Deploy Dotnet Core API and Angular 5 on IIS - PART 1

While working with Dotnet core and Angular, I come across a requirement to deploy production code to server.I am going to share hosting method for Dotnet core Api and Angular 5 On IIS server.

Host Dotnet Core App On IIS

NOTE: I installed dotnet core version 2.1.200 in my machine.

I am assuming that you you have created Api project and ready to IIS configure.you can create api from here

When creating a new project you can see a Program.cs file in folder, and it contains the following code.

public class Program

{

public static void Main(string[] args)

{

var webHost = new WebHostBuilder()

.UseStartup<Startup>()

.Build();

webHost.Run();

}

}

Configure WebHostBuilder

In dotnet core application we have to define WebHostBuilder object for web server.Inside the WebHost object we have add some configuration for application hosting.

Add bellow methods in WebHostBuilder setup code

.UseKestrel()

.UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())

.UseIISIntegration()

What does these method ?

UseKestrel() :  kestrel is a cross-platform web server for asp.net core. and it's by default included in asp.net core project templates.

UseContentRoot : When you call dotnet run from your project folder without this function, the content root path is in your bin output folder.

UseIISIntegration() : If you are going to host your app ISS, the UseIISIntegration() method should be called as part of building the host.

And it will be work as revers proxy in front of Kestrel.

NOTE: Usekestrel and UseIISIntegration() are very different actions.IIS is only used as a reverse proxy.Usekestrel creates the server and hosts the code.UseIISIntegration specifies IIS as the reverse proxy server. And also examines environment variables used by IIS/IISExpress and makes decisions like which dynamic port use,which headers to set,etc.

What is AspNetCoreModule ?

As you can see the web.config file is available in your project root folder.

It’s only used when deploying your application to IIS. It registers the AspNetCoreModule as an HTTP handler. It handles all incoming traffic to IIS. And ensures that your application is running.

<handlers>

<add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />

</handlers>

  

 

Okay… let’s move for server configuration

1) Install Dotnet Core Windows server hosting bundle

The deployment is not same as asp.net, there are some tooling for host your application. Before you deploy your application, you need to install the dotnet core hosting bundle for IIS. This will install .NET core runtime, libraries, and AspNetCoreModule.

DOWNLOAD Dotnetcore windows server hosting bundle

Make sure you pick “windows server hosting”

2) Build and Publish

If you simply run this command…

dotnet publish

Your project will be published to the default location which is inside your application’s bin folder.

<YourApplication>\bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.0\publish

Here you will find a portable version of your project which can be hosted in any number of place including on Linux or via IIS on windows.

3) Create Application is IIS

Copy files to preferred IIS location where you want the files to live. If you are deploying to a remote server, you may want to zip up the files and move to the server.

Open IIS manager, create a new IIS Application Pool.you will want to create under the .NET CLR version of “No managed Code” Since IIS only works reverse proxy, it’s not actually executing any .NET code

Now Create your new application under your existing hosted sites,or create new ISS application.select your new IIS Application pool here.Point your published code.

4) Check and Run

Before run the application you need to check the AspNetCoreModule is present or not. To check go to Modules from application home and inside the Modules you can find that your application is running under AspNetCoreModule.

That’s it, Now you can run your app using Manage Application > Browse