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ASP.NET Deployment Content Map

.NET Framework 4

Visual Studio, ASP.NET, and IIS provide tools that can help you with the process of deploying your web application or web site. Some of the Visual Studio tools work only with web application projects, while others work only with web site projects. (All MVC projects are web application projects.) For information about the difference between web application projects and web site projects, see Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects.

Note
Web deployment tools have been improved in Visual Studio 2012. You can install the improved tools in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 Express by installing the Visual Studio Web Publish Update. For information about how to use the new tools, see the documentation for Visual Studio 2012. A good place to start is Web Application Project Deployment Overview for Visual Studio and ASP.NET.

Note

Web deployment tools have been improved in Visual Studio 2012. You can install the improved tools in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 Express by installing the Visual Studio Web Publish Update. For information about how to use the new tools, see the documentation for Visual Studio 2012. A good place to start is Web Application Project Deployment Overview for Visual Studio and ASP.NET.

This topic contains the following sections:

Deployment for Web Application Projects (Including MVC)
Deployment for Web Site Projects
Deploying to a Server that Uses Multiple Versions of the .NET Framework
Other Resources for Information About ASP.NET Deployment

Deployment for Web Application Projects (Including MVC)

Note
For information about scenarios not mentioned in the table, see ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment FAQ and Other Resources for Information About ASP.NET Deployment later in this document.

Scenario	Topics
Understanding deployment options for web application projects	ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment Overview Overview Post for Web Deployment in VS 2010 (Vishal Joshi's blog)
Deploying a web application directly from Visual Studio	Deployment to a Hosting Provider (ASP.NET web site) How to: Deploy a Web Application Project Using One-Click Publish and Web Deploy Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Application Project Using One-Click Publish How to: Deploy a Web Application Project Using One-Click Publish Without Web Deploy ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment FAQ
Deploying a web application directly from Visual Studio to Windows Azure	Hosting an ASP.NET Web Forms Application on Windows Azure Hosting an ASP.NET MVC Application on Windows Azure
Creating and installing a web deployment package	How to: Deploy a Web Application Project Using a Web Deployment Package How to: Install a Deployment Package Using the deploy.cmd File How to: Use Parameters to Configure Deployment Settings When a Package is Installed Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Application Project Using a Web Deployment Package (Part 1 of 4) Using a Web Deploy package to deploy to IIS on the dev box and to a third party host Building a Web Deploy Package From Visual Studio 2010
Using Web.config transformations: to change settings in the destination Web.config file during deployment	How to: Transform Web.config When Deploying a Web Application Project Web.config Transformation Syntax for Web Application Project Deployment See also How do I disable Web.config transformation? and When should I use Web Deploy parameters instead of Web.config transformations? in ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment FAQ.
Using Web Deploy parameters to change settings in the destination web application during deployment	Web Deploy Parameterization vs Web.Config Transformation Web Deploy Parameterization Web Deploy Parameterization in Action How to: Use Parameters to Configure Deployment Settings When a Package is Installed
Creating a deployment package that can be deployed to multiple environments	Package Once Publish Anywhere (Sayed Hashimi's blog)
Making sure an application is off-line during deployment	Deployment to a Hosting Provider: Deploying a Code-Only Update (ASP.NET site; see the section "Preventing User Access to the Production Site During Update") How to take your app offline during publishing (Sayed Hashimi's blog; shows how to automate the process as process using MSBuild)
Deploying a database or changes to a database when you deploy a web application	How to: Deploy a Database With a Web Application Project How to: Use Parameters to Configure Deployment Settings When a Package is Installed Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Application Project Using a Web Deployment Package (Part 1 of 4) Extending the web publishing pipeline to package a database project deployed SQL file (Web Development Tools at Microsoft blog)
Deploying a web application that uses ASP.NET application services such as membership and profiling	How to: Deploy the ASP.NET Membership Database Without Including User Accounts Configuring a Website that Uses Application Services (ASP.NET web site. This tutorial is for web site projects but contains information that is useful also for web application projects) Users and Roles On The Production Website (ASP.NET web site. Same comment as in the preceding item)
Precompiling for deployment	Compiling Web Application Projects ASP.NET Compilation Tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe)
Extending the web publishing pipeline to automate deployment tasks that are not automated out of the box	Setting Folder Permissions on Web Publish (Sayed Hashimi's blog) How to extend the targets file to include registry settings for a web project package (Web Development Tools blog) Extending XML (Web.config) transformation (Sayed Hashimi's blog. Shows how to create custom XDT transforms.) Web Deployment Tool (MSDeploy) Custom Provider Take 1 (Sayed Hashimi's blog. Shows how to create a Web Deploy custom provider.) How to package and deploy COM components(Web Development Tools blog) How to package .NET assemblies (Web Development Tools blog)
Deploying an MVC web application to a hosting provider that doesn't support MVC or the targeted version of MVC	Bin Deploying ASP.NET MVC 3 (Phil Haack's blog)
Troubleshooting deployment problems	ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment FAQ Deployment to a Hosting Provider: Troubleshooting (12 of 12) (ASP.NET web site)
Troubleshooting errors that occur only in the deployed web site	Core Differences Between IIS and the ASP.NET Development Server (ASP.NET web site) Common Configuration Differences Between Development and Production (ASP.NET web site) Hosting ASP.NET Applications in Medium Trust (4 Guys from Rolla site)
Getting help with a specific deployment question	ASP.NET Configuration and Deployment forum.

