Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule

Question

I have a .Net Core 2.2 project (web API) that uses as a dependency a .Net Framework 4.7.2 (classic) library.

Project structure:

BLL (classic library, it uses Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule nuget package)
Web.API.(Net Core app)

I build the .Net Core app using the below command:

dotnet.exe publish -o "${publishWorkspace}\website_web_api" /property:Configuration=Debug

When I deploy the project on AWS Beanstalk (IIS 10.0 running on 64bit Windows Server 2016/2.7.2) I get this error when I try to access the API URL:

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' 
or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. 

Exception Details: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 
'Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. 
The system cannot find the file specified

this is the problematic NuGet package reference in the "BLL" .Net Framework library csproj:

...
 <Reference Include="Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.1.1.0\lib\Net462\Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
...

I tried adding the bindingRedirect to the BLL.dll.config and restarting IIS server but that did not help:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <runtime>
...
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="1.1.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
<startup><supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.7.2" /></startup></configuration>

Installed SDKs on the AWS Beanstalk instance:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> dotnet --list-sdks
2.1.818 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
3.1.413 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]        
5.0.401 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

According to AWS docs it should support those .Net versions:

.NET 5.0.11, supports 5.0.11, 3.1.20, 2.1.30
.NET Framework 4.8, supports 4.x, 2.0, 1.x

UPDATE

I tried to run the deployed API app using the terminal by running dotnet .\Web.API.dll environment=Development

That returned this error:

The framework 'Microsoft.AspNetCore.App', version '2.2.0' was not found.
  - The following frameworks were found:
      2.1.30 at [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
      3.1.19 at [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
      5.0.10 at [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]

So I installed the 2.2 Runtime (via the hosting bundle from here) and then retried the above command and this time it ran fine and started listening for requests.

However, when I tried to use the URL that I set up for the API project via the IIS server, I get the same "Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule" error.

I tried restarting the IIS Server as well, no luck

UPDATE 2

After enabling "Fusion!EnableLog" logging (see this question). I got some more info regarding the assembly load problem:

Assembly manager loaded from:  C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\clr.dll
Running under executable  c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe
--- A detailed error log follows. 

=== Pre-bind state information ===
LOG: DisplayName = Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35
 (Fully-specified)
LOG: Appbase = file:///C:/inetpub/AspNetCoreWebApps/BackendAPI/
LOG: Initial PrivatePath = C:\inetpub\AspNetCoreWebApps\BackendAPI\bin
Calling assembly : (Unknown).
===
LOG: This bind starts in default load context.
LOG: Using application configuration file: C:\inetpub\AspNetCoreWebApps\BackendAPI\web.config
LOG: Using host configuration file: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet.config
LOG: Using machine configuration file from C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\config\machine.config.
LOG: Post-policy reference: Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/Temporary ASP.NET Files/api/27eecc96/2976b187/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/Temporary ASP.NET Files/api/27eecc96/2976b187/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/inetpub/AspNetCoreWebApps/BackendAPI/bin/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/inetpub/AspNetCoreWebApps/BackendAPI/bin/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/Temporary ASP.NET Files/api/27eecc96/2976b187/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.EXE.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/Temporary ASP.NET Files/api/27eecc96/2976b187/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.EXE.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/inetpub/AspNetCoreWebApps/BackendAPI/bin/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.EXE.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/inetpub/AspNetCoreWebApps/BackendAPI/bin/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule/Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule.EXE.

I suspect the issue is that there is no bin folder in the location where the API project is deployed but not sure why that is the case

1. .NET Core 2.2 is end of life. 2. Never consume a .NET Framework assembly in a .NET Core project (exceptions are rare and only a guru knows what he/she is doing). So in your case, get rid of that dependency is your only option, because clearly it was only designed for the old ASP.NET. — Lex Li, Oct 25 '21 at 14:09
Thank you for your response. I do plan to migrate that .Net Framework library to .Net Core 3.1 but I am hoping to figure out a way to make it work for the time being. Please see the "UPDATE 2" section I just added — Georgi Koemdzhiev, Oct 25 '21 at 15:03
The bit that I do not understand (see Update 1) is that when I run the app using the `dotnet wepapi.dll` command the app starts and listens for requests. I do not get the above file not found exception — Georgi Koemdzhiev, Oct 25 '21 at 16:49
Set the "Enable 32-bit applications" to "true" in advanced settings of iis application pool and try again. — samwu, Oct 26 '21 at 09:44
Thanks @samwu I tried that already, it is set to `True` currently but I still get the error — Georgi Koemdzhiev, Oct 26 '21 at 09:53
[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/609484/could-not-load-file-or-assembly-39microsoftaspnets-1.html](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/609484/could-not-load-file-or-assembly-39microsoftaspnets-1.html). — samwu, Nov 18 '21 at 09:24

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.AspNet.SessionState.SessionStateModule

0 Answers0