IIS and Asp.net Core error 404 issues

Question

IIS and Asp.net Core error 404 issues

Michael Mastro II 56

Good evening,

I suspect that I have something setup incorrectly, but have not been able to pin it down. I have an IIS server with two sites set up on it. Site named Main points to E:\Main and is bound to ports 80 and 443. When I enter www.mydomain.com in the browser it brought up the default IISstart page. I have a second site named api bound to different ports. That is mapped to E:\Api. I have three existing Asp.Net Core 3.1 applications that are also on the Main site. So if I browse to www.mydomain.com/app1 it brings up the application and there is no issues.

I published two asp.net core 3.1 applications using Azure DevOps Server 2020 using the IIS Web Manage and IIS Web Deploy tools for each of them. They go to the respective folders correctly but I am constantly getting 404 errors and the Javascript cannot be found, so there is a loss of functionality. I tried first this, which publishes correctly but leads to the 404 errors:

steps:
- task: IISWebAppManagementOnMachineGroup@0
  displayName: 'IIS Web Api Manage'
  inputs:
    EnableIIS: true
    WebsiteName: Api
    WebsitePhysicalPath: 'E:\Api'
    CreateOrUpdateAppPoolForWebsite: true
    AppPoolNameForWebsite: ApiAppPool
    DotNetVersionForWebsite: 'No Managed Code'

I then tried this but this will not start either application, and fails on publish for appcmd.exe errors:

steps:
- task: IISWebAppManagementOnMachineGroup@0
  displayName: 'IIS Web Api Manager'
  inputs:
    EnableIIS: true
    IISDeploymentType: IISWebApplication
    ParentWebsiteNameForApplication: Api
    VirtualPathForApplication: /
    PhysicalPathForApplication: 'E:\Api'
    CreateOrUpdateAppPoolForApplication: true
    AppPoolNameForApplication: ApiAppPool
    DotNetVersionForApplication: 'No Managed Code'
  enabled: false

error:

ERROR ( message:Cannot find SITE object with identifier "Api". )
##[error]Process 'appcmd.exe' exited with code '1168'.

The question is where am I going wrong?

Bruce Zhang-MSFT 3,771 Reputation points

2022-03-03T02:39:09.503+00:00

Hi @Michael Mastro II ,

Please check the IIS install feature to make sure Static Content has installed.

If you have installed it, please expand Main site and asp.net core application in it to show file structure.

Please check IIS log or browser to get substatus code of 404. If possible, please enter the url of these files in browser directly to check what the error message is (make sure the url is correct).

About appcmd code 1168, please refer to this docs stop and restart WAS and HTTP.

3 answers

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Bruce Zhang-MSFT 3,771 Reputation points

2022-03-03T02:39:09.503+00:00

Hi @Michael Mastro II ,

Please check the IIS install feature to make sure Static Content has installed.

If you have installed it, please expand Main site and asp.net core application in it to show file structure.

Please check IIS log or browser to get substatus code of 404. If possible, please enter the url of these files in browser directly to check what the error message is (make sure the url is correct).

About appcmd code 1168, please refer to this docs stop and restart WAS and HTTP.

Answer 1

AgaveJoe 30,126

IIS allows shared hosting. Set the appropriate domain name in the site bindings for http and https. There's no problem hosting several domains on the same machine assuming you have DNS setup correctly.

IIS 8.0 Server Name Indication (SNI): SSL Scalability

Michael Mastro II 56 Reputation points

2022-03-02T13:12:48.263+00:00

I have the bindings set correctly and DNS points to the same machine for www and api with CNAME records.

So I am not sure that is the problem. When I browse to the site:

Answer 2

AgaveJoe 30,126

The setting shows a domain (host name) is not configured as recommended. Typically each site has a domain. If you are hosting one site with multiple virtual directories then I assume you did not take this requirement into account when developing the applications. I'm guessing the css and js references are not pointing to the site's virtual directory or the files are missing entirely.

The first step is verifying the files exist on the server in the expected directory. Next, review the URL causing the 404 and compare the URL to the expected virtual directory URL.

Michael Mastro II 56

So for the site I grabbed the photo of I should have www.domainname.com? And for the other site I should have api.domainname.com:444?

I looked in the file directory. For each the E;\Main and E:\Api there is a wwwroot folder and in those folders are the css, js, and lib folders.

I thought I took into account everything in the programs as my program.cs for each of them is:

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        CreateHostBuilder(args).Build().Run();
    }

    public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
        Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
            .ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) => {
                config.Sources.Clear();

                var env = hostingContext.HostingEnvironment;

                config.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)
                .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.{env.EnvironmentName}.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true);

                config.AddEnvironmentVariables();

                if (args != null)
                {
                    config.AddCommandLine(args);
                }
            })
            .UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
            .ConfigureWebHostDefaults(webBuilder =>
            {
                webBuilder.UseStartup<Startup>();
            });
}

It looks like everything is there as needed.

Answer 3

AgaveJoe 30,126

The configuration you shared does NOT have a host domain configured. Should we assume you have one domain??? My best guess is you created sub applications and the reference URLs do not match the actual resource location. Again, get the URL of the 404 error and verify it is correct. I suspect the URL is missing the application or virtual folder after the domain name but this is only a guess.

Michael Mastro II 56 Reputation points

2022-03-02T20:39:50.143+00:00

Correct the configuration I shared earlier did not have the host domain configured. I have made a change since.
Here is the sites as they show in IIS Manager, 3 sites, Default turned off.

I changed the bindings for Api and Main as such:
Api

Main

The URL in the network waterfall comes out as https://www.mrm2inc.com/js/site.min.js

and looking at this it could be very well possible I just figure out that my _Layout.cshtml is incorrect for the location. It might not have the tilde.

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IIS and Asp.net Core error 404 issues

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