Checklist for Deployment

Verify that production servers and target computers meet all requirements for running the .NET targets that you deploy from PowerBuilder.

Checklist for all .NET targets

For deployment of all .NET target types (.NET Assembly, .NET Web Service), production servers or target computers must have:

  • The Windows 7 or later operating system (including Windows 7/8.1/10 and Windows Server 2008/2012/2016)

  • .NET Framework 4.x

  • The Microsoft Visual C++ runtime libraries msvcr80.dll (for 32-bit only), msvcp80.dll (for 32-bit only), msvcp100.dll, msvcr100.dll, and the Microsoft .NET Active Template Library (ATL) module, atl80.dll (for 32-bit only) and atl100.dll

  • PowerBuilder .NET assemblies in the global assembly cache (GAC)

  • PowerBuilder runtime dynamic link libraries in the system path

Checklist for .NET Web Service targets

For .NET Web Service targets, production servers must have:

For information on different methods for deploying .NET Web Service components, see Deployment to a production server.

Installing assemblies in the global assembly cache

When the Common Language Runtime (CLR) is installed on a computer as part of the .NET Framework, a machine-wide code cache called the global assembly cache (GAC) is created. The GAC stores assemblies that can be shared by multiple applications. If you do not want or need to share an assembly, you can keep it private and place it in the same directory as the application.

If you do not want to use the Runtime Packager to deploy your application, you should use Windows Installer or another installation tool that is designed to work with the GAC. Windows Installer provides assembly reference counting and other features designed to maintain the cache.

On the development computer, you can use a tool provided with the .NET Framework SDK, gacutil.exe, to install assemblies into the GAC.

Assemblies deployed in the global assembly cache must have a strong name. A strong name includes the assembly's identity as well as a public key and a digital signature. The GAC can contain multiple copies of an assembly with the same name but different versions, and it might also contain assemblies with the same name from different vendors, so strong names are used to ensure that the correct assembly and version is called.

For more information about assemblies and strong names, see the Microsoft library at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wd40t7ad(VS.71).aspx.