Before getting in to ASP.NET 5 part, let’s get familiarize with below basic commands which will help you on your Linux boxes

Folder structure in Linux and its explanation

Steps to get ASP.NET 5 on Ubuntu

• Install DNVM
• Install DNX
• Install Libuv
• Install git
• Download ASP.NET Sample
• Run dnx web

Installing .NET Version Manager(DNVM)

• Install and unzip curl if you have not installed:

• Download and install DNVM:

 Once you run above command you should be able to run dnvm commands like “dnvm list”.

Installing .NET Execution Environment (DNX) for .NET Core

• Install DNX Pre-requisites:

• Install DNX for .NET Core using DNVM:

Installing Libuv

Libuv is a multi-platform asynchronous IO library that is used by Kestrel, a cross-platform HTTP server for hosting ASP.NET 5 web applications.

To build Libuv run the below commands one after the other:

Make sure libuv.so.1 is there under /usr/local/lib after you run above commands.

For now, we have .NET core setup and below steps will help you to download sample ASP.NET 5 application from Git

Install Git

Run below command to install git:

Download ASP.NET 5 Sample from Git

Run the below command to clone ASP.NET 5 application from git:

Run DNX Command

Navigate to the directory where the application is installed and in my above example it would have installed 3 applications “ConsoleApp”, “HelloMvc” and “HelloWeb”.

Run below command to execute the “ConsoleApp” application:

Note: In case you run into an issue where you get error as:

when you run “dnu restore” command then you need to check the permission on the application directory level. In my case I ran into this issue and ran below command at application directory level to give full permission.

Note: In my below example I have used some hard coded value for simplicity for viewer to follow and can be changed based on the need.

Step 1: Download Tomcat 8

Go to the URL https://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi and download the zipped package to any of your choice directory, let’s say “C:\JavaSample\bin”.

Once you download the zip file, you can extract into the same location “C:\JavaSample\bin\apache-tomcat-8.0.28\apache-tomcat-8.0.28" which I would refer this as my Tomcat Installation directory called as “TOMCAT_HOME” or CATALINA_HOME.

Catalina is codename for Tomcat 5 and above.

Step 2: Download and Install Java Development Kit

Go to URL https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html and download Java development kit 8 for windows based on the bitness of the machine.

Step 3: Creating Environmental Variables for Windows

• Create an Environmental Variable called CATALINA_HOME with value as your Tomcat installation directory. In my example I have created a server variable CATALINA_HOME= C:\JavaSample\bin\apache-tomcat-8.0.28\apache-tomcat-8.0.28.
  To confirm open command prompt and check if it has been set correctly.

• Take a note of location where your Java Development(JDK) is installed and create a environmental variable called “JAVA_HOME” and set the value to the JDK installed directory. In my example I have set JAVA_HOME=”C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65".
  To confirm open command prompt and check if it has been set correctly.

Step 3: Configure Apache Tomcat Server

There are few configuration changes required to setup Tomcat server and in our case we will be changing below files under %CATALINA_HOME%\Conf:

1. Server.xml
2. Web.xml
3. Context.xml

Open server.xml under %CATALINA_HOME%\conf and change the settings as high lightened in yellow:

Open web.xml under %CATALINA_HOME%\conf and change the settings as high lightened in yellow:

Open context.xml under %CATALINA_HOME%\conf and change the settings as high lightened in yellow:

Step 4: Deploy a Java Servlet

In my case, I have used one of the open source Java Servlet and download the code from https://pebble.sourceforge.net/ and copy the pebble.war from the source code to %CATALINA_HOME%\webapps

Step 5: Configure IIS

• Install the HttpPlatformHandler – WebPI/x86/x64.
• Create a website and complete the site as below settings:

• Create a web.config under your website folder which is c:\JavaSample\web.config and add the httpPlatformHandler configuration as below.

Now open a browser and browse  https://localhost which should show the default Tomcat server's welcome page and then browse https://localhost/pebble which should show the website which is deployed under webapps which is served from Tomcat server.

References:

https://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/howto/Tomcat_HowTo.html

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-release-of-the-httpplatformhandler-module-for-iis-8/

Note: In my below example I have used some hard coded value for simplicity for viewer to follow and can be changed based on the need.

