What do I need to re-build my web server?

Question

I am getting ready to completely overhaul my web server. I use it for both development and to present product to clients. It also hosts my company website. I will be loading MS Server 2008 and MS SQL 2008. I want it to have the latest .NET Framework as well as the latest MVC templates. I want it to use SubSonic. I also want to start using some sort of SourceSafe (or whatever a good one is).I plan to use VS 2008 as my development tool.

I figure there are a lot of people out there who have recently gone through this and will have good suggestions.

It is a good stout machine with lots of memory and storage, so, please let me know anything that will help me become a better developer.

Scott and the Dev Team

Answer 1

Well, sounds like you've already got a good list going. Though I'd recommend against SourceSafe. See here for details. SubVersion is a free alternative. Or perhaps git or something like that if you're up for a challenge.

[edit to add] If you can afford it, TFS is a nice product that gives you bug tracking, version control, and a build environment. All of those will help you be a better developer.

To pimp one of this site's founders, check out the Joel Test and see what you should implement.

Answer 2

I would recommend to not use the same machine to host apps and develop on. You should at least make a VM to develop in so that there is no accidental interference between dev and live content.

Make sure you have all of the known vulerabilites (sp) patched, with all that software there are going to be several exploitable endpoints.