How to setup a new Windows Server with ASP.NET MVC Application on AWS EC2

https://bytescout.com/blog/2016/06/blog201606blog201605setting-webserver-asp-net-mvc-application-aws-ec2-html-html.html

Table of contents

1. Setting Free Trial Account on AWS
2. Creating and configuring EC2 Instance
3. Connecting to EC2 remote desktop
4. Setting IIS on EC2 Instance
5. Installing Web deploy package on EC2 Instance
6. Creating ASP.NET MVC Application using VS2015 Web Express
7. Deploying ASP.NET MVC Application from VS2015 Web Express

1. Setting Free Trial Account on AWS

Go to – http://aws.amazon.com/free/.

1.1 Enter email and check “I am a new user”. Click “Sign in using our secure server”.

1.2 Fill form below.

1.3 Fill in your personal or company account details.

1.4 Enter Credit card details and complete identity verification in the next screen.

1.5 Now go to the AWS Console and log in with your AWS credentials.

1.6 You can browse console navigating top side links.

2. Creating and configuring AWS EC2 Instance

2.1 Click on “Launch Instance” button.

2.2 Select Amazon Machine Image (AMI): Microsoft Windows Server.

2.3 Choose an Instance type: General Purpose, t2 micro.

2.4 Configure EC2 Instance Details.

2.5 Add Storage.

2.6 Tag Instance.

2.7 Configure Security Group.

1. Add Http Port – 80
2. Add Web deployment port – 8172

2.8 Review Summary and click “Launch”.

2.9 Create a key pair, download it and store in a secure place.

2.10 Launch Status screen. The instance you created is now launching.

2.11 Now EC2 Instance is ready to use, click on EC2 dashboard icon.

2.12 Then click on Running Instances.

2.13 Here you will see a list of your web servers. Your new IIS web server can be still initializing. We will continue to work with the server in the next section.

3. Connecting to EC2 remote desktop

3.1 Now when the server is initialized, you can connect to it. Click “Connect” button to download remote desktop file (.rdp).

3.2 Click “Download Remote Desktop File” to start downloading, then you will need to click “Get Password” button.

3.3 Click “OK” to save the .rdp file.

3.4 Now click to “Get Password”, then click “Browse” and choose the folder you’ve saved you Key Pair in step 2.9.

3.5 Click “Decrypt Password”.

3.6 Copy your credentials to notepad.

3.7 Right-click on the .rdp file and select Connect.

3.8 Now check “Don’t ask me again” checkbox and click Connect again to allow remote connection.

3.9 Enter your credentials.

3.10 Check “Don’t ask me again” checkbox and click “Yes”.

4. Setting IIS on EC2 Instance

4.1 Open Server Manager by clicking on its icon on the taskbar.

4.2 Click “Add roles and features”.

4.3 Roles and Features Wizard opens. Click “Next”.

4.4 Select “Role-based or feature-based installation” and click “Next”.

4.5 Select “Select a server from the server pool”, then choose your server and click “Next”.

4.6 Select “Web Server (IIS)” from “Server Roles” list and click “Next”.

4.7 Select following features:
.NET Framework 3.5 Features,
ASP.NET 4.5.

4.8 Click “Next”.

4.9 Let’s select Role Services: select items highlighted on the screenshots below and click “Next”.

4.10 Click “Install” and wait until the installation is complete.

4.11 Click “Close”.

5. Installing Web deploy package on EC2 Instance

5.1 Go to http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx, download, and run Microsoft Web Platform Installer.

5.2. Using the installer search field, find and select Web Deploy 3.6 and click “Add”

5.3 Then click “Install”.

5.4 Accept the Microsoft license terms, then wait until the end of the installation and click “Finish”.

6. Creating ASP.NET MVC Application using VS2015 Web Express

6.1 Start VS2015 Web Express and create a new project.

6.2 Choose ASP.NET Web Application from Templates > Web.

6.3 Select MVC template.

6.4 Your ASP.NET application was created! In the next section, we will show how to deploy it.

7. Deploying ASP.NET MVC Application from VS2015 Web Express

7.1 Right-click on your project name in the explorer panel (it is highlighted in the screenshot) and select “Publish”.

7.2 Select “Custom” publish targetagain.

7.3 Enter Profile name and click OK.

7.4 Go to EC2 Management Console now and check Instances. Copy and note down Public DNS Address.

7.5 Now go to IIS Manager panel again. Check the Connections panel on the left and copy the site name under Sites. 

7.6 Return to the VS2015 Web Express and fill in the Connection settings. Here you will need your Public DNS address and site name from previous steps. Then click “Publish”.

7.7 Check the “Save this certificate for future sessions” checkbox, then click “Accept” to accept the security certificate.

7.8 Now a green checkmark should appear near to Validate Connection button. Click “Next”. 

7.9 Set Configuration to Release, check all 3 checkboxes in File Publish Options, and click “Next”.

7.10 Here you can preview the app, but we will just click “Publish” to finish the deployment process.

7.11 In Visual Studio output console you can see the “Web App was published successfully” message and the address to access the app.

7.12 Congratulations! You have created and configured AWS EC2 Instance, then you have installed a web server, and also you have created and deployed an ASP.NET application. Now you can continue your experiments with EC2 on yourself, or check our guide on how to set up the same environment and deploy an ASP.NET application on Azure Virtual Machine.