If you're not using BLT the following process should be used:
- Create a database on Acquia Cloud Databases page
- and import the database if you are starting from an existing site locally or elsewhere
- Pull/checkout the right branch in the git repo for the dev environment, or deploy a branch/tag to the dev environment
- Create directory in
/docroot/sites/
for the multisite locally (ideally matching the database name for simplicity) - Copy the
/sites/default/settings.php
file into the new directory locally, eg./sites/<new-site>/
- Add the site to sites.php (which should be in the
/sites/
folder) see https://support.acquia.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006560013-Using-sites-php-to-specify-an-alternate-settings-php-file - Update the require line in the settings.php for the new site to connect to the right database (see 'Acquia require line')
- If there are any unique modules or themes for the new site, create a
/docroot/sites/<new-site>/modules
or/docroot/sites/<new-site>/themes
folder and add the code from them there. Ideally only custom modules that do not exist in any other site should be in here. All other modules should probably be in the/docroot/sites/all/modules
or/sites/all/themes
directories (Drupal 7), or/docroot/modules
or/docroot/themes
(Drupal 8). - Commit the changes up to the dev environment
- Add a new host name for the site to the Domains page for the dev environment, e.g.
dev-site.example.com
- Set the DNS for that host name with your authoritative DNS provider to point to the dev environment IP address with an A record. see https://docs.acquia.com/acquia-cloud/manage/domains/dns/.
- Open the host name added in 9) in a browser
- You'll either be able to start a new install (if beginning a completely new site), or if you are bringing a local site to the Cloud you may need to clear the Drupal cache (
drush cc
for D7, ordrush cr
on D8, on the CLI) if you have imported a database.