IIS Deployment

This document assumes that you prefer to use Blazor WebAssembly as the UI framework and Entity Framework Core as the database provider. For other options, please change the preference on top of this document.

Prerequisites

• An IIS Server that is ready for deployment.

• Install the hosting bundle.

• Entity Framework Core database must be ready to use with your project.

• If you want to publish in a local environment, this guide will use mkcert to create self-signed certificates. Follow the installation guide to install mkcert.

• A Redis instance prepared for caching.

Generate an Authentication Certificate

If you're using OpenIddict, you need to generate an authentication certificate. You can execute this command in AuthServer folder.

dotnet dev-certs https -v -ep authserver.pfx -p 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 is the password of the certificate, you can change it to any password you want.

Creating the Publish Files

You can execute this commands in your project root folder.

dotnet publish ./src/Volo.Sample.DbMigrator/Volo.Sample.DbMigrator.csproj -c Release -o ./publish/dbmigrator # Replace with your project name

dotnet publish ./src/Volo.Sample.Blazor/Volo.Sample.Blazor.csproj -c Release -o ./publish/blazor # Replace with your project name
dotnet publish ./src/Volo.Sample.HttpApi.Host/Volo.Sample.HttpApi.Host.csproj -c Release -o ./publish/apihost # Replace with your project name

dotnet publish ./src/Volo.Sample.AuthServer/Volo.Sample.AuthServer.csproj -c Release -o ./publish/authserver # Replace with your project name

Run the DbMigrator With Your Custom Settings

Update the connection string and OpenIddict section with your domain names. Run the DbMigrator app.

For example, in a tiered MVC project.

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "Default": "Server=volo.sample;Database=Sample;User Id=sa;Password=1q2w3E**;TrustServerCertificate=true"
  },
  "Redis": {
    "Configuration": "volo.sample"
  },
  "OpenIddict": {
    "Applications": {
      "Sample_Web": {
        "ClientId": "Sample_Web",
        "ClientSecret": "1q2w3e*",
        "RootUrl": "https://web.sample"
      },
      "Sample_Swagger": {
        "ClientId": "Sample_Swagger",
        "RootUrl": "https://api.sample"
      }
    }
  }
}

Preparing for Local Deployment

You can skip this part if you're going to deploy on a server with real domain names.

Creating a Self-Signed Certificate with mkcert

You can execute this command in your command prompt.

cd Desktop # or another path
mkcert -pkcs12 auth.sample api.sample web.sample # Replace with your domain names  

Rename the created file extension to ".pfx"

Import the certificate to IIS

Add domain names to hosts file

Add domain names to hosts file(in Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts, in Linux and macOS: /etc/hosts).

For example, in a tiered MVC project.

127.0.0.1 auth.sample
127.0.0.1 api.sample
127.0.0.1 web.sample

Publish the Application(s) On IIS

Update the appsettings

Update the appsettings according to your project type and domain names.

For example, in a tiered MVC project.

//AuthServer
{
  "App": {
    "SelfUrl": "https://auth.sample",
    "CorsOrigins": "https://api.sample,https://web.sample",
    "RedirectAllowedUrls": "https://api.sample,https://web.sample",
    "DisablePII": "false"
  },
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "Default": "Server=volo.sample;Database=Sample;User Id=sa;Password=1q2w3E**;TrustServerCertificate=true"
  },
  "AuthServer": {
    "Authority": "https://auth.sample",
    "RequireHttpsMetadata": "true"    
  },
  "StringEncryption": {
    "DefaultPassPhrase": "f9uRkTLdtAZLmlh3"
  },
  "Redis": {
    "Configuration": "volo.sample"
  }
}
//HttpApi.Host
{
  "App": {
    "SelfUrl": "https://api.sample",
    "CorsOrigins": "https://web.sample",
    "DisablePII": "false",
    "HealthCheckUrl": "/health-status"
  },
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "Default": "Server=volo.sample;Database=Sample;User Id=sa;Password=1q2w3E**;TrustServerCertificate=true"
  },
  "Redis": {
    "Configuration": "volo.sample"
  },
  "AuthServer": {
    "Authority": "https://auth.sample",
    "RequireHttpsMetadata": "true",
    "SwaggerClientId": "Sample_Swagger"
  },
  "StringEncryption": {
    "DefaultPassPhrase": "f9uRkTLdtAZLmlh3"
  }
}
//Web
{
  "App": {
    "SelfUrl": "https://web.sample",
    "DisablePII": "false"
  },
  "RemoteServices": {
    "Default": {
      "BaseUrl": "https://api.sample/"
    },
    "AbpAccountPublic": {
      "BaseUrl": "https://auth.sample/"
    }
  },
  "Redis": {
    "Configuration": "volo.sample"
  },
  "AuthServer": {
    "Authority": "https://auth.sample",
    "RequireHttpsMetadata": "true",
    "ClientId": "Sample_Web",
    "ClientSecret": "1q2w3e*"
  },
  "StringEncryption": {
    "DefaultPassPhrase": "f9uRkTLdtAZLmlh3"
  }
}

Copy the .pfx file

You need to copy pfx file from ./src/AuthServer to ./publish/authserver folder.

Publish the Applications(s)

You can add as website from IIS.

For authserver we need to enable load user profile to true from application pool for created web site.

For local deployment select the SSL certificate when you add the web site.

The final result should look like this (depending on your project type).

We can visit the websites from a browser.

How to get stdout-log

If your application is running on IIS and getting errors like 502.5, 500.3x, you can enable stdout logs to see the error details.

To enable and view stdout logs:

1. Navigate to the site's deployment folder on the hosting system.
2. If the logs folder isn't present, create the folder. For instructions on how to enable MSBuild to create the logs folder in the deployment automatically, see the Directory structure topic.
3. Edit the web.config file. Set stdoutLogEnabled to true and change the stdoutLogFile path to point to the logs folder (for example, .\logs\stdout). stdout in the path is the log file name prefix. A timestamp, process id, and file extension are added automatically when the log is created. Using stdout as the file name prefix, a typical log file is named stdout_20180205184032_5412.log.
4. Ensure your application pool's identity has write permissions to the logs folder.
5. Save the updated web.config file.
6. Make a request to the app.
7. Navigate to the logs folder. Find and open the most recent stdout log.

The following sample aspNetCore element configures stdout logging at the relative path .\log\. Confirm that the AppPool user identity has permission to write to the path provided.

<aspNetCore processPath="dotnet"
    arguments=".\MyAbpApp.dll"
    stdoutLogEnabled="true"
    stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout"
    hostingModel="inprocess">
</aspNetCore>

Reference:

IIS log creation and redirection

Troubleshoot ASP.NET Core on Azure App Service and IIS

What's next?

• Docker Deployment using Docker Compose

• Azure Deployment using Application Service