Automation delivers Remote Administration security updates. Acquia Remote Administration automation uses Preferences, and has specific compatibility requirements.

Compatibility requirements

Meeting the following requirements allows a website to be updated by using Acquia’s automated security update process:

• VCS: The subscription (glossary term, activate to view definition) must use an Acquia Git repository. Automated security updates are pushed to the Acquia-hosted repository only. It’s the responsibility of your development team (glossary term, activate to view definition) to merge updates into any external repository.
  • Subscriptions using externally hosted Git repositories are not eligible for automated security updates.
• Clean core and contrib: The automated update process will overwrite core and contributed files, and any modifications will be lost. Modified contributed modules should either be excluded from the update process or correctly patched. Drupal core updates can’t be locked and all modifications must be patched or they will be lost.
• Stable and working production code: The Remote Administration service is targeted at released, production websites on which primary development is complete. Installations running the Welcome tag (tag/WELCOME) can’t receive automated updates. It’s recommended that your development team apply upgrades to websites under current and active initial development as part of the development process so issues may be resolved as they arise and unnecessary merge tasks can be avoided. Websites in active development may be updated provided there is code on the Production environment (glossary term, activate to view definition). Your development team will need to merge updates from the update branch into the active development branch.
• Composer: For compatibility with RA automation, Acquia recommends you to build websites running the current Drupal version using Composer. Websites running the current Drupal version require Drush 11.x or later to be installed in the docroot directory with Composer. RA cannot guarantee the compatibility of Drush updates provided to websites running the current Drupal version. For information about how to set up Composer for your website, see Acquia Automation: Composer builds.
• Drush: Drush must be able to run on at least one multisite within the subscription and must work on all available environments. Broken custom modules or incorrectly configured include files in the sites.php and settings.php files can prevent automated update processes from functioning. The command drush pm-security must be able to be run on all environments.
• Drupal docroot: Drupal must be installed inside [reponame]/docroot. Installations not in this location will prevent automated update processes from functioning. Appropriately configured symlinks using a vendor structure that works with Drush are also acceptable.
• PHP: The Remote Administration update script relies on the following to check and perform updates:
  • Drush 8.x or later
  • PHP 7.4 or later
• Distributions that aren’t compatible with Drush updates can’t be updated using automation.

What Acquia’s update automation does

• Regularly provides security updates without subscriber initiation.
• Updates all security vulnerabilities using Drush or Composer. Be aware that Drush overwrites all core and contributed module modifications.
• Detects non-Drupal files in the docroot directory, and ensures they are not deleted.

• Including security updates, Acquia will implement bug-fix updates to the following modules, even if the modules are disabled, to ensure your subscription can take advantage of Acquia’s services:

  • Acquia Connector
  • Site Factory Connector
  • Apache Solr Search
  • Acquia Purge
  • Acquia DAM

What Acquia’s update automation doesn’t do

• Automation does not apply bug-fix updates other than those listed above.
• Update automation won’t detect modifications to either core or contributed modules. All modifications must either be locked or properly patched.
• Apply existing patches other than those specified in /reponame/patches.make. All other patches will be overwritten by Drush unless module locking is also properly set up.
• Update websites built on distributions.
• Update websites built with make files or build scripts. Custom builds dependent on manually updating individual files are considered custom code and cannot be updated through automation.
• Update websites built using Continuous Integration (CI).

Who receives automated updates

All Standard and Legacy Premium RA subscriptions are eligible for automated security updates, provided the subscription is compatible with Acquia’s automation.

• Security updates for Standard RA subscriptions must use automation.
• Acquia can’t guarantee a security update delivery timeline for subscriptions which aren’t compatible with Acquia’s security update automation.

Update process

The automation process follows our existing Security Update Workflow. For the timeline about initiating security updates, see ticket timelines.

After a website is queued for an automated update, the script will:

• Scan the production website for pending security updates.
• If a security vulnerability is detected, an update will be started.
• RA Preferences for the subscription will be reviewed.
  • If RA preferences are set to Update Code, a branch will be deployed to the RA Environment, updated, and a ticket will be sent to your team.
  • If RA preferences are set to Inform Only, a ticket will be sent listing recommended security updates. You may request an update by changing your RA preferences and resolving the ticket. The RA process will update the codebase in the next weekly run.
• An updated branch will be available for testing within 24 to 48 hours of a Security Announcement on drupal.org. After a branch has been deployed, progress on the ticket is dependent upon subscriber testing through all steps of the RA security update workflow.
• If an update branch already exists, unless a new security update is announced, you won’t receive a new ticket for two weeks.

Automation