Unclear errors when running a self-contained app under IIS

[RVink]

Describe the bug

At the company I work for we have a non-self-contained AspNet core application running under IIS (hostingmodel: InProcess). I am in the process of changing it into a self-contained application which would still be running under IIS (hostingmodel: InProcess).

However I kept running into 2 unclear errors in the eventlog and a number of 500 Internal Server errors. Trying to get more information I found that enabling stdoutLog didn't help me as no logs were written. Also IIS failed request tracing didn't help me. The only logging that helped me a little was enabling the enhanced diagnostics logging, which provided the following log: aspnetcore-debug2.log.

After some trial and error me and a colleague found that the problem was caused by our custom web.config. This config contained the line below to run the application.

<aspNetCore processPath="dotnet" arguments=".\SelfContainedIssueRepro.dll" stdoutLogEnabled="false" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" hostingModel="InProcess">

Changing this line in the config to:

<aspNetCore processPath=".\SelfContainedIssueRepro.exe" stdoutLogEnabled="false" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" hostingModel="InProcess">

It would help if the errors produced could be more helpful.

To Reproduce

A reproduction of this issue can be found here. See the readme.md on how to reproduce the unclear error message.

Exceptions (if any)

Event Log: 'Application '/LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT/SelfContainedIssueRepro' with physical root 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SelfContainedIssueRepro' failed to load coreclr. Exception message:
Error occured when initializing inprocess application, Return code: 0x80008083'
End Event Log Message.

And

Event Log: 'Application '/LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT/SelfContainedIssueRepro' with physical root 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SelfContainedIssueRepro' failed to load coreclr. Exception message:
CLR worker thread exited prematurely'
End Event Log Message.

Further technical details

• ASP.NET Core version:

3.1

• Include the output of dotnet --info

C:\WINDOWS\system32>dotnet --info
.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   3.1.301
 Commit:    7feb845744

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.18363
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.301\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 3.1.6
  Commit:  3acd9b0cd1

.NET Core SDKs installed:
  2.1.202 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.502 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.504 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.505 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.507 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.508 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.509 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.511 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.801 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.802 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.2.106 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.2.203 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.2.207 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.2.300 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.0.100-preview5-011568 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.301 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.13 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.2.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.2.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.13 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.2.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.2.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.0.0-preview5-19227-01 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.13 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.2.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.2.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.0.0-preview5-27626-15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.0.0-preview5-27626-15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

To install additional .NET Core runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

• The IDE (VS / VS Code/ VS4Mac) you're running on, and it's version

VS Enterprise 2019 16.6.3
IIS: 10.0.18362.1

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[jkotalik]

@RVink thanks for the concise repro. Effectively what is going on is your app is deployed standalone, but the arguments you are providing in your web.config implies the app is deployed as portable. This isn't a supported scenario, but the logs should be better. I found a place which we can improve log capturing, which should help diagnose these kinds of errors in the future.

[RVink]

@jkotalik Thanks. These log messages will definitely help