Build ASP.Net Core Deploy Package on Linux

Question

I am trying to build a web deploy package on the .net core sdk docker image to be used to deploy to a windows server running iis (the deployment being done on a seperate windows vm). This is the command I am running (this can also be done via the publish UI in visual studio):

dotnet publish src/SpaceForce.sln -c release -o out -p:WebPublishMethod=Package;PackageAsSingleFile=True;DesktopBuildPackageLocation="../Package/SpaceForce.WebAPI.zip"

On Windows this produces a folder with the following files and then when i'm ready to deploy, i just run the cmd file:

SpaceForce.WebAPI.deploy.cmd
SpaceForce.WebAPI.deploy-readme.txt
SpaceForce.WebAPI.Parameters.xml
SpaceForce.WebAPI.SetParameters.xml
SpaceForce.WebAPI.SourceManifest.xml
SpaceForce.WebAPI.zip

but on Linux (.net core sdk docker image) it produces the following error:

/usr/share/dotnet/sdk/3.1.300/Sdks/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish/targets/PublishTargets/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish.MSDeployPackage.targets(97,5): error MSB6004: The specified task executable location "%ProgramW6432%/IIS/Microsoft Web Deploy V3/msdeploy.exe" is invalid. [/home/osboxes/src/spaceforce/src/SpaceForce.WebAPI/SpaceForce.WebAPI.csproj]

on this page, it has this note but i'm not sure if this applies in my case:

The dotnet msbuild command is a cross-platform command and can compile ASP.NET Core apps on macOS and Linux. However, MSBuild on macOS and Linux isn't capable of deploying an app to Azure or other MSDeploy endpoints.

If i can build on linux, i am happy to run the cmd file on a windows box for deployment. Is it possible to build this package on linux?

Answer 1

As you quoted, MSDeploy is a Windows-only thing. Using the WebPublishMethod switch tries to run "%ProgramW6432%/IIS/Microsoft Web Deploy V3/msdeploy.exe", which is obviously not present in the linux container.

To publish an app from a linux environment to an IIS server you have to publish the app without the WebDeploy specific features and then send the published files to the IIS server. On the server you configure an app with a set physical path and move the published files into that path.

To get the files from the docker image you have to create a temporary container and copy the files

# Dockerfile
RUN dotnet publish src/SpaceForce.sln -c Release -f netcoreapp3.1 -o /out

# bash script to get the publish dir from the image
imageId=$(docker create <IMAGE_NAME>)
docker cp $imageId:/out/ <HOST_DIR>
docker rm $imageId

This article should get you started.

Hope this helps a litte 🙂