The next generation of Drupal Multi Sites: GovCMS Case Study

Drupal Multi Sites can be a powerful tool for managing hundreds or even thousands of Drupal sites at once. They allow Editors and Site Builders to focus on the site, while the operation teams are responsible for the code and the versions of Drupal Modules.

Disadvantages of Multi Sites can include:

• All sites need to be upgraded at once. If a single site needs a roll back of code, all of them need to be rolled back.
• Giving developers the permissions to install modules can be dangerous, but also forces them to find horrible workarounds by adding code to the template system.
• There is no good solution for local development

All these issues have been solved in the GovCMS project with a complete reimplementation of the Drupal Multi-Site System based around Containers and Upstream Docker Images.

In this case study, I will present the issues with Drupal Multi Sites that the GovCMS project faced, how they have been addressed, and how the project runs successfully today.