Automate deployment of asp.net mvc site

Question

Currently I build my websites on my machine, deploy them to a test machine to see if they still work there and then have to request the sysadmin to deploy them to the qa/production servers.
Time after time that what should be my moment of pride is killed by some deployment procedure that was misunderstood, forgotten or not documented.
Currently the sysadmin copies the files from the dev server to whatever server he sees fit and tries to follow my deploymentProcedures.txt.

Is there no mechanism I can use that makes this transition as frictionless as possible? Things I can think of now are

• Set the connectionstring to production DB
• Set CustomErrors to On
• Check if the correct I/O rights are given to the running account
• Make sure the needed COM objects are available

Something that can make the deployment fase easier for people who are not the programmers.

Answer 1

You should try following solutions:

FinalBuilder (www.finalbuilder.com) for build management and build distribution through shared folder.

InstallAce (www.installace.com) for dev team to package build contents and for you/support team to deploy build package contents on Web Farm etc.

You may also try some less costly tools to generate MSI packages directly or through WIX. You may get list of all good automated installation softwares at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration) that I refer for such info.

Cruise Control is a free solution that is also widely used by .Net community.

Answer 2

If your application is just being created by you or a team over which you have some control, You should gun for CI (Continuous Integration). There are many free products in out there which Cruise Control .NET is something which might help you.

Answer 3

Have you thought about using a web deployment project?

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/28/vs-2008-web-deployment-project-support-released.aspx

Andrew