ASP.NET Hosting Tutorial – How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS

Best Cheap ASP.NET Hosting | ASP.NET 5 which has renamed to ASP.NET Core 1.0 has been an outstanding framework for web development, more and more people are looking at production deployments and other real life use cases of it. If you’re thinking about hosting it on Windows environment, most likely means IIS, we have documented and highlighted some of the steps, which hopefully will save a bit of your time. Yes, in this article, we will tell you how to make ASP.NET 5 works on IIS.

How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS

How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS

Step 1 – Adjust Your Application

In order to be able to run on IIS, your application needs to include Microsoft.AspNet.IISPlatformHandler package. There is currently an 1.0.0-rc1-final version available which should be added as a dependency to your project.json. You should then add the platform handler middleware to the Configure method in your Startup class:

If you are using the latest (RC1) ASP.NET 5 templates, then the ASP.NET 5 Web Application template already references the Microsoft.AspNet.IISPlatformHandler package and even has the above line of code in the Startup class by default.

Step 2 – Publish Your Application

First of all you need to publish your application. If you are really old school, you may want to do it from Visual Studio and its classic “Publish” dialog, but it will not do anything magical – all it will do is just call into the command line dnu tool. So instead, you can call it yourself from the folder of your web application (you can also pass the path to the web application project if you wanna invoke dnu from anywhere) and save yourself a hassle of even opening Visual Studio (or maybe you are on a Unix and you don’t even have it).

This command will publish your project and include the currently active runtime. You can obviously include a specific runtime too if that’s your intention, by passign its name. The publish command has plenty of other options such as for example specifying the source inclusion or the out path.

DNU Publish Help

Usage:

Arguments:
Options:

o|out <PATH> Where does it go
configuration <CONFIGURATION>The configuration to use for deployment (Debug|Release|{Custom})
nosource Compiles the source files into NuGet packages
framework  Name of the frameworks to include.
 iiscommand Overrides the command name to use in the web.config for the httpPlatformHandler. The default is web.
runtime <RUNTIME>  Name or full path of the runtime folder to include, or “active” for current runtime on PATH
 nativeBuild and include native images. User must provide targeted CoreCLR runtime versions along with this option.
includesymbolsInclude symbols in output bundle
wwwroot <NAME>   Name of public folder in the project directory
wwwrootout <NAME>Name of public folder in the output, can be used only when the ‘–wwwroot’ option or ‘webroot’ in project.json is specified
quiet  Do not show output such as source/destination of published files
?|h|helpShow help information

By default, the output path is bin/output in the same folder as your web application. The output can be xcopied to the server just like that. The published source should have the following structure:

How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS 1

Inside the approot folder there will be a web.cmd file which can be used to start your app. You can also start it by simply getting into wwwroot and calling dnx web. Of course IIS knows nothing about all this, so you’ll need some extra IIS setup to make it understand the external DNX process.

Step 3 – Setting Up IIS

The prerequisite in IIS is that the HttpPlatformHandler module needs to be installed (minimum version 1.2). This component is nothing ASP.NET 5 specific – it simply allows process management for external processes that listen for HTTP requests and proxies requests into it; in this case it will be dnx.exe but it might as well be something like node.exe. You can install the latest handler using direct installer or WebPI from IIS download site here.

Once you have published your ASP.NET 5 app (previous step), you can proceed to setting up IIS.

1. Create a new application, and set the .NET CLR version on application pool to No managed code. We’ll be calling into dnx.exe to start your application, rather relying on the classic w3wp process.

2. Point your website to the wwwroot folder inside your publish output (previous step) location – or wherever you copied it to. If you run the application pool using the application pool identity, you have to make sure that IIS_IUSRS has access to your publish folder.

If you navigate to your site now and everything just works, then great. You can stop reading this post as your job is done, but at this point, chances are things will not be working yet. That wwwroot has a web.config file inside which should at this point look like this:

You may want to set that stdoutLogEnabled=“false” to true immediately cause you’d want to get the errors, normally written to stdout of a hidden process, to be redirected to the log file.

Step 4 – Resolving Issues

One possibility is that you see the following HTTP Error 500.19:

How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS 2

This is because at the global config level, the system.webServer/handlers section is locked. To unlock it, go to IIS Manager, select your server root in the left navigation tree, then choose “Configuration Editor” > type system.webServer/handlers in the section selection dropdown and press enter. Then choose “unlock section” from the right action pane.

