ASP.NET Core hosting environment variable ignored

Question

I have two web sites on my staging server, and both are ASP.NET Core sites that run in IIS. I have set the environment variable ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT to Staging machine-wide. This works well for one of the sites, however the other ignores the variable and runs in production mode instead. I have to configure the hosting environment into the web.config file to run it in staging mode.

Why does one site not take the environment variable into account?

In both of my Startup(IHostingEnvironment env) constructors, I use the environment variables:

public Startup(IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
        .SetBasePath(env.ContentRootPath)
        .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)
        .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.{env.EnvironmentName}.json", optional: true)
        .AddJsonFile("logging.json")
        .AddEnvironmentVariables();  //   <---
        Configuration = builder.Build();
    }

just to double check - you sure, that ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Staging on second instance, but env.EnvironmentName returns "Production" for it and values from appsettings.Staging.json are not used? By the way don't you forget to publish appsettings.Staging.json file? — Set, Oct 17 '16 at 13:20
I don't use `appsettings.Staging.json` on either site. ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT is set machine-wide. Startup logging for second site logs: "Environment: Production". — Thaoden, Oct 17 '16 at 14:13
could you check what Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT") returns? — Set, Oct 17 '16 at 14:25
`[09:20:33 INF] ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT = '' Hosting environment: Production` when starting via IIS, `[08:56:07 INF] ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT = 'Staging' Hosting environment: Staging` when starting stand-alone directly on console. — Thaoden, Oct 18 '16 at 07:22
Possible duplicate of [IIS doesn't use user environment variables](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44510687/iis-doesnt-use-user-environment-variables) — Judy007, Nov 28 '17 at 22:46

score 32 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '16 at 07:47

32

As said in this similar question, the trick was simply to set the app pool to load the user variables (IIS -> Server -> App Pools -> Right click on pool -> Set application pool defaults... -> Load User Profile = True).

I configured only one of my app pools accordingly, thus only one of the sites could access the environment variables.

answered Oct 18 '16 at 07:47

Thaoden

3,460
3
33
45

1

I've tried this for my similar problem and it does not fix for me. – Sam Jan 05 '18 at 14:32
5

Worked for me too. I'm wondering why setting the environment variable as a machine variable didn't work.. – Alexey Koptyaev Mar 19 '18 at 11:51
Worked for me too, very strange according to [MS doco](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/environments?view=aspnetcore-3.1#environments) machine env var should work.. – fuzzy_logic Jun 12 '20 at 03:20
don't use `set`, but `setx` when setting the env var from the command line. and add `/M` to set machine wide, not for local user, because the app pool could use another user – serge Jun 03 '21 at 16:03

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 18 '16 at 06:02

I just spent the last couple hours dealing with the same issue. I'm not sure if the result will be the same since you seem to have one of two applications working.

I set the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT to "Staging" as a system variable through "Advanced System Settings" on Windows Server 2008 R2 and always ended up in the "Production" environment (which is the default environment if it can't find the setting anywhere).

Using "set" from Command Prompt showed the expected results of "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Staging".

Calling Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT") returned null. I created another variable called "Test" which also returned null. Calling any other existing variable returned expected results.

I tried recycling the application pool, changing the app pool's user, restarting IIS through management console, even restarting World Wide Web Publishing Service (probably same as reset in IIS mgmt console) all to no avail.

Rebooting the server was the only way I could get the application to return the expected result.

holy sxxx, wasted 30 minutes of my time for this issue, thank you for your post — gavin, Aug 21 '21 at 03:38
I can also confirm that only restarting the server worked. Since it's system variable only after restarting the server takes new variable. — Sandeep Ingale, Jul 27 '22 at 16:14

score 15 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 01 '20 at 00:48

15

If you are debugging your code in Visual Studio, bear in mind that Visual Studio caches the environment variables that were present when Visual Studio was started - not when you hit "debug"!

So you may have to restart Visual Studio for any changes to the environment to be visible.

edited Mar 01 '20 at 00:48

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Aug 09 '18 at 13:25

Sean

349
3
5

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 20 '18 at 17:17

6

From a cmd window, run net stop /y was && net start w3svc.

Source: ASP.NET Core Docs -> Use multiple environments in ASP.NET Core

Note: Restarting IIS via right click-> stop -> start in IIS Manager will NOT work.

answered Sep 20 '18 at 17:17

spottedmahn

14,823
13
108
178

the article says restating is the second option – serge Jun 04 '21 at 07:26

score -6 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 17 '16 at 11:53

-6

public Startup(IHostingEnvironment env)
    {
        var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
            .SetBasePath(env.ContentRootPath)
            .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)
            .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.{env.EnvironmentName}.json", optional: true);

        if (env.IsDevelopment())
        {
            // For more details on using the user secret store see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=532709
            builder.AddUserSecrets();
        }

        builder.AddEnvironmentVariables();
        Configuration = builder.Build();
    }

You might not have added variable builder.AddEnvironmentVariables();

edited Oct 17 '16 at 11:53

Thaoden

3,460
3
33
45

answered Oct 17 '16 at 11:33

Jagmeet Kumar

9
5

I checked this, it is there in both projects. – Thaoden Oct 17 '16 at 11:38
AddEnvironmentVariables() does not change the value of env.EnvironmentName. It allows ro read configuration values from environment variables. – Set Oct 17 '16 at 13:17
Does `IsDevelopment()` work without `AddEnvironmentVariables()`? – Thaoden Oct 17 '16 at 17:12
@Thaoden IsDevelopment is just wrapper around env.EnvironmentName == "Development". env.EnvironmentName by default is set internally using ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT. As IHostingEnvironment.EnvironmentName has a getter, the value can be changed directly in your code, but AddEnvironmentVariables() does not change that value, Instead it allows to use environment variables as additionla source for Configuration. – Set Oct 18 '16 at 08:46

ASP.NET Core hosting environment variable ignored

5 Answers5

Linked