upgrade process question

This is the first time I am upgrading my site from a testing environment.  I want to be sure of a couple of things before I do them.

1.  Should I stop IIS while updating the files on the server?  This server is in production and is receiving traffic both on the front and back end.

2.  My understanding was to copy over all of the files associated with the upgraded site to the production server, except the Configuration files.  My question is should these files be deleted from the server before upgrading or do I leave them in place to be upgraded after the restart?  Should the configuration folder be empty or contain the old files at the time of the restart?

3.  Is it best to delete the files and folders from the production server and then add updated files, or just paste the new files to the server and use the newest version of all files?


My plan was to do the following:

1.  Back up files and database from production server
2.  Delete all files in the website from the production server
3.  Copy all files EXCLUDING the configuration files from the testing server to the production server
4.  Restart the web site in IIS.

Thanks.

Anthony

1) No need, the second anything in BIN or the web.config change the site'll restart itself...but it can't HURT to stop the app pool.

I like your plan, except for deleting everything...not really necessary, and if your clients have used the FileSystemProvider for any library items, you've just deleted their files :)

I just copy the new stuff up and overwrite everything BUT THE CONFIG.

(I also like to restore my DB backup to a temp database just to make sure it's not corrupt...maybe overkill though)