Introduction

Frequently came across lot of questions on how to configure replication agent to target site specific content. The OOB cq/AEM agent configuration as an option called "Agent User Id" Which can be used as a mechanism for selecting specific content for replication. More details and clearly explained at [1]. In this blog I am describing one such example which might help to get started.

Scenario

Assume you have one author instance namely author and two publish instances namely publish1 & publish2. The contents activated for site "/content/geometrixx/en" should get replicated only to publish1 and similarly contents activated for site "/content/geometrixx/de" should get replicated only to publish2.

Solution

You need to follow three simple steps mentioned below for each site.

Create an user.
Assign permissions for user created at step1 to read site specific content that will be activated.
Configure replication agent and in the replication agent for "Agent User Id" assign userid created in step1.

Demo Time

Environment:- There are three local instances running

author at port 4502
publish1 at port 4503
publish2 at port 4555

Configure Instance:- First configure for site "/content/geometrixx/en" by following steps mentioned at "Solution" section.

Create an user let us say "onlyen" at http://<host>:<port>/useradmin -> Create -> Create User.

Assign permission to "onlyen" to read site specific content "/content/geometrixx/en"

Configure replication agent publish and assign "Agent User Id"as "onlyen"

Similarly configure for site "/content/geometrixx/de" by following steps mentioned at "Solution" section. Snapshots below

Verify the configuration

Create a page "testen" at "/content/geometrixx/en".
Similarly create another page "testde" at "/content/geometrixx/de".
Activate the pages "testen" & "testde".
Go to each publish instance & verify "testde" does not exist at 4503. Similarly, "testen" does not exist at 4555.

Q&A

The userid "onlyen", "onlyde" does not exist in publish instances. How will replication work?
To replicate content to publish instance it uses the credential mentioned at transport section and not "Agent User Id". Both user id are different. The one in transport used to connect publish instance while "Agent User Id" is used to read content that will be activated.

Is there a scenario if we need to do similar steps on publish instance?
It depends on case by case OR on your architecture. Generally you might need to configure in publish also if you are using single publish instance & seperate webserver for each site Or other scenario.

Is there any additional permission needs to be granted in publish instance for user id used for "Agent User Id"?
For an agent on the publish environment this account must have the create/write access required to replicate the content.

Will all replication agents gets called when activating a content?
Yes, Every replication agents are invoked. Only the agent that has read access to the content gets replicated.

Reference

[1] http://dev.day.com/docs/en/cq/current/deploying/replication.html
[2] http://helpx.adobe.com/cq/kb/CQ5ReplicateToSpecificAgents.html
[3] https://helpx.adobe.com/cq/kb/HowToFlushAssetsPublish.html

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