Home » Development » Publishing ASP.NET web site in Visual Studio and deploying it in IIS

Publishing ASP.NET web site in Visual Studio and deploying it in IIS

Publishing/deploying ASP.NET web sites is easier and more efficient with Microsoft’s deployment tool, called Web Deploy. I will be showing how to publish and deploy a web site step by step.

What you will use is:

  • Visual Studio (the tool in which you develop your web site)
  • Web Deploy (the tool that installs necessary components)
  • IIS (the tool that publishes your web site )

End-to-end steps:

  1. In Visual Studio, Go to “Build > Publish projectname“. In the wizard, configure the settings:
    • Profile: Create a new profile if there is no one exits
    • Connection: Select “Web Deploy Package” in Publish Method list. Choose a path
    • Settings: Keep it as is
    • Preview: Click “Publish”. We will use the zip file in step 3

      Creating "deploy package" in Visual Studio
      Creating “deploy package” in Visual Studio
  2. In the computer that you will publish your web site on IIS, download and install Web Deployhttp://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/web-deploy
  3. Open IIS:
    • Create a new web site
    • Click on the web site. Click the link “Import Application
    • Specify the “zip” file you created in step 1

      Importing the application in IIS
      Importing the application in IIS

Yes, that’s all!

Note: If you get an error saying that some dll files are missing (example error message is below), find those files in the computer you use for developing and copy them under C:\inetpub\wwwroot\websitename\applicationname\bin

Some DLL files are missing. You should copy them manually
Some DLL files are missing. You should copy them manually

Ned Sahin

Blogger for 20 years. Former Microsoft Engineer. Author of six books. I love creating helpful content and sharing with the world. Reach me out for any questions or feedback.

1 thought on “Publishing ASP.NET web site in Visual Studio and deploying it in IIS”

Leave a Comment