Web Deployment Tool

Author: Faith Allington

Published on February 12, 2008 by iisteam

Updated on October 21, 2009 by iisteam

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Introduction

The Web Deployment Tool is a tool for simplifying the deployment, management and migration of Web applications, sites and even entire servers. Developers can package a Web site, automatically including content, configuration, certificates and databases. These packages can be directly deployed to a server or packaged and shared with others. IT Professionals can enable developers to deploy these packages to a server and delegate access to non-admins. IT Professionals can also use the tool in their infrastructure to synchronize servers easily on both IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0, or even to accomplish a migration from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0.

Here are just a few of the tasks that be accomplished using the tool:

1. Create a package that contains content, configuration and databases for deployment or sharing with others.

2. Use the package as a way to version your application or create backups. 

3. Add parameters to replace a connection string or other value in a file during install of a package.

4. Enable non-administrators to deploy packages and granularly control their access.

5. Synchronize or migrate both sites and servers running IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0.

Where to Get the Tool

Download the x86 version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=109365

Download the x64 version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=109366

Web Deployment Tool forum: http://forums.iis.net/1144.aspx

Web Deployment Team blog: http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/

Download the Help file: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8100895

Start Using the Tool

The following articles cover the functionality of the tool and how to use it for common tasks.

Learn the Basics

1. Web Deployment Tool Overview (overview of the features) 

2. Installing the Web Deployment Tool (installation and remote service options)

Package and Deploy Applications

1. Export a Package through IIS Manager (create an application package including content, databases and more) 

2. Import a Package through IIS Manager (install an application package to a local or remote machine)

3. Configure the Web Deployment Handler (enable remote deployment to an IIS 7.x server)

Synchronize Web Servers

1. Migrating from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0

2. Syncing between two IIS 7.0 servers

3. Syncing between two IIS 6.0 servers

Advanced Topics

1. Viewing Dependencies of a Web site (how to use the output of getDependencies)

2. Using Custom Manifests (how to define your own web site)

3. Troubleshooting MS Deploy (how to enable verbose output)

In This Section

Archiving and Restoring a Web site

This quick guide will show you how to create an archive of a website, and then restore the site from the archive. Prerequisites This guiderequires the following prerequisites: .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or greater Web Deployment Tool 1.0 Note: If you have not ...

Synchronize IIS 7.0

This quick guide will guide you through the process of using the Web Deployment Toolto sync a web site from a source to a destination on IIS 7.0. You can do this by "pushing" data to a remote destination, or by "pulling" data from a remote source. This guide ...

Export a Package through IIS Manager

This quick guide will help you create a package of your Web application using the IIS Manager, including a SQL database. Prerequisites This guiderequires the following prerequisites: .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or greater Web Deployment Tool IIS 7.0 or IIS Remote ...

Import a Package through IIS Manager

This quick guide will help you install a package of your Web application using the IIS Manager, including a SQL database. To create a package, see Export a Package through IIS Manager. Prerequisites This guiderequires the following prerequisites: .NET Framework ...

Configure the Web Deployment Handler

This quick guide provides a basic overview of the steps to configure the Web Deployment handler on your hosted server and test that you can deploy to a Web site. This setup will be using the information in this document to install the Web Deployment Tool onto ...

Using the Web Deployment Tool for Web Farms

The Web Deployment Tool is an IIS Extension that simplifies the migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites. Administrators can use the Web Deployment Tool to synchronize both IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 servers, or to migrate ...

Overview of the Web Deployment Tool

The Web Deployment Tool is an IIS extension, containingessentially a set of toolsand a managed frameworkfor simplifying the deployment, management and migration of Web applications, sites and even entire servers. Both developers and IT Professionals can benefit ...

Installing the Web Deployment Tool

Thisquick guideleads you through the steps to install the Web Deployment Tool. Learn what installation options exist, how to install the tooland how to customize the URL for the remote service. What can be installed Web Deployment Tool - Managed code framework ...

Viewing Web Site Dependencies

This quick guide will help you run getDependencies andreview the dependencies for a website. How to View Dependencies Read ourView Dependencies guidance for more information. ...

Using Custom Manifests

This quick guide willhelp you create a custom manifest and sync it. We will sync a web site and also include the application pool, an external directory, assembly and COM object that are not automatically gathered for a web site. Prerequisites This guiderequires ...

Migrate from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0

This quick guide will help you migrate a Web site from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0 using the Web Deployment Tool. What kinds of migrations can I accomplish with the Web Deployment Tool? Migrate 1 or 1,000 web sites from IIS6 to IIS7 including all the configuration ...

Synchronize IIS 6.0

This quick guide will guide you through the process of using the Web Deployment Toolto sync a web site from a source to a destination on IIS 6.0. You can do this by "pushing" data to a remote destination, or by "pulling" data from a remote source. This guide ...

Troubleshooting the Web Deployment Tool

This quick guide will help you troubleshoot the Web Deployment Tool. Prerequisites This guiderequires the following prerequisites: .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or greater Web Deployment Tool 1.0 Note: If you have not already installed the Web Deployment Tool, see ...

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Comments

  1. Submitted on Nov 01 2008 by
    SergeyS
    "3. Configure the Delegation Service" seems to link to:

    http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/421/installing-ms-deploy/

    the same as "2. Installing the Web Deployment Tool"
  2. Submitted on Nov 05 2008 by
    faith_a
    Hi SergeyS, this has been fixed... thanks for the note!
  3. Submitted on May 04 2009 by
    mrachrs
    the link to download teh help file keeps you going in circles? ref: Download the Help file: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8100895
  4. Submitted on Jul 15 2009 by
    BrewBill03
    I'd like to use msdeploy to package everything under IIS 6 inetpub (application pools, directories and virtual directories) and install it on other machines (both IIS 6 and IIS 7). I can't find how to do this, and CANNOT FIND the help file. The link keeps coming back to here. Is there a way to get documentation?
  5. Submitted on Sep 04 2009 by
    andytrend32
    I'd like to use the same as BrewBill03 above and have it on other machines - the help file didn't work for me either.

    http://www.giffits.de
  6. Submitted on Oct 01 2009 by
    jasesv8
    The "Download the Help file" link still isn't working. Is this available elsewhere? I'm also interested to see some managed code examples using the public API (Microsoft.Web.Deployment).
  7. Submitted on Oct 17 2009 by
    workaholy
    I have still the problem with the help file. When i click the link i come back to this site.

    Greetings from Germany

    Klara
    --
    http://www.hör-meine-gedanken.de

  8. Submitted on Oct 31 2009 by
    goesling
    What happened to thr help file I´ve just the same problem like workahols. Can you help me?
    http://www.bauboeck.de
  9. Submitted on Nov 05 2009 by
    gummycat
    Can you please address the help file link issue? Either that or please provide a link to a comprehensive list of valid manifest.xml and parameters.xml configuration options. The help page link provided in the provides no useful information if you want to do anything other than the limited specific examples shown. We want to create our manifest and parameters xml files by hand, but without a reference of some kind it is way too frustrating to guess. The only viable option is to generate it with the IIS GUI, but even that is poorly documented on what all the options mean. Thanks for a great tool - we just need some support information! Thanks!
  10. Submitted on Nov 05 2009 by
    gummycat
    Just found this reference here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd568996%28WS.10%29.aspx

    Maybe you could point the help link to this same url?
  11. Submitted on Nov 05 2009 by
    gummycat
    I just found this link:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd568996(WS.10).aspx

    Maybe you could update the help link above to this url?

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