Installing dev tools into production
The biggest reason not to install it:
That would mean you weren't doing incredibly stupid things on your production server.
If you cannot replicate issues in code on your development machines, you need to create a staging server that accurately replicates the configuration and environment of your production environment. If you are still unable to replicate the error, it means that you have either: not enough to replicate the environment, b: do not understand your configuration in your production environment well enough to be able to replicate it, or c: have the wrong application configured for elimination of changes in the environment.
Another reason:
You don't need to have a copy of the source code on your server and be able to easily compile it in place. If you ever get hacked, you will be glad you didn't, as your source code will be stolen and / or a hacker will have a very easy way to insert malicious code into your application.
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I agree with some of the posts that explicitly say that you shouldn't be doing development or debugging production. If an error occurs, make sure you have a procedure to log the required data.
If you encounter any issues while deploying the new code, go back to the old one and use (exclude) the data to troubleshoot the code in your development or on the staging machine.
The production server should only have the bare bones software required to fulfill its role. Installing a completely bloated IDE on it seems a little too heavy. This will also raise the question of whether the IDE needs to be updated after the SP is released? What if the installation went wrong? These are all problems that can be easily avoided without installing VS on the server.
The fewer things on your production server, the less likely it is that things will go wrong.
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I can think of several:
- Development does not have to happen on a production server.
Software development and testing should always be done on the development server. The development products are then deployed to the production server. Development on a production server can crash the production server.
- Only production software must be installed on the production server
Development software contains components that complicate a production server's working environment. For example, there may be problems with the DLL version. In general, a production server should only contain the software necessary to do its job.
- Having development (or other) tools on the production server encourages using the production server not intended for.
You may be planning to install VS 2008 for convenience. It's nice to have tools on hand. But how easy is it now to cut corners and fix something on your server on the fly without following a software development process?
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No reason other than disk space and possibly an unused license, why not? However, what are the reasons for installing VS 2008 on a live web server? You can debug remotely if you have a bug that you simply cannot duplicate in your dev or test environment and really need to debug it live. Therefore, I cannot think of any reason for this.
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