Deploy MVC 6 app in IIS - asp.net-core

I'm using Visual Studio Express 2015RC and I created a simple MVC 6 application, but when I try to publish it I don't see the option to deploy it to IIS, I see the options Microsoft Azure Web App, Import and File System, I tried the File System but It looks like it is more for creating stand alone applications to be launched from a console, now, when debugging I can select IIS Express or the web command, there is no IIS option, so the question is, how can I deploy the MVC6 web application I created to IIS?

File System publish is actually exactly what you want; All DNX applications are stand-alone, whether for ASP.NET 5 or a console app.
When you publish to the File System, you get a few folders; the wwwroot (assuming you kept the default in your project.json) folder is where IIS should point. The web.config in that folder is generated for you automatically assuming you keep everything else where it is.
For what it's worth, the official documentation will probably be here, once it's written. Also, on Stack Overflow, ASP.NET 5 project hosting on IIS probably has some useful information, though it looks like it's a bit out of date at the moment.

Related

How is it possible to overwrite a dll file in web root folder while IIS is running the app?

I want to overwrite a file in the web root directory of an ASP.NET Core application running on IIS. I copy the file remotely but it say that the file is under the use and cannot overwrite. How can I copy dll files remotely while ISS is running?
If the App within IIS can be set offline briefly, you can use app_offline.htm
The App Offline file (app_offline.htm) is used by the ASP.NET Core Module to shut down an app.
If a file with the name app_offline.htm is detected in the root directory of an app, the ASP.NET Core Module attempts to gracefully shut down the app and stop processing incoming requests. If the app is still running after the number of seconds defined in shutdownTimeLimit, the ASP.NET Core Module stops the running process.
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/app-offline?view=aspnetcore-6.0
If the app needs to keep running the solution with Shadow Copies mentioned by Lex Li in the comments might be helpful.
Note: Shadow Copys are still experimental in .net 6. At the moment this feature still is experimental as far as I know. this discussion might be helpful:
https://github.com/dotnet/AspNetCore.Docs/issues/23733

How to locally run .Net Core 2.0 app in VS Code the same way Visual Studio does with SSL

So, we have a web app we've migrated to .net core, and while it runs fine in Visual Studio 2017, because Visual Studio uses its "launchSettings.json" file to configure how IIS Express will work/launch - I, for the life of me, cannot figure out how to get VS Code to run the project. The problem is, we use HTTPS only and have always just let IIS Express used the self-signed locahost cert to allow this, so when debugging the site locally, we'd always use https://localhost:44300. As stated, this worked fine when entering this url in the launchSerttings.json file for Visual Studio, but VS Code does not use this, and the only answers I can find on this always refer to having to use the Kestrel Server's .Listen() method and used a self-signed cert and password to allow the use of an HTTPS port. 1) this seems just silly that I'd have to add this "test" code to run it locally, because I don't need it when we deploy to Azure, as Azure manages the certs and url for us. 2) Visual Studio 2017 does not need any specification on Kestrel to make this all work. So, I have hard time believing there isn't some extension, or process to achieve the same thing in Visual Studio Code that Visual Studio is doing under the hood to allow IIS Express to communicate with the .Net Core Kestrel Server.
Combing through the all the documentation suggests that the ASPNetCoreModule is what handles this communication for IIS and Kestrel, so, I would hope/guess there has to be some way to configure the web.config file's tag to include something that would make this work.
I've previously used and tried other IIS execution extensions in VS Code, but those focus on elements in the project's web.config to boot IIS which are no longer present in the web.config due to it being a .Net Core app. I had been successfully running the web app with the IIS Express Executor extension before migrating to .Net Core when the web app was a .NET Framework 4.5.2 app
So, the end goal is that I need to be able to go to https://localhost:44300 in the browser, and have our site work, but I don't want to have to add any sort of test-cert into the Kestrel config in the Program.cs or Startup.cs files. If there's no way to do this, then that will be really disappointing considering Visual Studio makes this seem like it should be very simple.
Thanks for the help.
Was able to get this to work using the following steps.
1) Install IIS Express executer in VS Code or any other similiar extension that wraps around dotnet commands
2) Download Process Explorer from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
3) Launch Visual Studio IIS Express as you would normally
4) Open Process Explorer (may need to launch as Admin) and locate iisexpress.exe -> VSIISExeLauncher.exe
5) Right click VSIISExeLauncher.exe and click properties then locate the "Environment" tab. Inside the environment tab you will see 2 variables: LAUNCHER_PATH and LAUNCHER_ARGS. Copy both of these variables and values.
6) Next locate the configuration file for the extension you installed in VS code (mine is launch.json inside the .vscode folder in your project root directory). It will likely have an "environment" or "env" section for adding environment variables to the launch arguments. Add the two arguments copied from step 5. These vary from person to person so the value of the arguments will be unique to your machine.
7) Launch IIS-Express from vs code. My particular command for this is "IIS-EE: Start IIS Express Server" but will vary based on the extension you installed. You can hit F1 to launch commands.
Visual Studio itself uses too many tricks under the hood to make you believe it is simple. However, it is not.
I documented all necessary details in a blog post,
https://blog.lextudio.com/how-visual-studio-launches-iis-express-to-debug-asp-net-core-apps-d7fd3677e3c3
And if you follow the steps manually, you should be able to launch IIS Express the same way VS does, and then use that in Visual Studio Code. I know there is some VSCode extensions trying to integrate with IIS and IIS Express, but I do hope those authors spend more time learning such integration and improve their extensions to fully support the scenarios.

