Asp.net-core – How to resolve Internal Server Error 500 on .Net Core 2.1.1 on IIS 8.5

I've read many similar issues but none of the resolutions solved my problem. So, here is my case.

I have a NET Core 2.1.1 app that runs beautifully within VS2017 and when published to my desktop running Win10 Pro and IIS10, i.e. running it outside of VS2017. But, when I deploy the app to a remote server Win2012 R2 with IIS8.5, I get the following issues with it.

I have followed different pages on deploying net core apps like this one.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/iis/index?view=aspnetcore-2.1

1. When attempting to reach the site I get error 500 Internal Server Error.

2. IIS manager complains about the generated web.config when clicking on any of the site's settings e.g. Net authorization, Net Error pages etc…

3. Even when setting the stdoutLogEnabled to true, I don't get any log files. I even tried adding custom details flags in the web.config yet still nothing changed.

This is the generated web.config, and I hope someone points me in the right direction.

Thanks.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false">
    <system.webServer>
      <handlers>
        <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />
      </handlers>
      <aspNetCore processPath="dotnet" arguments=".\eSignWebMVC.dll" stdoutLogEnabled="false" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" />
    </system.webServer>
  </location>
</configuration>
<!--ProjectGuid: 72897161-bbbb-4f20-a12c-7f33922ea6bc-->