Step 1: Download Tomcat 8

Go to the URL https://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi and download the zipped package to any of your choice directory, let’s say “C:\JavaSample\bin”.

Once you download the zip file, you can extract into the same location “C:\ JavaSample\bin\apache-tomcat-8.0.28\apache-tomcat-8.0.28" which I would refer this as my Tomcat Installation directory called as “TOMCAT_HOME” or CATALINA_HOME.

Catalina is codename for Tomcat 5 and above.

Step 2: Download and Install Java Development Kit

Go to URL https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html and download Java development kit 8 for windows based on the bitness of the machine.

Step 3: Creating Environmental Variables for Windows

• Create an Environmental Variable called CATALINA_HOME with value as your Tomcat installation directory. In my example I have created a server variable CATALINA_HOME= C:\JavaSample\bin\apache-tomcat-8.0.28\apache-tomcat-8.0.28.
  To confirm open command prompt and check if it has been set correctly.

             

• Take a note of location where your Java Development(JDK) is installed and create an environmental variable called “JAVA_HOME” and set the value to the JDK installed directory. In my example I have set JAVA_HOME=”C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65".
  To confirm open command prompt and check if it has been set correctly.

Step 3: Configure Apache Tomcat Server

There are few configuration changes required to setup Tomcat server and in our case we will be changing below files under %CATALINA_HOME%\Conf:

1. Server.xml
2. Web.xml
3. Context.xml

Open server.xml under %CATALINA_HOME%\conf and change the settings as high lightened in yellow:

Open web.xml under %CATALINA_HOME%\conf and change the settings as high lightened in yellow:

Open context.xml under %CATALINA_HOME%\conf and change the settings as high lightened in yellow:

Step 4: Deploy a Java Servlet

In my case, I have used one of the open source Java Servlet and download the code from https://pebble.sourceforge.net/ and copy the pebble.war from the source code to %CATALINA_HOME%\webapps.

Step 5: Start the Tomcat Server

Launch the command prompt in admin mode and navigate to %CATALINA_HOME%\Bin folder and run below command:

Now open a browser and browse  https://localhost:9999 which should show the default Tomcat server's welcome page and then browse https://localhost:9999/pebble which should show the website which is deployed under webapps.

You can shut down the Tomcat server by running below command from command prompt by navigating to %CATALINA_HOME%\Bin

References:

https://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/howto/Tomcat_HowTo.html

Refer: Previous article to get to know bit fundamentals of .NET Core 5

Step 1: Install DNVM using powershell command

Open command prompt in admin mode and run the following:

Step 2: Install the requested DNX version from the feed

In my below example runtime coreclr of version 1.0.0-rc1-final

Step 3: List the DNX version installed

dnvm list

This should show the DNX version installed and active one selected.

Step 4: Write to Console App to display “Hello World”

Here is simple code to display “Hello World”, you can copy paste below code into Program.cs file under your application directory.

Step 5: Create a project.json file

We need to have a project.json file to retrieve the dependencies and configuring the references/dependencies for the project. It also determines the runtime which can execute the project.

Copy the below code into project.json file under your application directory.

Step 6: Run the .NET Utilities command

.NET utilities(DNU) manages the required packages to run an application and dependencies by installing and restoring the packages for the respective project files.

From the same command prompt windows where we ran the list command, navigate to the application directory folder and run below commands: 

Now run your application by running below command: 

 This would display “Hello World” in your window.

To understand .NET Core 5 we should be familiar with below terms:

• DNVM – .NET Version Manager is a command line tool to configure .NET runtime.
• DNU – .NET Utilities is a command line utility to install and manage library packages.
• DNX – .NET Execution Environment is a runtime which includes components to run .NET applications for Windows, Mac and Linux. 

.NET Core 5 cool features:

• .NET Core 5 supports cross-platform development on Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Ability to host on IIS or self-host in your own process.
• We do not have any web.config/app.config settings for ASP.NET applications.
• There is no packages.config.
• There is no global.asax.
• We have project.json, which contains your project metadata, project dependencies and which framework you want the build to run.
• There is no System.Web.DLL.
• .NET Core 5 is open source and available in GitHub.
• .NET Core 5 is available entirely as NuGet packages. 

 Once you run the above command then you should be able to run “dnvm list” command, however the output would return no result for now.