How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS 3

Another (or next) potential issue that you may encounter, is that you see a blank page, that appears to be stuck loading forever. If that’s the case check the logs folder under the path defined in the web.config. Most likely possibility is that dnx command is not being recognized. The reason for this is that the user used to run the IIS process doesn’t have it in the PATH. To combat this, you can do a few things:

1. Change the application pool user to a one that has DNX on the PATH (i.e. your own user account)

2. Add the DNX environment variables as a system-wide variables:

  • DNX_HOME, should point to your DNX folder, for me it’s C:\Users\filip\.dnx
  • DNX_PACKAGES, should point to your DNX packages folder, for me it’s C:\Users\filip\.dnx\packages
  • DNX_PATH, should point to your DNVM cmd file, for me it’s C:\Users\filip\.dnx\bin\dnvm.cmd

If you choose this approach, you have to make sure that IIS_IUSRS has access to all the above folders too. Note that on IIS 10 you can also set environment variables specifically for the application pool.

3. Instead of using …\approot\web.cmd to start up your application, you can also hardcode a path to dnx in the processPath attribute of the httpPlatform inside web.config. If you do that, you also need to pass the web argument in the arguments attribute.

Finally, there might some other issues not mentioned here, that you can identify through the log file. For example, perhaps you provided a custom path to the dnx.exe but have not provided the arguments (“web”). This type of error would simply show up in the log as the usage help for dnx.

Step 5 – Running ASP.NET 5 on IIS 7.5, IIS 8 and IIS 10

Overall, we tried this process on IIS 7.5, IIS 8 and IIS 10 and at the end it ran successfully everywhere!

How To Make ASP.NET 5 Works on IIS 4

Best Cheap ASP.NET 5 Hosting Recommendation

While there are many programming languages out there for a web developer to choose from, one of the most successful programming language till this date is ASP.NET. It has matured over the years with the latest version, ASP.NET 5, having a number of new features and enhancements. You may already have heard that ASP.NET 5 hosting is offered by several web hosting providers. However, choosing the best cheap ASP.NET 5 hosting isn’t an easy task. In this article, we have listed the top 3 best cheap ASP.NET 5 hosting providers according to our hosting review experience.

Need Best Cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 Hosting? Check Out This Solution!

Best Cheap ASP.NET Hosting | Nowadays, there’s so many ASP.NET Content Management System (CMS) out there, without a clearly defined set of requirements, you will be seduced by fancy functionality that you will never use. If you are looking for a .NET-powered content management system that’s powerful enough for large and complex websites, but available for free, then Umbraco just might be what you are looking for. Umbraco is a very good CMS to build custom websites, perfect for marketing, institutions, intranet, multi-sites, custom websites. Umbraco has been designed to make you as productive as possible.  Now, Umbraco 7.4.1 comes with a few high priority issues fixing on the 7.4.0 release. Many hosting provider try to support Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting. With the purpose to select the best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting provider, we have tested and reviewed over +30 web hosting companies. Here in this post we have come up with the best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting providers, aiming to help customers choose best hosting solution among hundreds of companies.

Best Cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 Hosting

Tips for Choosing The Best Cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 Hosting

PriceRecommended SpecsReliabilityTechnical SupportSecurity
Since Umbraco runs on SQL server primarily using ASP.NET and C#, the hosting pricing is not as low as other CMS using MySQL and PHP script. Don’t put a heavy emphasis on price. Sure it’s nice to get the best deal, but check out the company first. Are they established enough to support their claim? Often times, companies use price to lure you in and forget to mention all of the limitations of their plans. Also choose the company who gives you the period of money back guarantee.
Built on the .NET framework with ASP.NET and C#, Umbraco supports .NET Custom Control and .NET User Controls with very little change. Therefore, the best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting should include minimum ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET MVC 2.0 in their package. And for the database, MSSQL is preffered, it’s because Umbraco uses a Microsoft-based infrastructure. 
It’s not absurd to expect the best uptime, speed and stability from shared servers. This should be the standard across the board. The best way to ensure that you are getting the best is by monitoring your site’s uptime and response time using an uptime monitor.
An Umbraco-friendly web host should have good knowledge on Umbraco to help on trouble shooting when their customers have issues related to their websites. It’s painful to work with a web host knowing nothing about it.
Shared Servers are more risky to operate because the server is shared with multiple accounts. A hacked server can corrupt all sites on it (worst case scenario). Usually this doesn’t happen, and companies can usually retrieve data that is lost or fix damaged databases (consider dedicated servers).

