name="publish:end:remote">
 <handler type="Sitecore.Publishing.HtmlCacheClearer, Sitecore.Kernel" method="ClearCache">
 <sites hint="list">
  <site>website</site> 
  </sites>
  </handler>
  </event>

Could someone help me out with what is being missed there?

Answer 1

The reasons why the CD server is not clearing the cache is because the CD Server does not know what to do when receiving the events. So, you need to

Scalability Settings

The InstanceName is used (in this context) for comparison purposes, and for recording the instance that raised an event in the EventQueue, and the Publishing.PublishingInstance setting is used to ensure that all publishing operations are processed on a specific instance, e.g. if I have 3 CMs and set that to CM3 then CM3 will handle all publishing operations for the environment

On CM Servers:

<setting name="InstanceName">
   <patch:attribute name="value"></patch:attribute>
</setting>

<setting name="Publishing.PublishingInstance">
   <patch:attribute name="value">CM1</patch:attribute>
</setting>

On Publishing Server(1 of your CMs):

<setting name="InstanceName">
   <patch:attribute name="value">CM1</patch:attribute>
</setting>

<setting name="Publishing.PublishingInstance">
   <patch:attribute name="value"></patch:attribute>
</setting>

On CD Servers:

<setting name="InstanceName">
   <patch:attribute name="value"></patch:attribute>
</setting>

<setting name="Publishing.PublishingInstance">
   <patch:attribute name="value">CM1</patch:attribute>
</setting>

You also need to have eventQueue setting is enabled. In Sitecore v6.x to 7.2, it is found in the web.config and v7.5+ it is in the Sitecore.config

<setting name="EnableEventQueues" value="true">

and check if the ProcessingInterval of the EventQueue

<eventQueue>
  <!-- Time between checking the queue for newly queued events. If new events are found they will be raised. -->
  <processingInterval>00:00:02</processingInterval>
</eventQueue>

Core Database

Make sure that the events in the eventqueue table in core database of your CMs are also present in the eventqueue table of your CD. CM and the CDs should share the same core database, optionally through replication

Sites

Your sites should also be added to the publish:end and publish:end:remote events since by default, it contains only website. Note that, later on, when you have more sites you will require to update the config file. So, you can add a handler which reads your site definition and then clears the cache of the sites that you have.

Indexes

Make sure that there are no errors in your indexes. That is, Sitecore should be able to rebuild the indexes successfully else, the cache will not get cleared.

Answer 2

Sounds like the cache isn't getting cleared on publish. You'll want to add your site to the publish:end and publish:end:remote events.

<events>
      <event name="publish:end">
        <handler type="Sitecore.Publishing.HtmlCacheClearer, Sitecore.Kernel" method="ClearCache">
          <sites hint="list">
            <site>{site name}</site>
          </sites>
        </handler>
      </event><event name="publish:end:remote">
        <handler type="Sitecore.Publishing.HtmlCacheClearer, Sitecore.Kernel" method="ClearCache">
          <sites hint="list">
            <site>{site name}</site>
          </sites>
        </handler>
      </event>
    </events>

Answer 3

Thanks Patirck and Hishaam for your kind help, I've found the cause of the reported behavior. There was difference in databases on CM and CD servers, when we made our connection string same on CD servers as CM server, it's been resolved.

Thanks, Amit