How to Deploy ASP.NET Core 8 Apps on IIS 10 and Plesk Panel

ASP.NET Core 8.0 is Microsoft's flagship framework for high-performance web development. Learn how to deploy your C# web application step-by-step on Windows Server infrastructure with IIS 10 and Plesk Obsidian, including web.config setup and troubleshooting 500.19, 502.5, and 403.14 error codes.

⚡ Prerequisites & Server Setup

Step 1 — Choose Deployment Type (Publish)

You can deploy ASP.NET Core applications using two deployment models:

• Framework-Dependent (Recommended): Uses server-installed .NET 8 runtime. Small package size (~15 MB).
• Self-Contained: Bundles the .NET runtime into the publish output. Eliminates server runtime dependencies.

# 1. Framework-Dependent Publish:
dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish

# 2. Self-Contained Publish (x64 Standalone - Generates .exe):
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -o ./publish

Step 2 — Configure web.config

In .NET 6, 7, and 8, wrap your configuration inside <location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false"> to prevent settings leaking into child applications in shared hosting environments like Plesk:

<!-- 1. Framework-Dependent web.config Example -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false">
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModuleV2" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    </handlers>
    <aspNetCore processPath="dotnet" arguments=".\YourApp.dll" stdoutLogEnabled="false" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" hostingModel="inprocess" />
  </system.webServer>
</location>

<!-- 2. Self-Contained web.config Example (Executes .exe directly) -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false">
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModuleV2" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    </handlers>
    <aspNetCore processPath=".\YourApp.exe" arguments="" stdoutLogEnabled="false" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" hostingModel="inprocess" />
  </system.webServer>
</location>

Step 3 — Upload via Plesk & Folder Permissions

1. Log into Plesk Obsidian and click Files.
2. Clear default files in httpdocs.
3. Zip your local publish directory, upload it to httpdocs, and click Extract.
4. Create a folder named logs inside httpdocs.
5. Verify IIS_IUSRS write permissions on the logs folder via Plesk File Permissions.

Step 4 — App Pool Setup & Recycle

• Open Plesk > Dedicated IIS Application Pool Settings.
• Set .NET CLR Version to No Managed Code.
• Ensure Enable 32-Bit Applications is set to False.
• Click Recycle Pool to clear cached assemblies.

🛠️ Troubleshooting & Error Codes