ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming Problem - Design - Solution

12.2. Design

The complete deployment is basically split into two parts: deploying the database and deploying the site's files. If your web server supports SQL Server Express (only recommended for small workgroups), deploying the database is as simple as copying the contents of the App_Data folder to the remote server's App_Data folder, and the .mdf and .ldf files will automatically be attached to the remote SQL Server Express that is installed on the web server! However, production deployment normally requires a full-featured SQL Server 2005 (not the Express edition), for security, performance, and scalability reasons. Because of this, you need to find some way to turn the current SQL Server Express database into a SQL Server 2005 database. As for the site's files, you have different options here, as you'll see shortly.

One important point to consider is the fact that we did all our development using the VS2005's integrated web server (ASP.NET Development Server, based on Cassini) and not IIS. The integrated web server is fine for local testing but your site must be tested on IIS before deploying to a production server. Therefore, before deploying the site to the remote server you'll first test it on a local installation under IIS, replicating the configuration you have on the production server as much as possible. This will be a test of your deployment procedures and configuration, in addition to the obvious test of your code and pages. The following sections provide a detailed ...