How to speed up the build process

The following recommendations are based on our internal testing with a standalone machine and KenticoCMS project without any source control, using VS2008 SP1.

1. Try using the "Build" option instead of "Rebuild" if you have not changed assemblies.

2. Available system memory (RAM) should not be lower than 20 or 30% of installed memory. In other words avoid memory congestion and have enough RAM. This is the most important aspect. Since some applications (like SQL Server) may consume all available memory you need to carefully monitor the paging activity of your system and act accordingly. We recommend using a 64bit OS since it can utilize more physical memory.

3. Create an antivirus exception for the CMS project folder. Our internal testing shows that antivirus software can cause significant delays. You may also want to add an antivirus exception for the ASP.NET cache folder. Please note that these antivirus exceptions may lower your system security.

4. When tested on a machine with enough RAM and proper antivirus exceptions, there was an insignificant difference in build speed when using: SSD disk, 10 000rpm disk or RAM disk to store the CMS project. Since the operating system uses its file cache, the only noticeable difference was with the very first build (before the data gets into the file cache) where the RAM disk outperforms the others.

5. Since Visual Studio 2008 doesn’t support parallel building (out-of-the-box) multi-core CPU’s cannot speed up the build processes (assuming nothing else is running on the system)