Some projects do not consider implementing Communities (Digital Experiences). In these cases, you do not need to deploy every single metadata package when either installing or upgrading RIO. Remember that metadata deployment is an integral part of both processes.

The rule of thumb is: When Communities are out of the scope, do not deploy the metadata packages that relate to Communities.

For example, when upgrading from RIO v3.0 to v3.1, the following metadata are meant to be deployed:

RIO-Education-Metadata-3.1\bin\post\upgrade\v3.1\01_layouts.zip

RIO-Education-Metadata-3.1\bin\post\upgrade\v3.1\02_custompicklist.zip

RIO-Education-Metadata-3.1\bin\post\upgrade\v3.1\03_student_community_setup.zip

So, if Communities are not in the scope of the implementation project, package 03 is to be left out.

What if, mistakenly, you deploy any package/s that are not meant to be deployed?

Well, this will not have a catastrophic impact. However, it is likely that some errors will come up in the deployment process. Some may be related to the fact that you will not have the necessary permissions. If upgrading, it might also be the case that some errors are due to the fact that the configuration they are trying to perform has to be with metadata packages that were not deployed originally.

If this happens, deployment errors triggered by Community-related metadata packages can be ignored to complete the installation/upgrade process.

See also: Which metadata to deploy when upgrading RIO Education