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Provision

The provisioning process, handled by the provision.sh script, sets up a Drupal site on already assembled codebase by either importing an existing database from the dump or installing a fresh instance of Drupal using a profile, followed by running the necessary configuration import and database updates.

The main purpose of the script is to automate the setup of a Drupal site in every environment, ensuring consistency and eliminating manual steps.

Rationale​

While drush deploy is a powerful tool for executing standard Drupal deployment steps (such as configuration import and database updates), it assumes that the site is already in a bootstrapped, stable state. In practice, especially during initial setup or provisioning in dynamic environments (like CI pipelines, container rebuilds, or multisite setups), additional orchestration is needed.

The provision.sh script addresses these gaps by:

  • Bootstrapping the environment: It can import a database dump or install a fresh Drupal instance from a profile.
  • Handling conditional logic: It accounts for different runtime scenarios, such as skipping provisioning, enforcing fresh database imports, or using maintenance mode.
  • Enforcing consistency: The same provisioning logic runs across local, CI, staging, and production environments, eliminating “it works on my machine” issues.
  • Supporting extensibility: It allows for custom post-provisioning scripts, making it easy to layer in project-specific logic like enabling test modules or running migrations.

In short, provision.sh wraps drush deploy in a consistent, repeatable, and configurable process — turning a manual setup step into a reliable automation layer.

Provisioning flow​

Provision flowProvision flow

Customizing flow​

You can control the provisioning flow using the following environment variables:

  1. VORTEX_PROVISION_SKIP=1
    Kill-switch to completely skip provisioning. The script will exit immediately after start. Useful in emergencies when any kind of automation needs to be disabled.

  2. VORTEX_PROVISION_OVERRIDE_DB=1
    Drop an existing database before importing from dump/installing from profile. This is useful when an already provisioned environment requires a fresh database to be imported.

  3. VORTEX_PROVISION_TYPE=profile
    Install from a Drupal profile instead of importing from a database dump. Useful for building sites without the persistent DB and/or test profile configuration installation.

  4. VORTEX_PROVISION_POST_OPERATIONS_SKIP=1
    Skip configuration imports, database updates, and other post-provisioning steps. Essentially, this is drush sql:drop and drush sql:cli < .data/db.sql commands. This is useful when you want to provision a site without running any additional operations.

  5. VORTEX_PROVISION_USE_MAINTENANCE_MODE=1
    Enable maintenance mode right after the site is bootstrappable and disable it at the end. Useful when you want to prevent users from accessing the site while it is being provisioned.

  6. VORTEX_PROVISION_SANITIZE_DB_SKIP=1
    Disable database sanitization.

Maintenance mode​

During the provisioning process, you may want to enable maintenance mode to prevent users from accessing the site while it is being updated.

To enable maintenance mode, set the VORTEX_PROVISION_USE_MAINTENANCE_MODE=1 environment variable in your .env file to apply it globally or set it in your hosting provider's specific environment.

Database sanitization​

The provision.sh script includes a step to sanitize the database after provisioning. This helps ensure that sensitive data — like real email addresses, passwords, and user information — is replaced with safe, generic values in non-production environments. It prevents issues like accidentally sending emails to real users or exposing private data during testing, making shared environments safer to work with.

warning

Sanitization takes place only after the database is imported, so anyone with access to the dump file can still see sensitive data.

If your database has highly sensitive data, consider sanitizing the database dump before it can be downloaded (sanitize on export). There are tools available for this purpose, such as Drush GDPR Dumper or MTK.

The database sanitization step is enabled by default on all environments except production. To disable database sanitization, set the VORTEX_PROVISION_SANITIZE_DB_SKIP=1 in the .env file or in your hosting provider's specific environment.

Customizing database sanitization​

Place these variables in the .env file or in your hosting provider's specific environment to further customize the database sanitization:

  1. VORTEX_PROVISION_SANITIZE_DB_EMAIL=user_%uid@your-site-domain.example
    Replace all emails with a tokenized email string.

  2. VORTEX_PROVISION_SANITIZE_DB_PASSWORD=<random or exact>
    Replace passwords with a random or exact value.

  3. VORTEX_PROVISION_SANITIZE_DB_REPLACE_USERNAME_WITH_EMAIL=0
    Replace username with email. Useful to also sanitize user names.

  4. VORTEX_PROVISION_SANITIZE_DB_ADDITIONAL_FILE=./scripts/sanitize.sql
    Path to a file with custom sanitization SQL queries.

Running custom scripts​

The provision.sh script can execute custom scripts after all provisioning steps. This feature allows you to automate additional tasks specific to your project, such as conditionally enabling modules or running migrations in a specific order.

To run custom scripts, create a new file in the scripts/custom directory with the provision- prefix and the .sh extension, and make it executable with chmod +x scripts/custom/provision-10-example.sh. The script will be automatically discovered and executed.

It is recommended to use a 2-digit suffix to control the order of execution: e.g., provision-10-example.sh, provision-20-another-example.sh.

Conditional execution​

You may choose to only perform an action based on a specific environment (the value of $settings['environment'] is populated by the Drupal settings file):

environment="$(drush php:eval "print \Drupal\core\Site\Settings::get('environment');")"

if echo "${environment}" | grep -q -e dev -e stage -e ci -e local; then
  echo "> Running custom script for dev, stage, ci, or local environment."
  # Place your commands here.
else
  echo "> Skipping custom script for ${environment} environment."
fi

You may also conditionally perform an action based on whether the database is freshly imported or not:

if [ "${VORTEX_PROVISION_OVERRIDE_DB:-0}" = "1" ]; then
  echo "> Fresh database detected."
else
  echo "> Existing database detected."
fi

Expand below to see a provision scaffold script that you can use as a starting point for your custom scripts:

Example of a custom provision script
#!/usr/bin/env bash
##
# Example of the custom per-project command that will run after website is installed.
#
# Clone this file and modify it to your needs or simply remove it.
#
# For ordering multiple commands, use a two-digit suffix for clarity and consistency.
# This approach ensures a clear sequence and avoids potential ordering issues.
#
# Example:
# - provision-10-example.sh
# - provision-20-example.sh
# - provision-30-example.sh
#
# shellcheck disable=SC2086

set -eu
[ "${VORTEX_DEBUG-}" = "1" ] && set -x

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

info() { printf "   ==> %s\n" "${1}"; }
task() { printf "     > %s\n" "${1}"; }
note() { printf "       %s\n" "${1}"; }

drush() { ./vendor/bin/drush -y "$@"; }

info "Started example operations."

# 👇 Get the current environment from Drupal settings.
environment="$(drush php:eval "print \Drupal\core\Site\Settings::get('environment');")"
note "Environment: ${environment}"

# 👇 Perform operations based on the current environment.
if echo "${environment}" | grep -q -e dev -e stage -e ci -e local; then
  note "Running example operations in non-production environment."

  # 👇 Enable custom site modules and run its deployment hooks.
  task "Installing custom site modules."
  drush pm:install ys_base ys_search

  # 👇 Conditionally perform an action if this is a "fresh" database.
  if [ "${VORTEX_PROVISION_OVERRIDE_DB:-0}" = "1" ]; then
    note "Fresh database detected. Performing additional example operations."
  else
    note "Existing database detected. Performing additional example operations."
  fi
else
  note "Skipping example operations in production environment."
fi

info "Finished example operations."