Cluster ASP.NET Recycle App Pool

[JBDWM]

Does anyone have a 'best practice' for making changes/updates to an ASP.NET site on the cluster?

I have done a bit of reading and it seems that an app pool recycle will cause session data, data stored in memory etc to be lost. I am thinking that if this happened while users were in the middle of using the site they could see errors or experience problems.

So if this is true, would it be best to let the site recycle naturally, or do so manually when there is little traffic?

Also, what would be best to do if an update is more urgent?

Any help appreciated!

[Darren]

I think the general consensus would be not to develop on a "live" site - so that any changes or work you're doing isn't impacting the application pool of a live site, you should create the site you're working on (e.g. dev.yourdomain.com) as a separate site with its own application pool.

If you ever need to push out changes in a hurry of course, losing session data of a few people could be the lesser of two evils.