Azure DevOps ASP.NET Web API Could not download zip YAML issue

Question

I am trying to deploy a .NET (not .NET Core) web api using Azure DevOps to an Azure Web App. Its a standard issue web api which i have no issues running locally or deploying via Visual Studio Code Azure Deploy extension.

I have the following YAML file. The entire pipeline runs fine without any errors. No errors in the YAML file itself.

# ASP.NET
# Build and test ASP.NET projects.
# Add steps that publish symbols, save build artifacts, deploy, and more:
# https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/apps/aspnet/build-aspnet-4

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'

variables:
  solution: '**/*.sln'
  buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- task: NuGetToolInstaller@1

- task: NuGetCommand@2
  inputs:
    restoreSolution: '$(solution)'

- task: VSBuild@1
  inputs:
    solution: '$(solution)'
    msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactStagingDirectory)"'
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

- task: VSTest@2
  inputs:
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    pathToPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    artifactName: drop    


- task: ArchiveFiles@2
  inputs:
    rootFolderOrFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    includeRootFolder: false    

- task: AzureWebApp@1
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: 'BariBasicConnection'
    appName: 'baribasicsapiserverjune21st2020b'
    package: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/$(Build.BuildId).zip'      

The web app itself, when I try to load, it gives the following error.

The service is unavailable.

And, when i check the app files via Kudu, I see this in the wwwroot folder, webconfig file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name = "Site Unavailable" stopProcessing = "true">
                    <match url = ".*" />
                    <action type = "CustomResponse" statusCode = "503" subStatusCode = "0" statusReason = "Site Unavailable" statusDescription = "Could not download zip" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration> 

At this point, I am pretty sure, I am not picking up the right folder to deploy or something but Azure DevOps focuses mostly on .NET Core and Node and I am finding it difficult to find .NET specific related solutions.

Answer 1

Took me a good 6 hours of browsing around like some 100 azure doc files but finally got it to work.

A few things I found out.

• The main problem was AzureWebApp@1. That is not the deployment component for .NET projects at all.
• Further, the packager was already generating a zip file. So, the zip and unzip components in my file is actually not required. but i left it there anyway as it is required for other projects. It took me a while to figure that out.

Here is the full YAML file.

# ASP.NET
# Build and test ASP.NET projects.
# Add steps that publish symbols, save build artifacts, deploy, and more:
# https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/apps/aspnet/build-aspnet-4

# commit made to the master branch triggers the pipeline run.

trigger:
- master

# agent pool to run
pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'

# standard variables for a asp.net project deployment

variables:
  solution: '**/*.sln'
  buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

# .net needs all those nuget packages installed

steps:
- task: NuGetToolInstaller@1

- task: NuGetCommand@2
  inputs:
    restoreSolution: '$(solution)'

# this is the building of the project

- task: VSBuild@1
  inputs:
    solution: '$(solution)'
    msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactStagingDirectory)"'
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

# run the unit tests 

- task: VSTest@2
  inputs:
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'


# publish the build artifacts
# this is where you get the deployment settings
# the deployment zip folder that you can later use for other things.
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    pathToPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    artifactName: drop    
    
# archive the build artifact for later processing

- task: ArchiveFiles@2
  inputs:
    rootFolderOrFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    includeRootFolder: false  

# Extract files
# Extract a variety of archive and compression files such as .7z, .rar, .tar.gz, and .zip
# just extract it as an extra step

- task: ExtractFiles@1
  inputs:
    archiveFilePatterns: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/**/$(Build.BuildId).zip' 
    destinationFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/temp1'
    cleanDestinationFolder: false

# finally deploy it.

- task: AzureRMWebAppDeployment@4
  inputs:
    Package: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/projectname.zip'
    appType: 'webApp'
    ConnectedServiceName: ''
    WebAppName: ''

The full repo is also available here - https://github.com/Jay-study-nildana/APIServerDotNetWithSimplePasswordToken/blob/master/azure-pipelines.yml