Publishing and Deploying ASP.NET Core Zero Applications to IIS

In the previous article, we discussed logging management in ASP.NET Core applications—from basic logging techniques to using various logging providers to meet diverse requirements. In this article, we focus on publishing an ASP.NET Core application to IIS (Internet Information Services), enabling it to be hosted and accessed on a Windows server. In the next article, we’ll explore deployment using Docker.

Overview of IIS

IIS is Microsoft’s Internet Information Services—a server software component used for hosting websites and web applications. ASP.NET Core applications can be conveniently deployed on IIS, leveraging its robust management and configuration capabilities.

Before proceeding, ensure that IIS is installed on your Windows server and that the .NET Core Hosting Bundle is properly configured. You can download and install it from the Microsoft official website.

Preparing for Publishing

Before publishing your ASP.NET Core application to IIS, you must first prepare the publish output. Static assets (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript) are typically served from the wwwroot directory.

1. Open a command-line interface (CMD or PowerShell).

2. Navigate to your project directory and run the following command:

   dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish
   

   Here, -c Release specifies that we’re publishing a Release build, and the -o flag defines the output directory. In this example, the published content is placed in the ./publish directory.

Configuring IIS

Next, configure IIS to host your application.

1. Open IIS Manager:

   • Search for “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager” in Windows and launch it.

2. Create a new website:

   • In the Connections pane, right-click Sites, then select Add Website.
   • Enter a site name, set the physical path to your newly generated publish directory, and specify a binding port (commonly port 80 or another available port).

Configuring web.config

When running on IIS, ASP.NET Core applications require a web.config file. This file is automatically generated in the publish directory during dotnet publish. Verify that it contains configuration similar to the following:

<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModuleV2" />
    </handlers>
    <aspNetCore processPath="dotnet" 
                 arguments=".\YourAppName.dll" 
                 stdoutLogEnabled="true" 
                 stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" 
                 hostingModel="InProcess" />
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Replace .\YourAppName.dll in the arguments attribute with the actual filename of your published application DLL.

Verifying Successful Deployment

After completing the above steps, open a browser and navigate to the URL you configured in IIS. If all settings are correct, you should see your ASP.NET Core application’s homepage. If errors occur, inspect the IIS logs and the stdout log file (as specified in stdoutLogFile) to diagnose and resolve the issue.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have successfully published your ASP.NET Core application to IIS. IIS provides powerful enterprise-grade hosting capabilities—ensuring reliable operation, scalability, and centralized management.

In the next article, we’ll shift our focus to Docker-based deployment, exploring how containerization enables more portable, flexible, and consistent deployment of ASP.NET Core applications.