Search our site for answers
Help Docs Control Panel Guides Solid Central Deploying your WordPress site with Solid Deployments

Deploying your WordPress site with Solid Deployments

Sync WordPress environments easily. Learn how to use Solid Deployments to push file and database updates from Staging to Production in minutes.
5 min read

Introduction

Stop wasting time on manual file transfers. With Solid Deployments, you can easily push file and database updates between two WordPress sites, even if they are hosted on different servers. This tool automates the heavy lifting, allowing you to sync your content and code in minutes. This guide walks you through the steps to deploy your updates successfully.

Differences between a Migration and a Deployment

For customers using Solid Central, the terms Migration and Deployment refer to two different, albeit similar processes:

  • Migration: Moving a site to a new host and changing the domain.
  • Deployment: Syncing code between environments (Staging into Production, typically on the same host.

Prerequisites

  • A WordPress site that is reachable via the public internet. Also known as the origin site.
  • WordPress Admin credentials for the origin site and destination site.
  • SFTP or SSH credentials for the origin and destination server where your sites are hosted.
  • Log in credentials for a Solid Central account.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Solid Deployments automates most of the work in transferring your files and database from one host to another. Below is a breakdown of each step involved in the process.

Connect Origin and Destination Sites
If the server hosting the origin, or destination site that you wish to migrate is not already connected to Solid Central, you will need to connect it. Follow this guide to learn more.

  1. Log in to Solid Central.
  2. Click on Sites in the navigation menu.
  3. Bring up your site’s dashboard by clicking on the site you wish to deploy from the list of sites.
  4. Click on the Deploy icon, and then select Start a Deployment from the options to begin the process.
  5. Select a destination site from your list of connected sites.
  6. Confirm you wish to proceed with the deployment.
Destination Data Will Be Erased
Clicking Confirm will permanently overwrite the entire database and file system of the destination site. Ensure you have a backup of the destination site if there is any data you wish to keep.

  1. Solid Central will begin copying your themes, plugins, media, and database tables to the destination. You do not need to keep this window open; the process will continue in the background.
    • The time required to complete the deployment varies, but it is typically around 10-15 minutes for a standard WordPress site, depending on site size. Larger or more complex sites will take longer e.g. sites with vast media libraries, a significant number of plugins/files, large databases, etc.
  2. Follow the progress of the migration by looking at the new card in the timeline view as it will always reflect the current status. Click on Read Logs to get a better understanding of how it is progressing.

Next Steps

Verify URL Updates

Once the content has been successfully deployed to the destination site, Solid Deployments runs an automated search and replace to adjust URLs, file paths, and environment-specific values, so that it reflects the destination site URL rather than the origin site URL. You will want to verify this process completed successfully on a few important URLs.

Post-Deployment Verification

Now’s your chance to walk through the destination site as a visitor would. Test the front end and admin area, check for broken links and missing assets, and confirm login functionality.

A successful verification means the deployment successfully replaced the files and database tables on the destination site with those from your origin site.

Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing issues with the destination site after the deployment has completed, here’s what to check:

  • Check that all files and database content were copied correctly.
  • Look in the destination server’s PHP error logs or the WordPress debug log.
  • Consider rerunning the deployment, as this will perform the file and database transfer steps again.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A Migration moves your site to a completely new hosting server (changing the host). A Deployment moves data between two existing environments on the same host (like pushing changes from a Staging site to a Live/Production site).

Yes. Solid Deployments is a full sync. It will completely overwrite the database and files on the destination site with the version from your origin site. Always create a backup of your destination site before clicking Confirm.

No. Solid Deployments is designed to keep environments in perfect sync. It copies the entire wp-content folder (themes, plugins, uploads) and the database to ensure the destination matches the origin exactly.

The destination site remains online while files are copying, but you may experience a very brief moment of instability or a “Maintenance Mode” screen during the final database swap. We recommend running deployments during low-traffic periods.

Yes. If you are deploying from Staging (staging.site.com) to Production (site.com), Solid Deployments automatically runs a “search and replace” to update all links and database paths to match the destination URL.

Was this article helpful?