Deployment for Web Site Projects

For information about the distinction between web site projects and web application projects, see Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects.

Scenario	Topics
Understanding options for deploying a web site project	ASP.NET Web Site Project Deployment Overview
Understanding why a site might run differently in production than it does in development	Core Differences Between IIS and the ASP.NET Development Server (ASP.NET web site) Common Configuration Differences Between Development and Production (ASP.NET web site)
Deploying a web site by using the Copy Web Site tool	How to: Prepare to Deploy a Web Project How to: Deploy a Web Site Project by using the Copy Web Site Tool Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Site Project by Using the Copy Web Site Tool Configuring Deployed Web Site Projects Deploying Your Site Using Visual Studio (ASP.NET web site)
Deploying a web site by using the Windows XCopy command	How to: Prepare to Deploy a Web Project Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Site Project by Using XCOPY Configuring Deployed Web Site Projects Determining What Files Need to Be Deployed (ASP.NET web site) Deploying Your Site Using an FTP Client (ASP.NET web site)
Deploying a precompiled web site	How to: Prepare to Deploy a Web Project How to: Deploy a Web Site Project by Using the Publish Web Site Tool Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Site Project by Using the Publish Web Site Tool Deploying Your Site Using Visual Studio (ASP.NET web site) ASP.NET Precompilation Overview Precompiling Your Website (ASP.NET web site) Configuring Deployed Web Site Projects
Deploying a web site that uses ASP.NET application services such as membership and profiling	Configuring a Website that Uses Application Services (ASP.NET web site) Users and Roles On The Production Website (ASP.NET web site)
Deploying a database or changes to a database when you deploy a web site	How to: Prepare to Deploy a Web Project Deploying a Database by Using the Database Publishing Wizard Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard F1 Help SQL Server Hosting Web Service (and toolkit) Deploying a Database (ASP.NET web site) Configuring the Production Web Application to Use the Production Database Strategies for Database Development and Deployment (ASP.NET web site)
Managing Web.config file settings (such as debug settings or connection strings) that have to be different in different environments	Configuring Deployed Web Site Projects
Precompiling for deployment	ASP.NET Precompilation Overview How to: Create Versioned Assemblies for Precompiled Web Site Projects ASP.NET Compilation Tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe)
Getting help with a specific deployment question	ASP.NET Configuration and Deployment forum.

Deploying to a Server that Uses Multiple Versions of the .NET Framework

Scenario	Topics
Understanding how to run multiple versions of the .NET Framework side-by-side on one server	.NET Framework Multi-Targeting for ASP.NET Web Projects ASP.NET Side-by-Side Execution Overview How to: Host Web Applications That Use Different Versions of the .NET Framework on the Same Server How to: Deploy Web Projects Targeted for Earlier Versions of the .NET Framework

Scenario

Topics

Understanding how to run multiple versions of the .NET Framework side-by-side on one server

.NET Framework Multi-Targeting for ASP.NET Web Projects

ASP.NET Side-by-Side Execution Overview

How to: Host Web Applications That Use Different Versions of the .NET Framework on the Same Server

How to: Deploy Web Projects Targeted for Earlier Versions of the .NET Framework

Additional Resources for Information About ASP.NET Deployment

This section provides links to additional resources that are useful for learning more about how to use Visual Studio and IIS deployment tools.

The following resources provide documentation about Web Deploy, the IIS framework that Visual Studio uses to perform web application project deployment tasks. You can ask specific questions about Web Deploy in the Web Deployment Tool forum on the IIS.net web site.

Introduction to Web Deploy
Installing and Configuring Web Deploy
PowerShell Scripts for Automating Web Deploy Setup
Testing Web Deploy Publishing From Visual Studio 2010 and WebMatrix
Web Deploy (IIS.net web site)
Web Deployment Tool (Microsoft TechNet web site)
Microsoft.Web.Deployment Namespace (API documentation, has not been updated since version 1.0.)

The following resources are blogs by members of the team that is responsible for Web Deploy.

The following resources are blogs by members of the team that is responsible for Visual Studio deployment.

A number of tutorials that relate to hosting options, web site project deployment, database deployment, precompilation, and site administration are on the Hosting Tutorials page on the ASP.NET web site.

The following resources are from the Visual Studio Lab Management blog:

Concepts

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects

ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment FAQ

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