Introduction to Plone Stack – Plone Deployment

Introduction to Plone Stack

Introduction to Plone Stack#

Explore the intricate components of the Plone stack, tailored for deploying a modern Plone 6 site with a ReactJS-powered frontend. For deployments focusing on Plone Classic UI with server-side HTML rendering, the frontend component is excluded. This guide won't cover the integration of a web accelerator or the setup of an edge caching service.

Components of the Plone Stack#

Web server#

The web server, accessible externally on ports 80 and 443, handles the routing and rewriting of HTTP requests to the Plone frontend and backend, and is tasked with TLS termination. While nginx and Traefik are recommended, other web servers can also be employed. This training will exclusively utilize Traefik.

To understand the rewrite rules used in Traefik, please read our reference about Zope's Virtual Hosting Services.

Web Accelerator#

Varnish, a web accelerator, is positioned between the external web server and internal services to cache dynamically generated content. For a detailed Plone setup with Varnish, refer to the volto-caching repository.

Plone Frontend#

Hosted on a Node.js HTTP-server running on port 3000, the Plone frontend constitutes the default user interface and requires access to the Plone Backend and the web server.

Plone Backend#

Operating on port 8080, the Plone Backend, a WSGI process, serves as the HTTP server hosting the Plone API. It's optimal to pair it with a specialized database like ZEO server or a relational database via RelStorage, supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, and Oracle. A separate shared file system is essential for storing binary data if ZEO is employed.

Database#

The database layer can range from a simple ZODB with file storage to more scalable options like a ZEO server or a relational database. This training will focus on using a PostgreSQL instance.

Deployment Configurations#

Basic Setup#

Without Specialized Database#

Web server → Plone Frontend → Plone Backend (file storage)

Note

Ideal for demo sites and Plone trials.

With Specialized Database#

Web server → Plone Frontend → Plone Backend → Database

Note

Solution to be presented in this training.

With Specialized Database and Caching#

Web server → Web Accelerator → Plone Frontend → Plone Backend → Database

Multi-server Setup#

In a multi-server environment, load distribution and redundancy are achieved through various configurations, enabling horizontal scaling.

Flow of a request to `https://example.com` — Flow of a request to https://example.com#

Web server and Web Accelerator Layer#

Externally accessible machine hosting both the web server and web accelerator on ports 80 and 443.

Plone Application Layer (Frontend and Backend)#

Hosts scalable Plone Frontend and Backend processes, enhancing performance and responsiveness.

Database Layer#

Can host a ZEO server or a relational database. Managed relational database services with backup and replication are recommended for those unfamiliar with database management, with PostgreSQL being a preferred choice.