MS Deploy - New IIS Web Deployment Tool February 2, '08 Comments [12] Posted in ASP.NET | IIS | Tools Sponsored By Months ago, even before I started at Microsoft, I got to talk to some very nice people about a project they were calling AdminX. After I told them that that was very possibly the worst name they could possibly give it (and they took part that very well) we got to dig into what the tool was going to do. As with all great tools it did stuff that we had already written at my last company. It's always nice to throw home-grown tools away if found tools will do the job better. Anyway, there's a Tech Preview of MS Deploy out for both x86 and x64. It installs a Windows Service, but it doesn't need to be running except when it's doing work so don't panic. It's got a metric ton (a good thing) of options. For example, if I want to archive/backup a Site, I go: msdeploy.exe" -verb:sync -source:appHostConfig="Default Web Site" -dest:archivedir=c:\mybackup You can restore just by reversing source and dest. All the settings are maintained and stored in XML. There's other "verbs" to use. For example, you can getDependencies (currently only on IIS6, IIS7 to come) and get details on exactly what your app needs in terms of authentication, filters, modules, etc. You can transfer or 'sync' websites or web servers between each other like this: msdeploy -verb:sync -source:webserver,targetName=http://computername/MSDEPLOY/ -dest:webserver > msdeploysync.log Also, because there's a Windows Service involved, you can do remote deploys - that's the part we've all been waiting for. MS Deploy also supports the -whatif flag, showing you what will happen without doing anything. There is also a plan to have a PowerShell cmdlet interface for MS Deploy when it releases, so things are looking up in the IIS space. « Firefox, WPF and XBAP | Blog Home | The Weekly Source Code 15 - Tiny Managed... » About Scott Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author. About Newsletter Sponsored By Hosting By