•  DNVM command to install DNX for .NET Core:

            dnvm upgrade -r coreclr

•  DNVM Command to install DNX for .NET Framework:

            dnvm upgrade -r clr

• DNVM command to install default DNX:

            dnvm upgrade

            By default, DNVM will install DNX for the full .NET Framework if no runtime is specified.

• DNVM Command For 64 bit:

            dnvm upgrade -a x64

• DNVM command to Install DNX for .NET Core:

            dnvm upgrade -a x64 -r coreclr
            dnvm upgrade -a x86 -r coreclr

• DNVM command to install specific version of DNX:

            dnvm install -a x86 -r coreclr 1.0.0-rc1-final

• DNVM command to list the DNX versions installed:

            dnvm list

            Example of how it looks

In above screen shot Active columns shows which version is picked by DNX.

• DNVM command to change the runtime version to any specific version and architecture:

            dnvm use -a x64 -r coreclr 1.0.0-rc1-final

• DNVM command to display the named alias:

            dnvm alias <alias>

• DNVM command to set alias to specific version:

          dnvm alias <alias> -a x64 -r coreclr 1.0.0-rc1-final              

DNU- .NET Utilities

DNU is a part of DNX SDK which manages the required packages to run an application and dependencies by installing and restoring the packages for the respective project files. For simplicity we can say it’s similar to command line package manager in Visual Studio.

Project.Json

.NET Core 5 application contains project.json file where DNU reads this file to retrieve the dependencies and configuring the references/dependencies for the project. It also determines the runtime which can execute the project.

Basically DNU reads the project.json, retrieves and installs the relevant packages to build the project. This runtime which is executed by DNX is based on the commands specified in project.json with the selected version of DNX set by DNVM.

Using all the above command let’s see how to create a “Hello World” using .NET Core console application without Visual Studio in next article.

I had a customer where he had IIS Dynamic compression enabled with outbound URL rewriting and we used to get 500.52 error when browsing the application.

We identified that we cannot have outbound rule working with dynamic compression enabled by default IIS settings.

The work around for Dynamic compression and outbound URL rewrite to work together is as below:

• Adding LogRewrittenUrlEnabled registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp\Rewrite to 0 or by running below command line: “reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp\Rewrite /v LogRewrittenUrlEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0”
• Set the dynamicCompressionBeforeCache property to false for /system.webServer/urlCompression configuration element. Can be done from adding in web.config as below

<urlCompression doStaticCompression=”false” doDynamicCompression=”true” dynamicCompressionBeforeCache=”false” />

                                        OR

By running the below command from command prompt

appcmd.exe set config "WEBSITENAME" -section:system.webServer/urlCompression /dynamicCompressionBeforeCache:"False"

• Re-arrange the IIS modules to have URL Rewrite module (RewriteModule) to run before Dynamic Compression module (DynamicCompressionModule). In IIS manager under Modules section, click on View ordered List and make sure that DynamicCompressionModule is above RewriteModule.
• Restart IIS.

We had another scenario where my application pool was running under 32 bit on a 64 bit machine i.e. Enable 32-Bit Applications was set to true for my application pool setting and after running process monitor found out that LogRewrittenUrlEnabled registry key was expected in below location.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432node\Microsoft\Inetstp\Rewrite.

Workaround for Dynamic compression and outbound URL rewrite to work together for a 32-bit enabled application on a 64 bit machine is to have:

• Adding LogRewrittenUrlEnabled registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432node\Microsoft\Inetstp\Rewrite to 0 or by running below command line: “reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432node\Microsoft\Inetstp\Rewrite /v LogRewrittenUrlEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0”
• Set the dynamicCompressionBeforeCache property to false for /system.webServer/urlCompression configuration element. Can be done from adding in web.config as below

<urlCompression doStaticCompression=”false” doDynamicCompression=”true” dynamicCompressionBeforeCache=”false” />

                                       OR

By running the below command from command prompt

appcmd.exe set config "WEBSITENAME" -section:system.webServer/urlCompression /dynamicCompressionBeforeCache:"False"

• Re-arrange the IIS modules to have URL Rewrite module (RewriteModule) to run before Dynamic Compression module (DynamicCompressionModule). In IIS manager under Modules section, click on View ordered List and make sure that DynamicCompressionModule is above RewriteModule.
• Restart IIS.