Deploying a web part solution to the SharePoint using STSADM is an easy task, everyone knows about it. But while developing a web part, sometimes we need to re-deploy the solution again and again. In this case we cannot simply re-deploy the solutions and we have to follow some additional steps to redeploy again.

There are several ways to create the solution file, but I have used the WSPBuilder to create this web part solution. You can see this in my previous post.

Deploy :

There are 2 steps to deploy a solution using stsadm.

1. Add solution – Add a solution file to the solution store. See more details here.
   • Syntax: stsadm -o addsolution   -filename <solution file name>
2. Deploy solution – Deploys files related to a solution from the configuration database to individual front-end Web servers in the farm. See more details here.
   • Syntax: stsadm -o deploysolution   -name <solution name>   -immediate  -allowgacdeployment   -force –allcontenturls
3. We need one more command to Executes all administrative timer jobs immediately instead of waiting for the timer job to run. See more details here.
   • Syntax:stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

Ok, we will see the steps here:

Step 1: Open the cmd prompt and change the directory (cd) to stsadm.exe location, I am using SharePoint 2007 so this is the path:  “cd c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\bin”

Step 2: Adding the solution, my solution file is in the C:\Temp\

stsadm -o addsolution -filename C:\Temp\WSPBuilderStepBiStep.wsp

Step 3: Deploying the solution

stsadm -o deploysolution -name WSPBuilderStepBiStep.wsp -immediate -allowGacDeployment -force -allcontenturls

Step 4: Executing the timer jobs

stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

Please note: The name and filename in the above commands, if it is filename we have to use full file path.

Re-Deploy:

When we deploy the solution package without retract and delete then we will get the following error message:

There are many ways to do this (Using UI, WSPBuilder and so…) but here are the steps which I normally used (Specially in the production servers):

1. Retract solution: Retracts the specified solution’s deployment which removes files from the front-end Web server. This is actually reversing the deployment. See more details here.
   • Syntax: stsadm -o retractsolution   -name <solution name>  [-immediate]  [-allcontenturls]
2. Delete solution:Removes a solution file (package) from the solution store. See more details here.
   • Syntax: stsadm -o deletesolution    -name <name>    [-override]

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Retracting the solution

stsadm -o retractsolution -name WSPBuilderStepBiStep.wsp -immediate –allcontenturls

Step 2: Executing the timer jobs

stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

Step 3: Deleting the solution

stsadm -o deletesolution -name WSPBuilderStepBiStep.wsp –override

Step 4: Re-deploy the solution again, for this follow the steps 1 to 3 in the Deploy!

That’s all, Happy deploying..! 🙂