Web Administration Tool database with IIS - asp.net

Question

I have created a website for my university that requires membership.
I used the web administration tool from Visual Studio and created Users and Rules.When i test it from Visual Studio it works fine.
The Web Administration Tool automatically creates a SQL database named ASPNETDB.MDF in the App_Data folder that saves membership data.
My question is will the database work when i add the website at the IIS? Do i have to create a sql server database and add a connection?Please answer me.It's really important.
i only want a very basic membership.

Answer 1

You can use db from /App_Data as explained in this SO answer:
ASP.NET: How to deploy App_Data to webhost? - but it depends on your server set up.
When using Membership my preference is to run it from a separate db in either SQL / SQL Express, as then have choice to run IIS site and db on different servers if required. Also better for security / scaling etc.
Once db is created you can use aspnet_regsql.exe to install Membership services into the db. It's usually located here - c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\< versionNumber >\aspnet_regsql.exe. Can run as GUI or command line:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x28wfk74.aspx
When running Membership from a separate db you'll also need to configure a provider in web.config. Something along the lines of this:
<connectionStrings>
<remove name="LocalSqlServer" />
<add name="MyMembershipConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=SERVER123\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=Database123;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=User123;Password=Password123" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
in < System.Web > section:
<roleManager defaultProvider="MySqlRoleProvider" enabled="true"
cacheRolesInCookie="true" cookieName=".ASPROLES" cookieTimeout="30"
cookiePath="/" cookieRequireSSL="false" cookieSlidingExpiration="true" cookieProtection="All">
<providers>
<clear />
<add name="MySqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider"
connectionStringName="MyMembershipConnectionString" applicationName="MyAppName" />
</providers>
</roleManager>
<membership defaultProvider="MySqlMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="720">
<providers>
<clear />
<add name="MySqlMembershipProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider"
connectionStringName="MyMembershipConnectionString"
enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
enablePasswordReset="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
requiresUniqueEmail="true"
passwordFormat="Hashed"
minRequiredPasswordLength="8"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"
passwordStrengthRegularExpression="((?=.*\d)(?=.*[a-z]).{6,20})"
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5"
passwordAttemptWindow="30" />
</providers>
</membership>
I've used a similar set up to this a good few times with no problems.
If using db from /App_Data you shouldn't need to do any of the web.config stuff