MSDeploy fails to deploy manually zipped package

Question

Earlier I was building and deploying web project using msbuild.exe

Now I want to modify some files before deploying, so I make a .zip package using msbuild, then unzip it, modify some files and then zip it again and try to deploy using msdeploy.

The problem is, that it deploys empty folder. When I try to deploy unmodified .zip package - it works fine.

After long hours digging, I figured out, that msdeploy does not support packages, which were zipped using other than built in windows zip archiver.

How to zip files using windows zip archiver in C#/F#? I've tried using System.IO.Compression.ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory method, but msdeploy still deploys empty folders.

Here's the warning what I get, when trying to deploy package:

Warning: Skipping source dirPath (C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\MyPath) because of rule SkipInvalidSource.
The Zip package 'C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\MyPath\MyPackage.zip' could not be loaded.

When I disable SkipInvalidSource rule, I get the following error:

Error: (12/23/2014 6:56:44 PM) An error occurred when the request was processed on the remote computer.
Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentSyncEnumerable.<Create>d__0.MoveNext()
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1..ctor(IEnumerable`1 collection)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentSyncContext.SyncChildrenNoOrder(DeploymentObject dest, DeploymentObject source)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentSyncContext.SyncChildrenNoOrder(DeploymentObject dest, DeploymentObject source)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentSyncContext.SyncChildrenOrder(DeploymentObject dest, DeploymentObject source)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentSyncContext.ProcessSync(DeploymentObject destinationObject, DeploymentObject sourceObject)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentObject.SyncToInternal(DeploymentObject destObject, DeploymentSyncOptions syncOptions, PayloadTable payloadTable, ContentRootTable contentRootTable, Nullable`1 syncPassId, String syncSessionId) at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentAgent.HandleSync(DeploymentAgentAsyncData asyncData, Nullable`1 passId)
Error count: 1.

Any ideas how to zip and deploy project correctly?

@FredericTorres I ended up deploying whole directory using -dest:contentPath rather than zipped package. — user4228370

Dan Kendall Dan Kendall · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-23T20:29:38

I had this exact problem. I've got a bunch of msdeploy packages and need to update some of the files post-packaging but pre-deploy.

If I use msdeploy sync to extract the packages, the parameters get processed - that's no good, they're just placeholders until I know which environment is being targeted. So I need to unzip the package and then make the changes...so far so good.

But then I rezip it all up. And then then I get this issue: msdeploy won't process the contained folders. If I use msdeploy to process the extracted files, again I lose the parameters...or rather they get processed prematurely from the paramters.xml file. Grr.

The solution? Use 7zip...or anything apart from standard Windows zipper.

e.g. 7z.exe a -r C:\deploys\mypackage.zip C:\extractedstuff\*

MSDeploy fails to deploy manually zipped package

3 Answers