Proper Way to Update Production Server with new Compiled MVC Application Files

Question

Ok, please bear with my noob question here.

I'm doing the simple task of making an update to my mvc application, compiling it and then moving in onto the production server.

I just wan't to know the best way to upload the compiled files. I have a single application pool, use ftp to upload the new application files and the site points to a single directory.

• If I update just one view then which files do I upload after compiling?
• Is there a way to keep the site running while I upload new code/views?
• Where can I go to find out this information?

Answer 1

Generally, you can update views without needing to re-cycle your web application. You would just want to replace the old version of the file with the new version, which can be done with a simple X-Copy command.

If there are code changes, then you will need to upate the web project DLL, which requires the app to recycle. This may or may not be a huge disruption, but it does mean that users may have their session interrupted, and lose some state.

Now, the question of how you could go about doing this is a little more complex. You can write a deployment process into your build scripts, which may be the easiest approach. The trick here, though, is that if you want to only include files that have changed, this can be a little trickier using vanilla NAnt or MSBuild tasks. You may also want to look at the WebDeploy tool from the IIS team. I've not used it much myself, but it is designed specifically to deploy web projects.

You may also want to hit google for some commercial deployment tools if none of the options so far seem to work for you.