How do I set up a build server on the cheap/free?

Question

Currently I'm tasked with doing the daily build. We have an ASP.NET 2005 website with a SQL Server 2005 backend. Our current source control is Visual Source Safe 2005.

At this point, I use the brute-force method of daily builds.

1. Get Latest version of source code
2. Get Latest version of Database release script
3. Backup old website files to a directory
4. Publish new code to my local machine
5. Run on my server to keep the test/stage site working
6. Push newly created files to the website
7. Run SQL Script on test database (assuming updates, otherwise I don't bother)
8. Test website on the Test Server.

Looking at the idea of automated builds intrigues me since it means that I do less each morning. How would you recommend I proceed? I want to have a fully fleshed out idea before I present it to my boss.

Answer 1

Ditch VSS, move to Subversion, and check out CruiseControl.NET. Alternatively, if you have a MSDN developer license, you can run TFS workgroup edition and set up a build server on any old XP box. Its what we do at our shop.

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As Assaf noted, you can use CC.NET with VSS directly. Nice.