Asp.net-core – How to update ASP.NET Core app over an existing/running site without stopping the web server

asp.net-coreiispublish-profiles

We have an ASP.NET Core site running on our test server that we would like to auto-deploy by XCopy to our IIS web server as we do our current apps, where I already have the site running. I've added a publish profile that packages the site to a "publish-local" directory within the solution. Whenever I try to copy over the existing site, all DLLs are being used by another process, presumably Kestrel, so I am forced to deploy to a sibling directory and re-map IIS to look at the sibling. How does one update a running ASP.NET Core site without having to manually intervene and stop either the Kestrel or IIS web servers?

Best Answer

When running with IIS you can drop a file called app_offline.htm (case sensitive) to your application folder. IIS will stop your application and will serve the contents of the app_offline.html file. Now you can copy your application. Once finished remove the app_offline.html and IIS will start your app. This is described in the docs and also in my post on running Asp.NET Core apps with IIS.

Related Solutions

C# – An ASP.NET setting has been detected that does not apply in Integrated managed pipeline mode

The 2^nd option is the one you want.

In your web.config, make sure these keys exist:

<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

C# – Which web server are you using in production for ASP.NET Core on a *nix server

Use Kestrel, it's the way going forward. Refer to this: Change to IIS hosting model.

Does this mean it will work with say, Apache?

Yes and indeed that's the recommended approach. However, never expose Kestrel to outside world directly. Always put it behind a web server like nginx, IIS, HAProxy or Apache. More about Kestrel:

Some examples of using those reverse proxies:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – An ASP.NET setting has been detected that does not apply in Integrated managed pipeline mode

C# – Which web server are you using in production for ASP.NET Core on a *nix server

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