How do I run 2 or more copies of the same WebSolution at the same time?

Question

I have a solution with 8 seperate Web Apps which are required to redirect/link to each other on occasion.

Also I use Subversion as my sourceControl and do development in one branch and bug fixing in another.

Thus I can have more than one copy of the web suite on my machine at once.

For the purposes of this question let's say they are in directories DEV and FIX

I would like to load both solutions in separate copies of VS and have each able to operate independently without conflicting.

I also need the ability to quickly branch the source and spin up yet a third or forth copy of the system again without conflicts.

So what is the best way of achieving this? (IIS, Visual Studio Development Server, Custom WebServer)

Can I setup a solution to run all its web apps on a single port and configure that port in the same place?

Answer 1

The ASP.NET developer server that ships as part of Visual Studio will accomplish this. Also there is a hack that allows multiple sites to be configured in the personal version of IIS, however it is still a pain to switch between them.

This article explains how you can use the hack I mentioned to setup multiple virtual servers on XP Pro: http://www.developerfusion.com/code/4645/multiple-iis-virtual-servers-on-xp-pro/

Personally, I would just opt to use the ASP.NET developer server unless you need IIS specific functionality.