Can I deploy SharePoint solutions with 32 bit assemblies on a 64 bit SharePoint farm?

Question

Our development environment is all 32 bit, but our production SharePoint farms are all 64 bit. Can we just deploy the SharePoint solutions straight to the 64 bit platform, or do we need to recompile everything?

Answer 1

If you have the Platform Target set to "Any CPU" (which is the default) then you do not need to recompile. You can find this drop-down by going to the Build tab in the project properties. The .NET Framework is smart enough to adjust to either platform when this setting is enabled.

I'm working in the same environment that you describe with these settings and have no issues.

Edit: A good question that describes this further - Compile ASP.NET to 64 BIT.

Answer 2

Slightly offtopic, but if you deliver your solution files through MSI's build as a simple Visual Studio Setup Project, like we do, that's a different story. Those MSI's are 32 bits, and require a fair bit of modding to make them 64 bits compatible.

The solutions themselves, however, should pose no problem whatsoever.