Multiple sites sharing single web.config file

External Since: Feb 09, 2004 Posts: 2

Hello,

I would like to have several sites share a single web.config file. To accomplish this, I would point the root of these sites to the same folder. Is there any reason why I might not want to do this? (IIS 5 or 6)

In case you're wondering why I would do this, we have many web sites on a single server, and there are groups of sites that need to share common configuration information. I'd like to ease some administration by having one web.config file for each of these "site groupings". There may be many "site groupings", so I cannot use the machine.config file.

An interesting side question: assuming that I do the above, is it ok to have several web applications sharing a single bin folder? If that is an OK solution, then I just might be able to avoid using the gac, any thoughts on that?

Thanks,
BPearson

External Since: Feb 09, 2004 Posts: 2

Hi BPearson,
I think it is important for you to understand how multiple Web.config
files can appear in multiple directories on a ASP.NET Web application
server.
Each Web.config file applies configuration settings to its own
directory and all the sub directories below it.Web.config files in sub
directories can supply configuration
information in addition to that inherited from parent directories, and the
sub directory configuartion settings can modify or override settings defined
in parent directories.
What you need to do is,
Make your groupings based on directory structure.
For example if you have database connection information
affecting all the web applications you put that key in the Web.config file
in the parent directory in the highest
level of the web site so that all the sub directories(up to the lowest
hierarchy in the directory structure) can inherit that information.
But in some cases for some web applications you need
to override the configuation settings in the root directory or put new
settings,so put that in the directory of that application so that
all the sub directories under it can make use of it(these sub directories
can be associated with it's own iis applications),you may call it a group.
You don't need to have several web applications
sharing the same bin folder,as you create more and more applications this
will be tedious to manage and
if that iis application goes down, lot of your web applications will stop
working.
You can have a web application with its own virtual
directory and bin folder,but you can still inherit the configuration
information from the parent directories.
If your application runs on Windows 2003 you can take
advantage of using application pools and configure each application on its
own worker process that
provides process-level isolation.This isolation is very good because if
something happens to the application pool only that web application(s) is
affected.

Hope this helps.
Regards,
Marshal Antony
..NET Developer
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dotnetmarshal.com" target="_blank">http://www.dotnetmarshal.com</a>

"BPearson" <anonymous DeleteThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BD1B2D62-0D3D-4222-8DBE-FB2263AB2217@microsoft.com...
> Hello,
>
> I would like to have several sites share a single web.config file. To
accomplish this, I would point the root of these sites to the same folder.
Is there any reason why I might not want to do this? (IIS 5 or 6)
>
> In case you're wondering why I would do this, we have many web sites on a
single server, and there are groups of sites that need to share common
configuration information. I'd like to ease some administration by having
one web.config file for each of these "site groupings". There may be many
"site groupings", so I cannot use the machine.config file.
>
> An interesting side question: assuming that I do the above, is it ok to
have several web applications sharing a single bin folder? If that is an OK
solution, then I just might be able to avoid using the gac, any thoughts on
that?
>
> Thanks,
> BPearson