.NET Deployment

This section provides comprehensive guidance on deploying your .NET applications. We cover various deployment targets, strategies, and best practices to ensure your applications are delivered efficiently and reliably.

Deployment Targets

Choosing the right deployment target is crucial for the success of your .NET application. Consider factors like your target audience, infrastructure, and performance requirements.

• Web Applications: Deploying ASP.NET Core applications to IIS, Azure App Service, Docker containers, or other web hosts.
• Desktop Applications: Packaging and distributing WPF and Windows Forms applications using ClickOnce, MSI installers, or the Microsoft Store.
• Cloud Services: Deploying .NET applications to Azure Functions, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and other cloud-native platforms.
• Mobile Applications: Deploying Xamarin applications to iOS and Android devices.

Deployment Strategies

Various strategies can be employed to manage the deployment lifecycle of your .NET applications.

Publishing

The dotnet publish command is a fundamental tool for preparing your application for deployment. It builds and packages your application, creating the necessary files for distribution.

dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish

This command publishes the application in Release configuration to the ./publish directory.

Self-Contained vs. Framework-Dependent Deployment

You can choose to deploy your application in two main ways:

• Framework-Dependent: The application relies on a shared .NET runtime installed on the target machine. This results in smaller deployment packages.
• Self-Contained: The application includes its own .NET runtime. This ensures your application runs with the specific runtime version it was built with, independent of what's installed on the machine.

To publish a self-contained deployment, specify the target runtime identifier (RID):

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -o ./publish

Deployment Tools and Technologies

Leverage a variety of tools and technologies to streamline your .NET deployment process.

• Azure DevOps: A comprehensive suite of services for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
• GitHub Actions: Automate your CI/CD workflows directly within your GitHub repository.
• Docker and Kubernetes: Containerize your .NET applications for consistent deployment across different environments.
• ClickOnce: A deployment technology for Windows Forms and WPF applications that simplifies the update process for end-users.

Best Practices

• Always publish in the Release configuration for optimized performance.
• Use configuration management tools to manage settings across different environments (development, staging, production).
• Implement robust logging and monitoring to track application health post-deployment.
• Consider automating your deployment process with CI/CD pipelines to reduce manual errors and speed up releases.