ASP.Net MVC3 Deployment – How to Deploy to the Production Server

All this can be done by a batch file. The following are the basic steps need to happen in batch file:

1. Get current date time in a variable.
2. Make copies of the production directory into folders with the current date time. Zip the folder if you want.
3. Replicate the build dropping folder to production directories. You can also skip some files you don't want to overwrite (like web.config). Both xcopy and robocopy allow skipping files.

Except the first step, the other two steps are very basic command line operations. Regarding the first one, the following code shows how to get a directory with date time:

for /f "tokens=1-3 delims=/ " %%A in ("%DATE%") DO (
  set DATESTR=%%C%%A%%B
)

for /f "tokens=1-3 delims=:." %%F in ("%TIME%") DO (
  set TIMESTR=%%F%%G%%H
)

set CURRENTDT=%DATESTR%T%TIMESTR%

:: now you can use the date time in a folder name:
xcopy /e \\production1\site1 \\backup\site1\backup-%CURRENTDT%\

There are a few obvious arguments against this.

1. What happens if you leave. Is all this information carefully documented, or is it mostly in your head. Automated scripts are a much better place for someone else to take over from.

2. Everyone makes mistakes. There will come a time when the person doing the deployment is tired, not paying attention whatever. Yes ideally deployments are only done in an happy calm place with lots of time. In practise they can be rushed and stressed when trying to roll out urgent fixes. This is the mostly likely time to make a mistake, and also the most costly. If the deployment is a single script then the potential for mistakes is limited.

3. Time. As deployments get more complicated the amount that needs doing increases. Scripts just require kicking off, a manual check, and then a manual switch-over (you could automate this as well, but I share some of the paranoia :).