Sitecore Instance Manager (SIM)

SIM is an open source tool for managing the local park of Sitecore instances. You can install, locate, maintain, reinstall or delete Sitecore products. It has API and plugin engine so you can extend it for any your need.

Download SIM as a ClickOnce app

Resources

1. Release History
2. Documentation
3. Troubleshooting
4. Developer Center
5. Contact Us

Features

Global Features

1. List Sitecore websites installed locally and their modules
2. Install new Sitecore standalone product
3. Install Sitecore modules and packages
4. Download Sitecore products from https://dev.sitecore.net
5. Back up Sitecore websites, and Restore them (available only for Sitecore 8.2 and earlier)
6. Export Sitecore website and Import it on remote computer (available only for Sitecore 8.2 and earlier)
7. Delete Sitecore websites
8. Reinstall Sitecore websites
9. Install Solr
10. Deploy Sitecore to Docker

Open in Browser

• Open website
• Open Sitecore Client
• Open Sitecore Client (bypassing security, logging in as admin)
• Open administrative tools

Open applications

• Open Website folder
• Open Visual Studio project (create project if missing)
• Open web.config and other *.config files
• Open showconfig.xml configuration
• Open current log file in Dynamic Log Viewer
• Open entire log files in Sitecore Log Analyzer

Change website

• Start/Stop App Pool
• Recycle App Pool
• Kill w3wp.exe process
• Change Framework version
• Change Framework bitness

Solr index creation

• SIM now includes Solr support.
  • For Sitecore 8.2, this is available as a Configuration Preset during the installation wizard.
  • For Sitecore 8.1, it is necessary to download the appropriate "Solr support package" from http://dev.sitecore.net/downloads, and to add it to SIM using the "Add Module" button on the "Modules list" screen during installation.
• This supports Solr 4 and higher.
  • Note: For Solr 4.x, the default "collection1" is used as a template, and must be present. For Solr 5.x and higher, the configuration located at server\solr\configsets\data_driven_schema_configs is used, as it has the language support required to index non-English text.
• This module automates the following tasks:
  • Activates all Solr config files, and deactivates matching Lucene config files (same name with "Lucene" replacing "Solr"), with the following exceptions:
    • Sitecore 8.2 Solr + IOC files are not enabled.
    • Lucene default configuration files Sitecore.ContentSearch.Lucene.DefaultIndexConfiguration.config and Sitecore.ContentSearch.Lucene.DefaultIndexConfiguration.Xdb.config are not disabled.
    • The unmatched configuration file Sitecore.Social.Lucene.Index.Analytics.Facebook.config is disabled as required.
  • Sets core name to instance name + index name (e.g. "sc82u0_sitecore_web_index")
  • Copies configuration from "collection1" for each new core.
  • Calls Sitecore schema update wizard ("Generate the Solr Schema.xml file") for each new core.
  • Calls Solr API to create each core/collection.
  • Indexes are left empty, but can be built from Control Panel/Indexing Manager.
  • Enables Solr term support, as described here.

Extra features

• Install MongoDB in one click
• Edit etc\hosts file
• Batch operations with SQL databases
• Predefined configurations (Enable MVC, Scaling ...)
• Delete All Instances - wizard for deleting all installed Sitecore instances
• Update Licenses - Updating Sitecore license file in all installed Sitecore instances
• SSPG - Sitecore Support Package Generator for collecting detailed information about an instance
• Publish Dialog - executing Sitecore publishing in application (available only for Sitecore 8.2 and earlier)

Prerequisites

SIM will only work:

• on Windows 7+, or Windows Server 2008 R2+
• with Administrator permissions
• with direct Internet access (no proxy)
• when IIS is pre-configured with all necessary features (check Sitecore installation guide for details)

For Sitecore 9.0 and later:

• with compatible SQL Server instance with sysadmin permissions
• with compatible Azure SQL Server instance (connection string example: Data Source=tcp:[name].database.windows.net;User ID=[user];Password=[password])
• with ssdt15 chocolatey package installed

For Sitecore 7.5, 8.0, 8.1 and 8.2:

• with local MongoDB instance pre-configured and running as a service
• with local SQL Server 2012+ instance with sa user account with sysadmin permissions

Known Issues

• Outdated download link to Microsoft Web Platform Installer
• SQL Server integrated security is not supported
• HTTPS or IP-based Bindings are not supported
• Sitecore environment can use only the default HTTPS port 443
• SQL Server 2012 or 2014 default user account is not supported
• Automatic upgrade to SIM 1.6 is not supported

Supported Products

• Sitecore CMS 6.3 and later
• All Sitecore modules

Some of Sitecore modules have special support for initial configuration:

• Active Directory
• Web Forms for Marketers
• E-mail Campaign Manager