Configuring Step 1: Install IIS and ASP.NET Modules

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by Keith Newman and Robert McMurray

The first step in building an ASP.NET website on IIS 8 is to install IIS along with the ASP.NET modules. Then add your ASP.NET application files to IIS.

When you are done, make sure that IIS and the ASP.NET modules are installed, and your ASP.NET application has been added to your website. Then go on to Step 2: Configure ASP.NET Settings.

Installing IIS and ASP.NET Modules

This section describes how to install IIS and the modules that support ASP.NET applications in any of the following ways:

  • Install IIS on Windows Server® 2012 using the IIS Manager UI.
  • Install IIS on Windows® 8 using the IIS Manager UI.
  • Install IIS using the command line.

Important

To install IIS on either Windows Server 2012 or Windows 8, you must sign on as a member of the Administrators group.

If you support web applications written using ASP.NET 2 to 3.5, install .NET 3.5 before installing IIS and ASP.NET modules.

To install .NET 3.5 on Windows Server 2012 or Windows 8

  1. On the Start screen, right-click the Command Prompt tile, and then click Run as administrator.
  2. At the command prompt, type the following: dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:netfx3
  3. Wait for the command to complete. It could take several minutes.
  4. Close the command prompt window.

To install IIS and ASP.NET modules on Windows Server 2012 using the UI

  1. On the Start page, click the Server Manager tile, and then click OK.

  2. In Server Manager, select Dashboard, and click Add roles and features.

  3. In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Before you begin page, click Next.

  4. On the Select installation type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation, and click Next.

  5. On the Select destination server page, select Select a server from the server pool, select your server, and click Next.

  6. On the Select server roles page, select Web Server (IIS), and click Next.

  7. On the Select features page, click Next.

  8. On the Web Server Role (IIS) page, click Next.

  9. On the Select role services page, note the preselected role services that are installed by default, expand the Application Development node, and then select ASP.NET 4.5. (If you installed .NET 3.5, select ASP.NET 3.5 also.)

  10. On the Summary of Features to Install page, confirm your selections, and then click Install.

  11. In the Add features that are required for ASP.NET 4.5? box, click Add Features. The following additional features are added:

    • .NET Extensibility 4.5
    • ISAPI Extensions
    • ISAPI Filters
    • .NET Extensibility 3.5 (If ASP.NET 3.5 was selected)

  12. Click Next.

  13. On the Confirm installation selections page, click Install.

  14. On the Installation progress page, confirm that your installation of the Web Server (IIS) role and required role services completed successfully, and then click Close.

  15. To verify that IIS installed successfully, type the following into a web browser:

    http://localhost

    The default IIS Welcome page is displayed.

To install IIS and ASP.NET modules on Windows 8 by using the UI

  1. On the Start page, click the Control Panel tile.

  2. In Control Panel, click Programs, and then click Turn Windows features on or off.

  3. In the Windows Features dialog box, click Internet Information Services to install the default features.

  4. Expand the Application Development Features node and click ASP.NET 4.5 to add the features that support ASP.NET. (If you installed .NET 3.5, select ASP.NET 3.5 also.) The following additional features are automatically selected:

    • .NET Extensibility 4.5
    • ISAPI Extensions
    • ISAPI Filters
    • .NET Extensibility 3.5 (If ASP.NET 3.5 was selected)

  5. Click OK to close the Windows Features dialog box.

  6. To verify that IIS installed successfully, type the following into a web browser:

    http://localhost

    The default IIS Welcome page is displayed.

To install IIS and ASP.NET modules by using the command line

Type the following command at a Command Prompt or into a script:

Start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-Security;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

Adding the ASP.NET Application

This section describes how to add your ASP.NET application to your website in the following ways:

  • Adding an ASP.NET Application with the IIS Manager UI
  • Adding an ASP.NET application with the command line

In Plan an ASP.NET Website on IIS, you made the following decisions:

  • Alias string that becomes part of the application root URL.
  • Application pool to run the application in.
  • Physical path to the application files on the server.

To add an ASP.NET application by using the UI

  1. Open IIS Manager.

    • For Windows Server 2012, on the Start page click the Server Manager tile, and then click OK. In Server Manager, click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
    • For Windows 8, on the Start page type Control Panel, and then click the Control Panel icon in the search results. On the Control Panel screen, click System and Security, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

  2. In the Connections pane, expand the Sites node.

  3. Right-click the site for which you want to create an application, and click Add Application.

  4. In the Alias text box, type a value for the application URL, such as marketing. This value is used to access the application in a URL.

  5. Click Select if you want to select a different application pool than the one listed in the Application pool box. In the Select Application Pool dialog box, select an application pool from the Application pool list and then click OK.

  6. In the Physical path text box, type the physical path of the application's folder, or click the browse button (...) to navigate the file system to find the folder.

  7. Optionally, click Connect as to specify credentials that have permission to access the physical path. If you do not use specific credentials, select the Application user (pass-through authentication) option on the Connect As dialog box.

  8. Optionally, click Test Settings to verify the settings that you specified for the application.

  9. Click OK.

To add an ASP.NET application by using the command line

To add an application to a site, use the following syntax:

appcmd add app /site.name:string /path:string /physicalPath:string

The variable site.name:string is the name of the website to which you want to add the application. The variable path:string is the virtual path of the application, such as /application, and physicalPath:string is the physical path of the application content in the file system.

For example, to add an application named marketing to a site named contoso, with content at c:\application, type the following at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:

appcmd add app /site.name:contoso /path:/marketing /physicalPath:c:\application

See Also