Publish an ASP.NET Core app to IIS

This tutorial shows how to host an ASP.NET Core app on an IIS server.

This tutorial covers the following subjects:

• Install the .NET Core Hosting Bundle on Windows Server.
• Create an IIS site in IIS Manager.
• Deploy an ASP.NET Core app.

Prerequisites

• .NET Core SDK installed on the development machine.
• Windows Server configured with the Web Server (IIS) server role. If your server isn't configured to host websites with IIS, follow the guidance in the IIS configuration section of the Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS article and then return to this tutorial.

אזהרה

IIS configuration and website security involve concepts that aren't covered by this tutorial. Consult the IIS guidance in the Microsoft IIS documentation and the ASP.NET Core article on hosting with IIS before hosting production apps on IIS.

Important scenarios for IIS hosting not covered by this tutorial include:

• Creation of a registry hive for ASP.NET Core Data Protection
• Configuration of the app pool's Access Control List (ACL)
• To focus on IIS deployment concepts, this tutorial deploys an app without HTTPS security configured in IIS. For more information on hosting an app enabled for HTTPS protocol, see the security topics in the Additional resources section of this article. Further guidance for hosting ASP.NET Core apps is provided in the Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS article.

Install the .NET Core Hosting Bundle

Install the .NET Core Hosting Bundle on the IIS server. The bundle installs the .NET Core Runtime, .NET Core Library, and the ASP.NET Core Module. The module allows ASP.NET Core apps to run behind IIS.

Download the installer using the following link:

Current .NET Core Hosting Bundle installer (direct download)

1. Run the installer on the IIS server.

2. Restart the server or execute net stop was /y followed by net start w3svc in a command shell.

Create the IIS site

1. On the IIS server, create a folder to contain the app's published folders and files. In a following step, the folder's path is provided to IIS as the physical path to the app. For more information on an app's deployment folder and file layout, see ASP.NET Core directory structure.

2. In IIS Manager, open the server's node in the Connections panel. Right-click the Sites folder. Select Add Website from the contextual menu.

3. Provide a Site name and set the Physical path to the app's deployment folder that you created. Provide the Binding configuration and create the website by selecting OK.

   אזהרה

   Top-level wildcard bindings (http://*:80/ and http://+:80) should not be used. Top-level wildcard bindings can open up your app to security vulnerabilities. This applies to both strong and weak wildcards. Use explicit host names rather than wildcards. Subdomain wildcard binding (for example, *.mysub.com) doesn't have this security risk if you control the entire parent domain (as opposed to *.com, which is vulnerable). See RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics (Section 7.2. Host and :authority) for more information.

4. Confirm the process model identity has the proper permissions.

   If the default identity of the app pool (Process Model > Identity) is changed from ApplicationPoolIdentity to another identity, verify that the new identity has the required permissions to access the app's folder, database, and other required resources. For example, the app pool requires read and write access to folders where the app reads and writes files.

Create an ASP.NET Core Razor Pages app

Follow the Get started with ASP.NET Core tutorial to create a Razor Pages app.

Publish and deploy the app

Publish an app means to produce a compiled app that can be hosted by a server. Deploy an app means to move the published app to a hosting system. The publish step is handled by the .NET Core SDK, while the deployment step can be handled by a variety of approaches. This tutorial adopts the folder deployment approach, where:

• The app is published to a folder.
• The folder's contents are moved to the IIS site's folder (the Physical path to the site in IIS Manager).

Visual Studio

1. Right-click on the project in Solution Explorer and select Publish.
2. In the Pick a publish target dialog, select the Folder publish option.
3. Set the Folder or File Share path.
   • If you created a folder for the IIS site that's available on the development machine as a network share, provide the path to the share. The current user must have write access to publish to the share.
   • If you're unable to deploy directly to the IIS site folder on the IIS server, publish to a folder on removable media and physically move the published app to the IIS site folder on the server, which is the site's Physical path in IIS Manager. Move the contents of the bin/Release/{TARGET FRAMEWORK}/publish folder to the IIS site folder on the server, which is the site's Physical path in IIS Manager.
4. Select the Publish button.

.NET CLI

1. In a command shell, publish the app in Release configuration with the dotnet publish command:

   .NET CLI

   dotnet publish --configuration Release
   

2. Move the contents of the bin/Release/{TARGET FRAMEWORK}/publish folder to the IIS site folder on the server, which is the site's Physical path in IIS Manager.

Visual Studio for Mac

1. Right-click on the project in Solution and select Publish > Publish to Folder.
2. Set the Choose a folder path.
   • If you created a folder for the IIS site that's available on the development machine as a network share, provide the path to the share. The current user must have write access to publish to the share.
   • If you're unable to deploy directly to the IIS site folder on the IIS server, publish to a folder on removeable media and physically move the published app to the IIS site folder on the server, which is the site's Physical path in IIS Manager. Move the contents of the bin/Release/{TARGET FRAMEWORK}/publish folder to the IIS site folder on the server, which is the site's Physical path in IIS Manager.
3. Select the Publish button.

Browse the website

The app is accessible in a browser after it receives the first request. Make a request to the app at the endpoint binding that you established in IIS Manager for the site.

Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned how to:

• Install the .NET Core Hosting Bundle on Windows Server.
• Create an IIS site in IIS Manager.
• Deploy an ASP.NET Core app.

To learn more about hosting ASP.NET Core apps on IIS, see the IIS Overview article:

Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS

Additional resources

Articles in the ASP.NET Core documentation set

• ASP.NET Core Module (ANCM) for IIS
• ASP.NET Core directory structure
• Troubleshoot ASP.NET Core on Azure App Service and IIS
• Enforce HTTPS in ASP.NET Core
• WebSockets on IIS

Articles pertaining to ASP.NET Core app deployment

• Publish an ASP.NET Core app to Azure with Visual Studio
• Publish an ASP.NET Core app to Azure with Visual Studio Code
• Visual Studio publish profiles (.pubxml) for ASP.NET Core app deployment

Articles on IIS HTTPS configuration

• Configuring SSL in IIS Manager
• How to Set Up SSL on IIS

Articles on IIS and Windows Server

• The Official Microsoft IIS Site
• Windows Server technical content library

Deployment resources for IIS administrators

• IIS documentation
• Getting Started with the IIS Manager in IIS
• .NET Core application deployment
• ASP.NET Core Module (ANCM) for IIS
• ASP.NET Core directory structure
• IIS modules with ASP.NET Core
• Troubleshoot ASP.NET Core on Azure App Service and IIS
• Common error troubleshooting for Azure App Service and IIS with ASP.NET Core
• Sticky sessions with Application Request Routing