ASP.net Core 2.1.4 Web API project results in HTTP 502.5 error

I have tried to run my project on a server provided by someone else for some time now and after going through a lot of troubleshooting documents I'm at a spot where I don't know what to try next. For debugging purposes I have created a plain, empty project (with just the default "values controller") and deployed that and it too produces the error.

The following information is available to me:

HTTP Server Error: 502.5 Logfile is produced but is empty System Log shows the follówing: Application 'MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST/WEBSITE-NAME' with physical root '' created process with commandline 'E:\HostingSpaces\customer-folder\website-name\wwwroot\tu-test-api.exe 'but failed to get its status, ErrorCode = '0x80070005'.

I have tried different deployment types and all produce the same error. e.g. framework dependent, which produces a DLL. Then the error just stated that 'dotnet tu-test-api.dll' produces the error. But the codes and behavior is the same.

The web config looks as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false">
    <system.webServer>
      <handlers>
        <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />
      </handlers>
      <aspNetCore processPath="dotnet" arguments=".\tu-test-api.dll" stdoutLogEnabled="true" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" />
    </system.webServer>
  </location>
</configuration>

The server is a Windows 2008 R2 Server with IIS Express.

It has Microsoft .NET Core 2.1.4 Windows Server Hosting installed.

The following three things are installed:

1. Microsoft .NET Core Runtime 2.1.4 (x64)
2. Microsoft .NET Core 2.1.4 - Windows Server Hosting
3. Microsoft .NET Core Runtime 2.1.4 (x86)

According to the Admin 1. PATH variable is set correct 2. Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64) is installed 3. After (2.) Bundle was repaired/reinstalled and server was rebooted 4. The Application Pool is set to "No Managed Code"

I'm a bit irritated because physical root is an empty string in the system logs. But I'm not sure what that means.

Finally the admin tried executing dotnet my-app.dll as well as my-app.exe directly on the server in a console and it worked fine. He also opened a browser and tried out the app and it returned the expected results.

Any help on what to try next would be greatly appreciated.