Deploying an Application to a Production Server

There are several options for deploying a .NET Framework 2.0 / 3.0 application to a deployment server:

Generate Deployment Project (Enterprise Edition feature)

This option uses the Visual Studio .NET 2005 Web Deployment Project add-in to create a separate folder that can be copied to your deployment server.

In addition to creating a separate deployment folder, you can also create an MSI installer to run on the deployment system. While the deployment project can be created without installing Visual Studio .NET 2005 on your system, MSI generation requires Visual Studio .NET 2005 on your system.

To use this option, you must download and install the Visual Studio .NET 2005 Web Deployment Projects available at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/infrastructure/wdp/default.aspx

In this option, a single pre-compiled DLL is created for your application. Only the ASPX, ASCX, RESX and DLL files need to be copied to your deployment server. To make it easy for you, this option creates a separate folder containing all of the relevant files and this folder can be copied in its entirety to the deployment server.

Compiled Application

Run the aspnet_compiler to compile the .NET Framework 2.0 / 3.0 application into one or more DLL’s. All of the application’s DLL’s are placed in the Bin folder of the application.

Step 1: Run the DOS command line prompt.

Step 2: Go to the .NET Framework 2.0 directory, e.g.:

cd C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727

Step 3: Run the following command:

aspnet_compiler.exe -p “application directory path” -v / “output directory path”

Example: aspnet_compiler.exe -p “C:\MyApp1” -v / “C:\MyApp1_deploy”

Step 4: Copy the output folder containing the pre-compiled application to the deployment server.

XCOPY Option

Copy the entire folder containing the application to the deployment server. Make sure that the server has .NET Framework 2.0. There is no requirement to generate a DLL for the application since .NET Framework 2.0 will compile the application at run-time. All source files must be included in this option.

While this is the easiest option among the deployment options, the downside is that all source files must be copied to the deployment server. This option might be considered during testing.

Publish Using Visual Studio .NET 2005

(Requires Visual Studio .NET 2005). Use the publish website option with Visual Studio .NET 2005. It allows you to publish to a web address or a network drive. The advantage of this option is that you can publish to a web address that you have permissions to in one quick step. You need to have Visual Studio .NET 2005 installed on your system to use this option.

Step 1: Open the Visual Studio .NET 2005 website.

Step 2: Go to the Build menu.

Step 3: Click on the Publish Web Site option.

Step 4: Give the target location which maybe be an ftp address, http address or a folder location. Click OK. This will create the deployment project at the target location specified.