We have a running asp.net application which is accessed by various offices of the client worldwide (around 42 offices in 12 countries). Now after 8 months of hosting it we have to include updations in 6 pages and addition of 15 new asp.net pages. Now is there any way by which we could update the existing upside without taking it offline i.e. stopping it ?
+2
A:
As @Mendy said in the comments, just upload the new and modified files, and any new/modified files from the bin folder. I understand you not wanting to take it offline, but you will have to for the couple of minutes that it will take you to update files - if you don't then users will experience unpredictable behaviour when accessing it while you make the change.
You will also want to run a quick test before allowing the users back in, just to make sure you haven't missed anything, e.g. no broken links/redirects, all script/css/image files are loading fine, etc.
slugster
2010-02-17 08:17:17
+1 - testing is important. Users would rather be locked out for a small period of time where it will work, compared to an unexpected failure.
Russell
2010-02-17 08:19:50
+2
A:
This really depends on how you deployed the application, but generally the answer is yes - just add the new files and you'll be off and running. You might want to read up on ASP.Net Dynamic Compilation.
However, if you deployed your site as a pre-compiled application for deployment only, then the answer is no - you will require a full recompile and redeployment.
If you are adding source code to the application, the application domain will be recycled. If this is what you're worried about when you say "stopping" the application, then you should know that it may cause a noticeable delay (a few seconds), and your user's sessions will be reset if you're using InProc sessions, but the application will never appear to be unavailable otherwise.
You may also find the following article very helpful - especially the section entitled "Compilation Life Cycle" where it talks about application restarts. ASP.Net Application Lifecycle Overview.
womp
2010-02-17 08:17:43
This is the correct answer (IMO). Also note there are many good uses for pre-compiled apps so dont disregard them in the future.
Russell
2010-02-17 08:21:15
+2
A:
You could also use the app_offline.htm to tell your users that the site is temp down for improvements, etc. http://www.dontcodetired.com/blog/post/Quickly-Take-Down-an-ASPNET-Web-Site.aspx
Jason Roberts
2010-02-17 10:53:59
+1
A:
If you really need 24/7 uptime, you might want to look at load balanced web servers - one can be taken down for updating while the other continues to serve. Note that this will need some careful management, with regard to how you handle your sessions.
Paddy
2010-02-17 10:56:49
It depends on how you set this up, you may need to look at moving away from inProc sessions (if you can't guarantee every request going to the same server) to using ASP.net StateServer or SqlServer as your backing store.You'll get some downtime setting this up... but you will improve the resiliance of your site, as it gives you some redundancy in case one server dies.
Paddy
2010-02-17 12:27:50