How to Deploy your Development Web Site and Database to your Live DiscountASP.NET Server using the Web Deployment Tool in IIS Manager

We launched support for Microsoft’s newly released Web Deployment Tool 1.0, also known as MSDeploy on our Windows 2008 hosting platform. The tool allows developers to package their web application configurations and content, including databases, and to use the packages for both deployment and archiving. This blog post contains guidelines for deploying your web application to our Windows 2008 servers using IIS Manager.

The first step is to install the Web Deployment Tool on your computer.  You will need to select the 32-bit or 64-bit version depending on your computer. Select custom installation.  Along with the Web Deployment Framework, only the IIS Manager UI Module is required on the client.

The 32-bit link and 64-bit link can be found on the iis.net web site.

After, you have installed the Web Deployment Tool on your computer, then log into your DiscountASP.NET Control Panel and navigate to the IIS Tools | IIS Manager Tab and enable access to the Web Deployment Tool.

Now you are ready to package your application and database for deployment.

1.       EXPORT your local web site or application to a package

a.       Open IIS Manager.

b.      Select your local web site or application.

c.       Click “Export Application” from the Deploy section of the Actions pane on the right.  This will bring up the Export wizard.

d.      In the “Select the Contents of the Package” window, click “Manage Components”.  You will see that the “iisApp” provider is already added.   Add the “dbFullSql” provider, and enter the connection string to your local SQL database as the path.  For example;

Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Integrated Security=True

Click OK, then Next.

e.      In the “Select Parameters” window, you will see the Parameters.  Click “Add Parameter Entry” to the dbSqlFull parameter, which should be Parameter 2.

Type:  Xml File
Scope:  \\Web.config$
Match:  //connectionStrings/add/@connectionString

Click OK, then Next.

This allows you change the connection string in the web.config when deploying to the live environment later.

f.        In the “Save Package” window, enter the path where you would like to save the package.  Click Finish.

2.       IMPORT the package

a.       Connect to your DiscountASP.NET site in IIS Manager.

b.      Click “Import Application”.

c.       In the “Select the Package” window, select the package file you just created.  Click Next.

d.      In the “Select the Contents of the Package” window, click Next.

e.      In the “Enter Application Package Information” window, enter the Application Path where you would like to deploy the application.  If deploying to the root of your live web site, leave it blank.  The Connection String should connect to your DiscountASP.NET SQL database.  For example,

Data Source=DbServer;Initial Catalog=DbName;uid=DbUser;password=DbPassword

Click Next to start importing.

Aristotle de la Cruz
Developer

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