Hi McGeeky,
Well, first it depends on how your ASP.Net app is structured. Are you using
compiled DLLs or simply text files (.aspx, .asmx, etc)? If using compiled
DLLS, are you using a single DLL, or an app DLL and class library
assemblies? And what exactly are you replacing? Only Page template files,
DLLs, or both?
If you are replacing only text files, you may be able to get away with
replacing the text files while the app is running. However,
interdependencies between pages may cause some logged-in users to experience
exceptions if they are using any pages that are interdependent with other
pages that are changed, or if they are using pages that you replace that are
interdependent with unchanged pages.
If you replace the web.config file, or the dll, the app will restart, and
this may cause problems with logged-in users as well, as it kills all
current Sessions, and re-initializes the application. In fact, you might
just as well expect that in almost any scenario, you may cause problems for
currently logged-in users.
Of course, restarting IIS, or an application pool (in IIS 6) is going to
have the same effect, so in either case logged-in users are going to
experience difficulties.
So, the most important thing to keep in mind is to make changes when there
is as little traffic on the site as possible.
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Neither a follower nor a lender be.
