asp.net core shows '0x80070002 HTTP Error 502.5

I am testing deployment of asp.net core 1.1 projects. I have two projects in the solution client and the identity server 4.

I have succeeded deploying the client app and I can browse externally.

After that I deployed the Identity Server. And this comes up with the error

HTTP Error 502.5

And when I check the event log it has the error

Application 'MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST/IDENTITYSERVER' with physical root 'C:\inetpub\IdentityServer\' failed to start process with commandline 'C:\Program Files\dotnet .\IdentityServer.dll', ErrorCode = '0x80070002 : 0.

I initially had this error when deploying the first one so I went through this post

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38624453/asp-net-core-1-0-on-iis-error-502-5

and followed all the steps, including installing the hosting packages and so on.

I tried to check the log by enabling the log in the web.config as well but the process will create an empty log file every time I tried to browse.

Both of them are using asp.net core 1.1

I think the only major different in terms of resource usage is, Identity server 4 uses SQL server. Other than that I cannot think of anything different.

In the IIS app pool settings both use ApplicationPoolIdentity, set to use No Managed Code for .net clr version.

For both of the applications I have modified the launchpath of the web.config file from "dotnet" to "C:\Program Files\dotnet"

Both project files are set to produce

I am running this on Google Could Compute Engine, Windows 2012, just in case this might make any difference.

I really hope someone can shed some light on this.

Appreciate all the help in advance.

I am posting this on serverfault because it seems to be a better fit, but if I am wrong please let me know.