Building the Staging Environment

Commerce Server 2009

This topic provides instructions about how to build the staging environment. The staging environment resides within the data/staging domain and connects to the production data tier domain controller.


Commerce Server Staging (CSS) transmits data such as promotion codes and product prices in clear text and does not encrypt the data. You should use CSS over a private network or use Internet Protocol Security (IPsec).

A CSS environment contains the following components.

Servers and hardware


Staging database server (non-clustered)


Staging server


Network cables

2 or more


Before you build the staging environment, make sure that you read the deployment requirements described in Deployment Requirements. Failing to follow the steps in this topic may cause an unknown and unsupported configuration of the deployment. For example, you may be unable to connect to the server that is running SQL Server or to log on.

To build the staging environment, follow these steps:

  1. Gather your hardware and equipment, wire your network, install the Windows operating system on all servers, and define your network settings. For more information, see Configuring the Commerce Server Network.

  2. Configure your staging database server. For more information, see Configuring the Database Servers. You can skip any steps that reference clustering, because there is only one database server in the staging environment.

  3. Configure the staging server. For more information, see Configuring the Staging Server.

  4. Grant access to the staging database server databases. For more information, see Granting Access to the Commerce Server Databases.