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Note

Before you start, check out the Upsun demo app and the main Getting started guide. They provide all of the core concepts and common commands you need to know before using the materials below.
It should also be noted that this guide works for the following variations of Drupal:
For Drupal to successfully deploy and operate, after completing the Getting started guide, you still need to make a few changes to your Upsun configuration. In addition to the above, you should also have:

Configure

Open the .upsun/config.yaml file that’s been generated and replace with the following: This configuration is similar to the deployment process for Drupal on Upsun Fixed, however it is slightly updated for Upsun’s configuration.

Variables

The project:init command created a .environment file containing environment variables for the two services (MariaDB and Redis). Now append the following Drush configuration to the bottom of that file:
.environment
# Allow executable app dependencies from Composer to be run from the path.
if [ -n "$PLATFORM_APP_DIR" -a -f "$PLATFORM_APP_DIR"/composer.json ] ; then
  bin=$(composer config bin-dir --working-dir="$PLATFORM_APP_DIR" --no-interaction 2>/dev/null)
  export PATH="${PLATFORM_APP_DIR}/${bin:-vendor/bin}:${PATH}"
fi

# Set the URI for Drush commands.
export PRIMARY_URL="$(echo "$PLATFORM_ROUTES" | base64 --decode | jq -r 'to_entries[] | select(.value.primary) | .key | rtrimstr("/")')"
export DRUSH_OPTIONS_URI="$PRIMARY_URL"

settings.php

Open web/sites/default/settings.php and append the following to the bottom of that file.
web/sites/default/settings.php
// Upsun configuration
if (getenv('PLATFORM_APPLICATION') && file_exists(__DIR__ . '/settings.upsun.php')) {
  include __DIR__ . '/settings.upsun.php';
}

Upsun-specific settings

Then create a new Upsun-specific settings file web/sites/default/settings.upsun.php which should contain the following:
web/sites/default/settings.upsun.php
<?php
/**
 * @file
 * Upsun Flex settings.
 */

use Drupal\Core\Installer\InstallerKernel;

// Set up a config sync directory.
//
// This is defined inside the read-only "config" directory, deployed via Git.
$settings['config_sync_directory'] = '../config/sync';

// Configure the database.
$databases['default']['default'] = [
    'driver' => getenv('DB_SCHEME'),
    'database' => getenv('DB_PATH'),
    'username' => getenv('DB_USERNAME'),
    'password' => getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
    'host' => getenv('DB_HOST'),
    'port' => getenv('DB_PORT'),
    'init_commands' => [
      'isolation_level' => 'SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ COMMITTED',
    ],
];

// Enable verbose error messages on development/staging branches, but not on the production branch.
// You may add more debug-centric settings here if desired to have them automatically enable
// on development but not production.
if (getenv('PLATFORM_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE') == 'production') {
    // Production environment type.
    $config['system.logging']['error_level'] = 'hide';
} else {
    // Non-production environment types.
    $config['system.logging']['error_level'] = 'verbose';
}

// Enable Redis caching.
if (!InstallerKernel::installationAttempted() && extension_loaded('redis') && class_exists('Drupal\redis\ClientFactory')) {

  // Set Redis as the default backend for any cache bin not otherwise specified.
  $settings['cache']['default'] = 'cache.backend.redis';
  $settings['redis.connection']['host'] = getenv('CACHE_HOST');
  $settings['redis.connection']['port'] = getenv('CACHE_PORT');

  // Apply changes to the container configuration to better leverage Redis.
  // This includes using Redis for the lock and flood control systems, as well
  // as the cache tag checksum. Alternatively, copy the contents of that file
  // to your project-specific services.yml file, modify as appropriate, and
  // remove this line.
  $settings['container_yamls'][] = 'modules/contrib/redis/example.services.yml';

  // Allow the services to work before the Redis module itself is enabled.
  $settings['container_yamls'][] = 'modules/contrib/redis/redis.services.yml';

  // Manually add the classloader path, this is required for the container cache bin definition below
  // and allows to use it without the redis module being enabled.
  $class_loader->addPsr4('Drupal\\redis\\', 'modules/contrib/redis/src');

  // Use redis for container cache.
  // The container cache is used to load the container definition itself, and
  // thus any configuration stored in the container itself is not available
  // yet. These lines force the container cache to use Redis rather than the
  // default SQL cache.
  $settings['bootstrap_container_definition'] = [
    'parameters' => [],
    'services' => [
      'redis.factory' => [
        'class' => 'Drupal\redis\ClientFactory',
      ],
      'cache.backend.redis' => [
        'class' => 'Drupal\redis\Cache\CacheBackendFactory',
        'arguments' => ['@redis.factory', '@cache_tags_provider.container', '@serialization.phpserialize'],
      ],
      'cache.container' => [
        'class' => '\Drupal\redis\Cache\PhpRedis',
        'factory' => ['@cache.backend.redis', 'get'],
        'arguments' => ['container'],
      ],
      'cache_tags_provider.container' => [
        'class' => 'Drupal\redis\Cache\RedisCacheTagsChecksum',
        'arguments' => ['@redis.factory'],
      ],
      'serialization.phpserialize' => [
        'class' => 'Drupal\Component\Serialization\PhpSerialize',
      ],
    ],
  ];
}

if (getenv('PLATFORM_BRANCH')) {
  // Configure private and temporary file paths.
  if (!isset($settings['file_private_path'])) {
    $settings['file_private_path'] = getenv('PLATFORM_APP_DIR') . '/private';
  }
  if (!isset($settings['file_temp_path'])) {
    $settings['file_temp_path'] = getenv('PLATFORM_APP_DIR') . '/tmp';
  }

// Configure the default PhpStorage and Twig template cache directories.
  if (!isset($settings['php_storage']['default'])) {
    $settings['php_storage']['default']['directory'] = $settings['file_private_path'];
  }
  if (!isset($settings['php_storage']['twig'])) {
    $settings['php_storage']['twig']['directory'] = $settings['file_private_path'];
  }

  // Set the project-specific entropy value, used for generating one-time
  // keys and such.
  $settings['hash_salt'] = empty($settings['hash_salt']) ? getenv('PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY') : $settings['hash_salt'];

  // Set the deployment identifier, which is used by some Drupal cache systems.
  $settings['deployment_identifier'] = $settings['deployment_identifier'] ?? getenv('PLATFORM_TREE_ID');;
}

// The 'trusted_hosts_pattern' setting allows an admin to restrict the Host header values
// that are considered trusted.  If an attacker sends a request with a custom-crafted Host
// header then it can be an injection vector, depending on how the Host header is used.
// However, Upsun Fixed already replaces the Host header with the route that was used to reach
// Upsun Fixed, so it is guaranteed to be safe.  The following line explicitly allows all
// Host headers, as the only possible Host header is already guaranteed safe.
$settings['trusted_host_patterns'] = ['.*'];

config/sync

Create the config/sync empty directory referenced in the settings file:
Terminal
mkdir -p config/sync && touch config/sync/.gitkeep

Deploy changes

Now commit all of the above changes and push to Upsun.
Terminal
git add .
git commit -m "Add changes to complete my Upsun configuration"
upsun push -y

Snippets

You can also find all the snippets described in this post on GitHub

Further resources

Documentation

Community content

Blogs

Last modified on March 11, 2026