Multi-Site Management

The problem MSM solves

You run the same site in twelve markets. Most content is shared; some is local. Copy-pasting means twelve places to update for every global change, and drift within a month. Multi-Site Management makes the relationship explicit and maintained.

The vocabulary

• Blueprint — the source. Often a language master such as /content/wknd/language-masters/en. A blueprint configuration formally designates a branch as a source and enables rollout from it.
• Live copy — a branch created from a blueprint that maintains a live relationship with it.
• Rollout — pushing changes from blueprint to live copies.
• Rollout configuration — the rules: which events trigger a rollout and which actions it performs.
• Inheritance — a live copy component inherits its source's content until someone breaks the link.

How inheritance actually behaves

Every inherited page and component carries a cq:LiveRelationship. While inheritance is intact, a rollout overwrites the live copy's content with the blueprint's. The moment a local author edits an inherited component, AEM cancels inheritance for it — and from then on rollouts leave it alone.

Inheritance can be cancelled and re-enabled at two levels:

• Component level — the padlock in the component toolbar. Cancelling detaches that component; re-enabling restores the blueprint's content, discarding the local edit.
• Page level — from page properties or the Live Copy console, detach the whole page, or suspend inheritance temporarily.

Rollout configurations

A rollout configuration pairs a trigger with a set of actions:

• Triggers — on modification, on activation, on deactivation, or manual only.
• Actions — update content, create/delete pages to match, update page properties, update references, publish afterwards.

The standard configurations cover most needs. Standard rollout config updates content on activation; Activate on Blueprint activation publishes the live copy when the source is published. You can define your own when the defaults do not fit.

The Live Copy Overview console

Under Sites → select a blueprint → References → Live Copies, or the dedicated console, you get the operational view: which live copies exist, their status, which pages have cancelled inheritance, and the controls to roll out, suspend, detach or reset.

• Suspend — temporarily stop receiving rollouts, keeping the relationship.
• Detach — permanently remove the relationship. The content stays but becomes independent. Not reversible.
• Reset — discard local changes and re-inherit everything from the blueprint.

Diagnosing "the rollout did not work"

Walk these in order — one of them is nearly always the answer:

1. Is inheritance cancelled on that component or page? By far the most common cause, and it is usually intentional — someone edited it locally.
2. Is the live copy suspended?
3. Does the rollout configuration cover this trigger? A config that rolls out on activation does nothing when you merely modify.
4. Was the rollout actually run, or was the blueprint only saved?
5. Was the live copy published? Rollout updates author; the live site still needs replication.

MSM and translation

MSM handles structural inheritance; translation handles language. The common pattern is a language master, translated into language copies, with MSM live copies beneath each for regional variants — which is exactly tomorrow's subject.