Top 3 Best Cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 Hosting

Because a web host can actually be the difference in the success or failure of your website, choosing the right Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting is very important. Of course, you have many web hosting companies to choose from that support Umbraco, but not all of them are created equal. Most web hosts support Umbraco, but performance is often the primary problem because it requires higher server resources. The best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting below are the top 3 web hosts who provide their customers with feature-rich hosting solution, and outperform its competitors on price value, server performance, uptime and customer support. We have listed the details of each company in this following table:

logo_hflukwindowshostlogo-asphostportal
Unlimited Domain50 FREE Domain1 FREE Domain
Unlimited Bandwidth50 GB Bandwidth60 GB Bandwidth
Unlimited Disk Spaces5 GB Disk Spaces5 GB Disk Spaces
50 MB MSSQL Spaces200 MB MSSQL Spaces200 MB MSSQL Spaces
Latest MSSQLLatest MSSQLLatest MSSQL
Latest MySQLLatest MySQLLatest MySQL
100 MB MySQL Spaces200 MB MySQL Spaces200 MB MySQL Spaces
200 MB Email Spaces500 MB Email Spaces200 MB Email Spaces
Support IIS 7/8/8.5Support IIS 7/8/8.5Support IIS 7/8/8.5
More Details More Details More Details

HostForLIFE.eu

HostForLIFE.eu provides customers with the best and cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting solution that is easy to setup and manage from anywhere in the world. To achieve this they developed their proprietary provisioning software that is on the leading edge of innovation in the Web hosting industry. Beginners and experienced users will enjoy easy-to-use administration tools to manage their Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting including domain name, database and email services in real-time. They are marked as #1 Microsoft Recommendation for Windows and ASP.NET hosting in European Continent. HostForLIFE.eu also have one of world best customer support team to help you out when you meet any hosting issue. Their success is a direct result of their innovations and dedication to providing reliable web hosting services and dependable support. They provide the best and cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting only for €3.00/month with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, and complete features.

  • High performance web hosting optimized.
  • Unlimited domain, unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth.
  • Support ASP.NET & MSSQL database all versions.
  • Easy to backup and restore your data.
  • 24/7 very helpful & friendly customer support via email & ticket.
  • European data center.


UKWindowsHostASP.NET

UKWindowsHostASP.NET is another good choice for best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting in UK. They offer 4 main hosting packages with affordable prices: Starter and Economy charging £3.00/month and £5.50/months aims to fulfill your common need for a website. UKWindowsHostASP.NET fully supports Umbraco 7.4.1, and it can run side by side with the more recent ASP.NET applications. This company supported by dual quad-core Dell branded servers is able to guarantee at least 99.9% uptime and fast the response time. Their best and cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting enables you to enjoy 24/7/365 UK-based support and have more than 310 free applications.

  • Support all version of ASP.NET & ASP.NET MVC.
  • Wide variety of hosting plans to suit your websites of any size.
  • High performance with an impressive amount of features.
  • Support MSSQL 2008 and above.
  • Great choice for small business and enterprise.
  • Europe and USA data center.


ASPHostPortal.com

ASPHostPortal.com is another best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting provider that has been in this field for almost a decade. In terms of features, their hosting is perfect, offering everything needed such as the large amount of disk space and bandwidth, multiple parked domains and sub-domains, unlimited email account and many more. Their best cheap Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting plan is starting at $5.00/month. In addition, their MSSQL has been well optimized and can be access very fast, which really make your Umbraco 7.4.1 website run smoothly in it.

  • Affordable Umbraco 7.4.1 hosting that is fast, reliable, & amazing.
  • Provide huge bandwidth and disk space.
  • Best value for personal, small business owners & entrepreneurs.
  • Support the latest PHP, MSSQL, MySQL database version.
  • Advanced security features & monitoring to protect your ASP.NET apps.
  • World class data center.

Who Has The Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting?

Best Cheap ASP.NET Hosting | ASP.NET is a good ‘brand’ that’s been around for 15 years or so. However, naming the new, completely written from scratch ASP.NET framework “ASP.NET 5″ was a bad idea for a one major reason:  the current thought is that calling the frameworks ASP.NET 5.0  gives the false illusion that they are somehow bigger than ASP.NET 4.6, it seem like ASP.NET 5 is bigger, better, and replaces ASP.NET 4.6 when in fact they are smaller. So, Microsoft team decided to rename ASP.NET 5.0 into ASP.NET Core 1.0. ASP.NET Core is a brand new platform that has been rebuilt from the ground up – all the way to the core .NET platform libraries – to provide a leaner and cross platform implementation on what was ASP.NET. The whole .NET Core 1.0 concept is new. Not only that, but .NET Core isn’t as complete as the full .NET Framework 4.6. Due to the changing of this framework, many hosting provider try to support ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting. However, choosing the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting has a few challenges. Therefore, here in this post we have come up with the following hosting provider who has the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting.

Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting

Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting Consideration

Because of its newest major changes, there are very few good ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting. Most of web hosts could only provide very basic ASP.NET hosting solution, which is either lack of key features like IIS full trust level, or the version of Microsoft technology are out of date. So, to help people find the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting in at an affordable price, we take below factors into consideration:

  • Microsoft Golden Partner
  • Full Trust Level in IIS
  • 3+ Years in offering ASP.NET Hosting
  • Good reputation in web hosting industry
  • Latest versions of Windows Server: Windows Server 2012
  • Have ASP.NET Core 1.0 installed and fully support the framework
  • Support MSSQL 2012/2014 as database
  • Offer ASP.NET friendly custom support
  • Comes with affordable price

Who is The Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting in Europe?

After we reviewed 30+ ASP.NET hosting companies in Europe that support ASP.NET hosting, we highly recommend you to host on HostForLIFE.eu. They provide high quality hosting with best technical support.

HostForLIFE.eu is a web hosting provider known for its professional ASP.NET hosting plans ranging from shared web hosting to dedicated server hosting that can meet the demands of nearly all-sized businesses. Over the past 8 years since its reception, HostForLIFE.eu has gained respect from both the developer and business communities. They always keep up-to-date to the latest and the most current .NET framework and .NET application that are available on the market. It makes HostForLIFE.eu becomes Microsoft No #1 Recommended Windows and ASP.NET Hosting in European Continent.

Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting with Low Pricing

Among the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting providers, HostForLIFE.eu hosting solution is much cheaper than other competitor’s ones. Customers just need to pay from €3.00/month to enjoy their best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting with unlimited domain, unlimited bandwidth and disk spaces. For another three plans, the reguler prices are €5.50/month, €8.00/month and €11.00/month. In addition, another good aspect to go with HostForLIFE.eu is 30-days money back guarantee there. When people cancel their accounts within that period, they will absolutely take their money full back.

Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting with Stunning Features

The reason for us to choose HostForLIFE.eu web solutions as the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting provider is the company always offers much more powerful and rich-featured web hosting to clients at affordable prices. Here are some of stunning features that are offered by HostForLIFE.eu’s best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting package:

Screenshot 2015-10-05 11.08.46

Other Supported Features from HostForLIFE.eu:

Screenshot 2015-10-05 11.11.05

Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting with High Performance

HostForLIFE.eu’s ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting environment is also great, coming with world class data centers and high-end servers, managed by technicians 24 hours a day. Their servers are located in the 9 prestiguous cities across the globe, full of power no matter what happens. Uninterrupted Power Supply system, backup generators and gel battery power banks all support the datacenter. Furthermore, Room Air Conditioning Systems are another supplement for stable ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting.

Additionally, what HostForLIFE.eu employ to store customer’s data are all Dell servers. It has higher performance for hosting: faster operation speed, maximum stability and privacy protection. What’s more, automated backup, safety locks as well as 24/7 real human monitoring secure sites all the time. HostForLIFE.eu is reliable by their scalable network, servers and high technology.

Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting with Great Technical Support

A good web host must be going with excellent after-sale service, and that is exactly what HostForLIFE.eu is working on. ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting is more complicated than PHP based hosting. So, use-friendly support is essential while HostForLIFE.eu has online live chat, contact form and ticket support for customers whenever they come up with questions. What’s more, their customer technicians are well-trained for solving ASP.NET Core 1.0 questions efficiently and patiently. Beyond that, online knowledgebase with search functionality and category is easy to use to find solutions. These support resources are informative and frequently up to dated as well.

HostForLIFE.eu is The Best Cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 Hosting Provider

To sum up, HostForLIFE.eu has the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting in the industry. Most importantly, this best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting provider is top one as well, along with latest Microsoft technology, rich features, excellent performance and use-friendly technical support. Therefore, HostForLIFE is the best cheap ASP.NET Core 1.0 hosting provider for people with limited budget.