Deployment Process for .NET applications

Long time i havent blogged. Actually i had been really busy with my past wednesday deadline and after that my health was not keeping up.

My dissertation project involved a windows service, an ASP.NET web application and SQL Server 2000 Database. I had to create a single setup which would install my windows service, my ASP.NET web site and SQL Server 2000 database on to the server machine. It is pretty straightforward to create seperate setups for windows service and ASP.NET web app. But a single setup handling all the stuff is a bit tricky issue.
After more than two days of research and fiddling around with different setup projects and merge modules, i found out that i had to create a custom installer class and provide the output of it to my setup project. It was a great learnnig expereince.

Now while i am working as a .NET Developer in the company, i also handle the deployment of the software and creating the installers so that the managers can install it on thier machine and analyse as to what is the current project stage.

Recently i have been assigned a new task to smoothen the deplyment process and come up with astrategy and a process to carry out effective and hassle free deployment process for over 500 machines some of which are running on Windows 2000, some on Windows XP and a few on Windows Server 2003 and deploying those applications efficiently and reliably throughout the company environment.

As i research more about the best ways to handle all the dependencies realted to depolyment and frame up an effective solution for the deployment process, i will be posting and sharing my expereinces with all of you here on this blog.