MSDeploy VS. ZipDeploy

Overview

These are two common ways to deploy your application given zipped artifact; MSDeploy and ZipDeploy.

MSDeploy

MSDeploy has been there since IIS and it has many options not only to simply unzip and lay out the artifacts; but also configure various IIS and web configurations. One needs VS or MSDeploy tooling to generate MSDeploy zip package. The content in the zip is usually not the same as the outcome on d:\home\site\wwwroot.

ZipDeploy

ZipDeploy (as name stated) is intended for xcopy or ftp style deployment. It takes unzip the artifacts and lay them out exactly to d:\home\site\wwwroot. You can use any tooling (such as one coming with Windows) to zip your content.

ARM Template support

Both deployment supported by ARM template (just different extension name) – samples below.

        {
          "name": "[concat(parameters('siteName'), '/MSDeploy')]",
          "type": "Microsoft.Web/sites/extensions",
          "apiVersion": "2015-08-01",
          "properties": {
            "packageUri": "https://..../msdeploy_content.zip"
          }
        }

        {
          "name": "[concat(parameters('siteName'), '/ZipDeploy')]",
          "type": "Microsoft.Web/sites/extensions",
          "apiVersion": "2015-08-01",
          "properties": {
            "packageUri": "https://..../zipdeploy_content.zip"
          }
        }