deployment-guide-lines

Prerequisites

1. make sure C:\inetpub\wwwroot contains the following folders
   1. backups
   2. deploy
2. check disc space is suffcient
3. make sure the deploy folder contains winmergeU.exe
4. double check the path of the site in IIS [dont assume]
5. create a sub folder on backups folder with site name if not exists
6. create a sub folder on deploy folder with site name if not exists

Deploy Steps

1. zip source folder and give a time stamp on filename ie:
   1. [filename]_[YYYYmmdd-HHmmss].zip
2. move backup to to site subfolder in the backups folder
3. copy your deployment package (ZIP) over to the deploy\[site_name] folder and extract
4. open winmerge and compare the deploy\[site_name] folder with the site folder
5. FIRST merge across the bin folder
   1. do not remove binaries on the destination folder if it is not in your build
6. merge across the other pages
   1. if the page on the destination server looks newer then stop and consult
7. finally merge the web.config - DO NOT just overwrite
   1. this is done LINE BY LINE
   2. do not remove config in the destination file unless you are 100% it can be removed
   3. do not change any existing config unless you 100% sure it should be changed
   4.  
8. restart the app pool for the site
   1. again dont assume go check what app pool it points to
9. sanity check the site
10. check the log file to make sure no errors where reported
    1. make sure you checking the log that is configured in the web.config