If you delete drivers and driver sets from Stage 2 in order to deploy the drivers from Stage 1, you can lose the associations.
We recommend you use the same Designer workspace for all stage projects.
Don't deploy Stage 1 objects directly into the Stage 2 environment.
When performing the staging process, ensure you store server-specific settings as GCVs. If using packages, you can then leave those GCVs behind when you change stages. However, if using configuration files, you need to copy the GCVs from one stage to the next so they do not get overwritten.
When creating new GCVs for staging, ensure you add those GCVs at the driver set level.
Before moving to any stage, understand the existing stage and the objects that Designer does not automatically bring in (see Objects That Designer Does Not Model) for the next stage.
Ensure that you know which objects are required in the subsequent stages. Consolidate these objects in the LDIF file.
You can store any eDirectory objects not modeled in Designer as a DS object in your first-stage project and add that object to a package so that you can move the DS object to the second-stage.
Ensure that you assign the Security Equivalences, Trustees, and Server Certificates of Stage 1 in Stage 2 after deployment.
LDIF files that contain additional objects should be stored locally. You can use the Import Convert Export (ICE) utility to deploy these objects in any stage.
For a new deployment in Stage 2, ensure that LDIF objects are deployed before importing the configuration file or the project file.
For an existing deployment in Stage 2, ensure that you compare the existing project with the Stage 1 configuration, deploy the necessary LDIF objects, then import the configuration file.
Ensure that objects are up-to-date when you import them into the LDIF file.
Always import the additional objects into Stage 1 before moving to Stage 2.
Export the additional objects of Stage 1 into an LDIF file before moving to Stage 2 so that these objects can be manually created in Stage 2 before deployment.
Rather than directly modifying your filters, we recommend you create a filter object in your first-stage project, add that filter object to a package, and then install the package on a driver in your first-stage project. Using the package, you can then easily move any changes to the filter to the next stage.