How to use MsDeploy to deploy a sub-application within a website

visual-studio deployment iis-7 msdeploy webdeploy
Chris Haines picture Chris Haines · Sep 6, 2012 · Viewed 7.5k times · Source

I have a sub application underneath an IIS website, and I can deploy it using the publish wizard in Visual Studio no problem.

However, I'm automating our deployment from our build server so I prefer to use msdeploy.exe directly.

I can deploy the main website, but trying to deploy the sub application refuses to work.

This works (www.mymainwebsite.co.uk being the IIS website):

msdeploy.exe -source:package='www.mymainwebsite.co.uk\obj\Test\Package\www.mymainwebsite.co.uk.zip' -dest:auto,computerName='https://testweb1:8172/MsDeploy.axd?site=www.mymainwebsite.co.uk',userName='xxx',password='xxx',authtype='Basic',includeAcls='False' -verb:sync -disableLink:AppPoolExtension -disableLink:ContentExtension -disableLink:CertificateExtension -setParamFile:"www.mymainwebsite.co.uk\obj\Test\Package\www.mymainwebsite.co.uk.SetParameters.xml" -allowUntrustedInfo

This doesn't (SubApplication being the application path):

msdeploy.exe -source:package='SubApplication\obj\Test\Package\SubApplication.zip' -dest:auto,computerName='https://testweb1:8172/MsDeploy.axd?site=www.mymainwebsite.co.uk/SubApplication',userName='xxx',password='xxx',authtype='Basic',includeAcls='False' -verb:sync -disableLink:AppPoolExtension -disableLink:ContentExtension -disableLink:CertificateExtension -setParamFile:"SubApplication\obj\Test\Package\SubApplication.SetParameters.xml" -allowUntrustedInfo

The error is:

Error Code: ERROR_USER_UNAUTHORIZED
More Information: Connected to the remote computer ("testweb1") using the Web Management Service, but could not authorize. Make sure that you are using the correct user name and password, that the site you are connecting to exists, and that the credentials represent a user who has permissions to access the site.  Learn more at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=221672#ERROR_USER_UNAUTHORIZED.
Error: The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.

As I said, this works from the Visual Studio publish wizard, setting the Site/application property to www.mymainwebsite.co.uk/SubApplication, so I know it's not a permissions issue on the server.

Am I missing something in the msdeploy parameters?

Answer

David Martin picture David Martin · Sep 10, 2012

I use the following on the command line to set the web application:

-setParam:name="IIS Web Application Name",value="www.mymainwebsite.co.uk/SubApplication"

Related questions

Web deployment task failed. Could not connect...server did not respond

I've been publishing my Lightswitch app using Visual Studio 2012 RC to my localhost (Win 7, SQL 2008 R2, IIS 7.5) just fine. Now I'm trying to publish to a remote server (Win 2008 R2, SQL 2008 R2, IIS 7.5) and I'm having trouble. When I try …

Read More
Determine assembly version during a post-build event

Let's say I wanted to create a static text file which ships with each release. I want the file to be updated with the version number of the release (as specified in AssemblyInfo.cs), but I don't want to have …

Read More
After Publish event in Visual Studio

I am trying to invoke simple task after publish event. When I say "publish", I mean publish in Visual Studio, right click on project and pressing "Publish...". I have included (Imported) targets file in project file which works fine because …

Read More