Creating Test and Production Sites with Only One IIS Server (Page 1 of 5 )
The need to separate live code from development code cannot be stressed enough. However, depending on the project, the size of the company, or just plain old budgetary constraints, it may be fairly infeasible to have an entire server dedicated solely to developing and enhancing code. This article will show you how you can obtain the necessary 'buffer zone' in your application, with only one server. This includes both the code, and the database!
I need to start this off with a 'do not try this at home kids' type of anecdote. I had just come into a brand new job, and had one high priority project handed me with an unrealistic deadline, and one new server. Without hesitation I jumped into the project, worked like a madman, not looking away from my monitor for 6 weeks, at which point I had a 'Version 1.0' ready for release. Now I use the word release quite reluctantly, because there really wasn't anywhere the application would really be released to or from! I had built the system on the production server!
Now hopefully I haven't lost every shred of credibility and respect that you might have had for me. You see, it was beyond my control, and with a tight deadline, I didn't have time to protest. But don't worry, the whole point of this article is to show you how I remedied the situation. And whoever is responsible for the purchasing of servers will be happy to know that the resolution to this problem doesn't call for additional hardware.
If anyone reading this article is wondering what the big deal is, basically it's essential to the success of an application to be able to isolate changes in code from the production environment, until they are tried, tested, true, and ready for deployment. There's nothing quite like that sinking feeling you get in your stomach when there's a serious bug that you know is affecting the end user's ability to accomplish their task (and the reason you know is because they are kind enough to enlighten you to their frustration in not-so-enlightening terms). So it is in the best interests of everyone involved, to have the live (production) code separated from the development (test) code.
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