Professional Microsoft IIS 8

Application Deployment Planning

Rarely is an IIS 8.0 Web Server going to be deployed to serve just static content. Applications will need to be deployed, as well—both the application code and the configuration changes necessary to run the application in IIS 8.0. IIS 8.0 simplifies application deployment, at least as far as the IIS settings go, with a true XCopy deployment scenario. Because all the IIS 8.0 configurations are maintained in XML-formatted configuration files, these can easily be copied to new servers and sites as needed—with the caveat that the new server must have the proper modules installed.

Planning your application deployment should begin with an inventory of what is required by your application in terms of ASP.NET Framework version; IIS 8.0 modules; NTFS file and folder permissions; and ancillary programs and connections, such as Microsoft SQL Server locations and connection strings. These existing requirements must be mapped to the new installation so that code can be deployed, then tested, on the new server. A list of required items for your application might include the following:

• ISAPI filters
• COM components
• ASP.NET assemblies installed in the global assembly cache (GAC)
• SSL certificates
• Database DSNs (or migrate to a DSN-less connection)
• Machine keys (normally copied with ASP.NET configuration files)
• Custom registry settings

This list is not comprehensive, but it covers most common application requirements. Each specific application may have its own requirements, ...