MSDeploy fails with "an existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"

Question

The following MSDeploy string supplied to the command line results in an error. Can anyone shed any light on this?

"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\\msdeploy.exe" -source:package='D:\dev\Project\obj\BuildConfiguration\Package\Project.zip' -dest:auto='Website Name',computerName='computername',userName='username',password='password' -verb:sync -enableRule:DoNotDeleteRule -allowUntrusted -debug

Stack trace:

Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentAgentUnavailableException: Could not complete the request to remote agent URL 'http://computername/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE'.
---> System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive. ---> System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)   
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---    at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)    at System.Net.PooledStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)    at System.Net.Connection.SyncRead(HttpWebRequest request, Boolean userRetrievedStream, Boolean probeRead)    --- End of inner exception stack trace ---    at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse() at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.AgentClientProvider.GetHttpResponse(HttpWebRequest request)    --- End of inner exception stack trace ---    at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.AgentClientProvider.GetHttpResponse(HttpWebRequest request)    at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.AgentClientProvider.CreateStatusThread(DeploymentSyncContext syncContext)    at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.AgentClientProvider.RemoteDestSync(DeploymentObject sourceObject, DeploymentSyncContext syncContext)    at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentObject.SyncToInternal(DeploymentObject destObject, DeploymentSyncOptions syncOptions, PayloadTable payloadTable, ContentRootTable contentRootTable)    at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentObject.SyncTo(DeploymentProviderOptions providerOptions, DeploymentBaseOptions baseOptions, DeploymentSyncOptions syncOptions)    at MSDeploy.MSDeploy.ExecuteWorker() Error count: 1.

Answer 1

The cause was a mixture of things - an internal DNS resolution issue, meant the hostname was resolving to the wrong IP, plus we have to use IIS6, and I believe there to be a problem with the hosting of the http agent required for msdeploy on the same port as existing websites.

The resolution was to specify the IP expicitly, and re-install the deployment service (WebDeploy) from the command line, specifying a custom endpoint to avoid the IIS conflict.

My working incantation:

"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\msdeploy.exe" -verb:sync -source:package=D:\Path\obj\Configuration\Package\Project.zip -dest:auto,computerName='http://192.168.x.xxx:8090/MsDeployAgentService2/' -allowUntrusted  -setParam:"IIS Web Application Name"="Website Name In IIS"