The Difference Between Deploy and Export

Beacon's deploy and export features are both designed to help update the files on a server, but they each do the job very differently.

Deploy

Think of deploy as the automatic option. If you've imported your config from Nitrado or via FTP, deploy becomes an option to perform the reverse action.

The deploy button looks like a rocket ship: Deploy looks like a rocket ship.

For Nitrado servers, deploy is able to fully control the server. Beacon will stop the server, make a config backup, enable expert mode if not already enabled, update the files and settings as necessary, and start the server again if Beacon stopped it. This happens fully automatically, so you can go a coffee while it works.

For FTP servers, Beacon won't be able to control the server, but can automatically update the Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini files.

In both cases, deploy fully preserves existing content. Beacon's smart rewriter is able to blend your new changes with your existing files.

Having deploy support for more providers in Beacon would be wonderful, but that requires other hosting providers to have an API that Beacon can use. So far, only Nitrado has that.

Export

For other servers, deploy won't be an option. That's where export comes in. Export will build the Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini files as if your existing files are empty. But realistically, your files won't be empty. Once again, Beacon's smart rewriter comes to the rescue. The "Update File" and "Rewrite Clipboard" buttons allow you to blend your new changes with your existing files. "Update File" allows you to choose a file on your computer to update, and "Rewrite Clipboard" will update the content you've copied and copy the new content for you.

The export button looks like a box with an arrow facing to the top right: Export is a box with an arrow facing outward.

For more detailed information about using export, see Updating Your Server Manually.

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