Is it possible to self-host an ASP.NET Core Application without IIS?

Question

I have a full-working ASP.NET MVC application (.NET Core, ASP.NET Core) which runs fine in Visual Studio (which uses IISExpress).

I would now like to have a console application which takes the ASP.NET Core application and hosts it (self hosting).

See the instructions at the end of this article: http://www.asp.net/vnext/overview/aspnet-vnext/create-a-web-api-with-mvc-6 The same steps apply to mvc and web api as they are the same type of project in asp.net 5 — rdans, May 18 '15 at 08:41
when i use web listener to host application, i got the following exception. System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'Int32 System.Runtime.InteropSe rvices.Marshal.SizeOf(!!0)'. at Microsoft.Net.Http.Server.WebListener.SetRequestQueueLimit() at Microsoft.Net.Http.Server.WebListener.Start() at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.WebListener.MessagePump.Start(Func`2 app) at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.WebListener.ServerFactory.Start(IServerInformation server, Func`2 app) at Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting.HostingEngine.Start(HostingContext context) — selva, May 18 '15 at 12:10
Welcome to Stack Overflow, @selva! This is an inherent feature of the [tag:asp.net-5] build, as @rdans said. If you're having a specific issue with getting the linked tutorial working, please ask that question, instead. — Matt DeKrey, May 18 '15 at 12:35
I found this article which explains 6 different ways to run an ASP.Net Core application: http://www.secretgeek.net/dotnet_run — DarkAngel, Oct 24 '17 at 09:16

score 46 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 08 '20 at 00:26

46

Is it possible to self-host an ASP.NET Core Application without IIS?

Yes. In fact, all ASP.NET Core applications are self-hosted. Even in production, IIS/Nginx/Apache are a reverse proxy for the self-hosted application.

In a reasonably standard Program.cs class, you can see the self-hosting. The IISIntegration is optional - it's only necessary if you want to integrate with IIS.

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var config = new ConfigurationBuilder()
            .AddCommandLine(args)
            .AddEnvironmentVariables(prefix: "ASPNETCORE_")
            .Build();

        var host = new WebHostBuilder()
            .UseConfiguration(config)
            .UseKestrel()
            .UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
            .UseIISIntegration()
            .UseStartup<Startup>()
            .Build();

        host.Run();
    }
}

edited Dec 08 '20 at 00:26

Pang

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answered May 18 '15 at 23:29

Shaun Luttin

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1

Shouldn't this answer be updated to reflect .NET Core 1.0 RTM? So instead of `dnu`, use `dotnet` e.g. – QuantumHive Jul 27 '16 at 19:24
1

If you follow the Yeoman approach, make sure that you have the proper .NET Core version. When I first installed the [Core for VS 2015](https://www.microsoft.com/net/core), I got the v1.0.1 installed, and when I run the `dotnet run` command, I realized that the MVC 6 Basic WebApp requires the .NET Core 1.1.0. After getting the .NET Core 1.1 runtime installer from [here](https://www.microsoft.com/net/download/core#/current/runtime), I could finally run the sample project. – Andras Dec 14 '16 at 10:46
aspnet/cli-samples.git is not available, is this moved? – Neel May 25 '17 at 07:18

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 26 '16 at 18:36

14

Yes,ASP.NET Core supports the Open Web Interface for .NET (OWIN),your have two options to host your Asp.net core web application:

IIS
Self-Host

But,self-hosting web application can't restart automatically on system boot and restart or in the event of a failure.

edited Aug 26 '16 at 18:36

brichins

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answered Aug 21 '16 at 17:30

chen

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if self-hosting webapplication is a windows service, then it should be able to restart on system boot? – dotnetcoder Jan 29 '20 at 21:25

Søren · Answer 3 · 2016-12-14T08:43:26.340

4

YES

ASP.NET 5 is completely decoupled from the web server environment that hosts the application. ASP.NET 5 supports hosting in IIS and IIS Express, and self-hosting scenarios using the Kestrel and WebListener HTTP servers. Additionally, developers and third party software vendors can create custom servers to host their ASP.NET 5 apps.

more info: ASP.NET documentation - Servers

edited Dec 14 '16 at 08:43

answered May 08 '16 at 07:49

Søren

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Is it possible to self-host an ASP.NET Core Application without IIS?

3 Answers3

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