Server Sync & Deploy Workflow

A unified guide on pulling and pushing environmental data (Database & Assets) between DDEV local instances and remote (Preprod/Production) servers using sync.sh and deploy.sh.

Overview

In DDEV architectures, rather than executing builds or variant generations on a live VPS—which risks server timeouts on heavy asset matrices—we rely on localized rsync techniques.

• sync.sh: Pulls the remote state Downward (Remote -> Local). Useful for onboarding onto a project or grabbing fresh production data to test locally.
• deploy.sh: Pushes the local state Upward (Local -> Remote). Essential during Silverstripe Major Version upgrades or when deploying pre-computed public/assets.

[!WARNING] Both scripts are highly destructive. sync.sh will drop and overwrite the local DDEV database/assets. deploy.sh will drop and overwrite the remote database/assets. Always confirm destinations before running.

Prerequisites / Safety