Moving an ASP web site

[Tom]

We have an ASP web site done with VB.NET. This website is also checked into
SourceSafe.

Now we need to move/copy this web site over to a different server - a QA
and/or Production server. I am not sure exactly how to do this.... Is there
a 'copy' utililty anywhere in .NET or IIS? Do we copy it manually (which
files, then)? Do we need to first create a virtual directory and then copy
the files from the old directory/server to the new one? Or just copy the
whole virtual directory? And I would assume that the SourceSafe entries
should still be pointed at the development server, since that is where we
will be doing development coding??

Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

[Kikoz]

The easiest and most reliable way is to copy files from one server to
another manually using Windows Explorer. But it may be not the most
efficient way for a big team.

The files that need to be deployed:
all .dll files in bin directory
all aspx, ascx, asmx files
global.asax
web.config (all of them if you use several)
any xml/content files you created to store something

You don't need to deploy .aspx.cs (aspx.vb) files or .res files. Project(s)
and solution(s) files as well as all sorts of ".disco" files don't need to
be on production, too.

SourceSafe allows you to deploy files right from the app (see its docs), but
I've had issues with deploying dlls using SourceSafe - it modifies file's
date but leaves the same file that has been there before. I didn't
investigate the issue at all; just when I get exception on production first
time I run it after deployment I manually move all dlls to production or QA.
Works.

Kikoz

 

[Tom Kaminski [MVP]]

We have an ASP web site done with VB.NET. This website is also checked into
SourceSafe.

Please do not multi-post. Answered in .iis ...

 

[Tom]

Sorry, I wasn't sure whether this would turn out to be an ASP.NET/VS.NET
issue or an IIS issue (or both), so that is why I posted to both.

 

[Tom Kaminski [MVP]]

Sorry, I wasn't sure whether this would turn out to be an ASP.NET/VS.NET
issue or an IIS issue (or both), so that is why I posted to both.

In that case you can cross-post, so the message and responses appear in both
groups.

 

[Flip]

I've tried this this week (I asked this too :>). The Copy Project under the
Project menu works wonders for me! :> The only caveat is I had to change
the Build Action for my PDF files to be included in the copying. There is a
default set of files VS will copy over and I guess PDFs aren't part of that
list, so after you do a Copy Project to your IIS box, you should QA it a bit
before unleashing your new app to the world! Kudos on production release!
:>