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I'm new to TFS and I'm trying to set up my build server to automatically deploy a website to a local test server running IIS 6.

I've installed web deploy on the destination server (which is Win2k3 & IIS6) with the remote agent (which is started btw), and I've set my build definition's MSBuild Arguments to:

/p:DeployOnBuild=true

/p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish

/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent

/p:DeployIisAppPath="Default Web Site"

/p:MsDeployServiceUrl="http://devserver/msdeployagentservice"

/p:username=DOMAIN\Admin.Username

/p:password=password

/p:IncludeIisSettingsOnPublish=false

When I queue a build, it says it's built fine, but it hasn't published anything to the server. Looking at the build log, I can't see any evidence of it even attempting to do the publish?

Any suggestions appreciated! Documentation for this stuff seems scarce, particularly for deploying to IIS 6..

UPDATE

As comments below suggested it won't work with a web site project, I've now tried it with an MVC 3 app, and it still doesn't seem to even attempt to publish it.

David Masters
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  • Is this a web application project, or just a web site "project"? MSDEPLOY (and most other interesting things) doesn't work with web sites. – John Saunders Oct 12 '11 at 15:20
  • Too bad. This is one of many reasons I don't use web sites. – John Saunders Oct 12 '11 at 15:24
  • *Sigh*. Web 'sites' are the bane of my life. – David Masters Oct 12 '11 at 15:27
  • Reminds me of that old joke. You know, the one that ends, "don't _do_ that!" – John Saunders Oct 12 '11 at 15:28
  • Do you happen to know of any reference that says you can't do it with Web Sites? Note: I'm not trying to use the 'packages' feature....just publishing.. – David Masters Oct 12 '11 at 15:33
  • From "Inside the Microsoft Build Engine, Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build", 2nd Edition, Microsoft Press, @2010, Ch 18, "Web Deployment Tool, Part 2", in "Web Publishing Pipeline Overview", para. 1, "Unfortunately, website projects are left behind in this scenario" – John Saunders Oct 12 '11 at 15:48
  • That same book shows you how you can customize the build to do things like this, but, in general, Microsoft seems to have recognized that web site "projects" were a mistake, and to be spending little time taking them into consideration. – John Saunders Oct 13 '11 at 14:09
  • OK, but as I've said in my edit, I've now tried publishing an MVC 3 web app, but it doesn't seem to do anything with the build arguments... – David Masters Oct 13 '11 at 14:46
  • Is your MVC application a Web Application Project? Did you create it using File->New Project or right-clicking the solution and using Add->New Project? I have an MVC2 WAP that is happily creating a package on build. Haven't tried directly deploying it. – John Saunders Oct 13 '11 at 14:52
  • Its an Web App - as I say, I'm trying to publish it to a local server on build, not using packages.. It's not giving an error or anything - just seems to be ignoring the params – David Masters Oct 13 '11 at 14:58
  • Get a verbose log and see if the parameters are being passed to MSBUILD at all. – John Saunders Oct 13 '11 at 15:43
  • as per http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6535479/tfs-2010-build-definition-msbuild-arguments-seems-to-be-ignored I've reluctantly installed VS2010 on the build server and now I'm getting meaningful error messages – David Masters Oct 13 '11 at 16:05

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As per TFS 2010 Build Definition: MSBuild Arguments seems to be ignored I've reluctantly installed VS2010 on the build server and now I'm getting meaningful error messages.

It really is annoying that you need to do this to get it to work, and even more annoying that without doing so means you don't even get any sort of error and it behaves like everything has worked!

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David Masters
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