How to update a running asp.net core application on Windows?

I have a Asp.Net Core MVC application running on Windows Server 2008 R2 with IIS. But every time I update this application, I need to manually stop the applicationPool in IIS, and restart the applicationPool after I finish updating the app. Otherwise it will tel me "the xxx.dll is in use by other progress".
Is there any way to make this process easier?
A workaround For Windows with no down time and I am regularly using is:
Rename running .NET core application dll to filename.dll.backup
Upload the new .dll (web application is available and serving the requests while file is being uploaded)
Once upload is complete recycle the Application Pool. Either Requires RDP Access to server or function to recycle application pool in your hosting control panel.
IIS overlaps the app pool when recycling so there usually isn’t any downtime during a recycle. So requests still come in without every knowing the app pool has been recycled and the requests are served seamlessly with no downtime.
I am still searching for more better method than this..!! :)
January 2022 - for Linux
For Linux, we use Openresty nginx with Lua script to hold (sleep) incoming requests for few seconds until the service running .NET Core or .NET 5 or .Net 6 application restarts and then we release the threads we had hold.
Refer: https://github.com/basecamp/intermission
Finally I found my anwser:
I just need add a file named app_offline.htm to the IIS web root(not your project wwwroot folder), and remove it after you replace all of your file.
due to this issue you may need try both App_Offline.htm or app_offline.htm .
and this will allow you to use FTP client to update
Opening the web.config file in an editor and saving it will cause the web application to reload, even if you don't change anything. All DLLs should be replaceable, until a user hits the site, causing the web application to start again. I sometimes use that as a workaround.
A more full fledged solution would be to use Web Deploy, either through Visual Studio or by command line. This can take a litte while to set up, but offers more automation.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/publishing/iis#deploy-the-application-1
There is no way to hotswap in place DLL's.
Your best bet is to deploy to a new folder each time (For example a versioned folder), and change the website directory in IIS once you have fully copied your website onto the server.

Attach to MVC 6 process in IIS

I am hosting an asp.net 5/mvc 6 application in local IIS using dnx x64 1.0.0.rc1. I would like to attach to the iis process and debug my application, but no symbols are ever loaded for the classes that I set breakpoints in.
Is this possible with this version of dnx and IIS?
If so, how do I attach to the iis process with symbols loaded?
---UPDATE
So I've tried attaching to dnx.exe, but still no luck. Strangely, I was able to get this to work one time, but cannot replicate it again. So if anyone can outline the steps required to debug MVC 6 on IIS, please post here.
What process are you trying to attach to? I believe you should be attaching to dnx.exe

How to deploy a web site on IIS by using .dll file

I want to deploy on IIS my web site but I do not want to take whole project. I just need to take .dll file. Is their any way to do so.
I do not want to use visual studio only .dll file from the project to deploy.
The basic steps for deploying to IIS on windows server are as follows:
log onto the machine that is or will be hosting your application.
Use IIS Manager to create a new website for your application.
Create a new application in that site. I believe this also will automatically create an application pool with the same name for you and use it by default.
Specify the virtual directory for your application. This is going to tell IIS where to look for your mvc application. For this case lets assume it is C:\myApp
On your own machine Build the application however you build it with the correct solution configuration (i.e. Release mode). Let say the result of your build is located at C:\MyProject\bin
Copy C:\MyProject\bin from your machine onto your hosting machine at C:\myApp
You should be able to search these steps and find a step by step guide of how to accomplish them. Here is a link to some info on what sites, applications and app pools are to help you better understand.
http://www.iis.net/learn/get-started/planning-your-iis-architecture/understanding-sites-applications-and-virtual-directories-on-iis
Based on your sites requirements there will be some additional steps to set up security and alter bindings if you need to change them.
You don't need to deploy your entire website if you only make a change in a single assembly. You could copy the .DLL assembly directly to the bin folder of your website. This will trigger the Application Pool to be recycled in IIS and the changes will be taken into effect on the next request.