Running ASP.NET 5 on Nano Server throws "Unable to load DLL 'kernel32'"

I have created a simple ASP.NET 5 project based on the ASP.NET 5 beta 8 Visual Studio template.

I have published the project using this command

dnu publish <path to project.json> --out <path to publish folder> --configuration Release --runtime dnx-coreclr-win-x64.1.0.0-beta8 --wwwroot-out "wwwroot" --no-source

After I run the web.cmd on nano server I received this error:

.\web.cmd : System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load DLL 'kernel32': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 
0x8007007E)
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (System.DllNotFo...LT: 0x8007007E):String) [], RemoteException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError

   at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.PlatformApis.WindowsApis.LoadLibrary(String dllToLoad)
   at Micros
oft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.Libuv.Load(String dllToLoad)
   at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.ServerFactory.Start(IFeatureCollection serverFeatures, Func`2 application)
   at Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting.Internal.HostingEngine.Start()
   at Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting.Program.Main(String[] args)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at Microsoft.Dnx.Runtime.Common.EntryPointExecutor.Execute(Assembly assembly, String[] args, IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
   at Microsoft.Dnx.ApplicationHost.Program.ExecuteMain(DefaultHost host, String applicationName, String[] args)
   at Microsoft.Dnx.ApplicationHost.Program.Main(String[] args)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at Microsoft.Dnx.Runtime.Common.EntryPointExecutor.Execute(Assembly assembly, String[] args, IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
   at Microsoft.Dnx.Host.Bootstrapper.RunAsync(List`1 args, IRuntimeEnvironment env, String appBase, FrameworkName targetFramework)
   at Microsoft.Dnx.Host.RuntimeBootstrapper.ExecuteAsync(String[] args, BootstrapperContext bootstrapperContext)
   at Microsoft.Dnx.Host.RuntimeBootstrapper.Execute(String[] args, BootstrapperContext bootstrapperContext)

The same command doesn't throw this error when running on Windows 10. The application works fine on Windows 10.

Nano Server does not have kernel32.dll and advapi32.dll so code that is not linked against default libs won't work. You need to either link your code against onecore.lib or install reverse forwarders.

Reverse forwarders redirect calls to kernel32.dll/advapi32.dll APIs to the counterparts available on Nano Server.

On some OneCore systems (e.g. Win10 IoT Core on Raspberry Pi 2), reverse forwarders are installed by default. This is not the case in case of the Nano Server, since the goal is to make it as small as possible. Hence the need to install reverse forwarders manually if you need them.

To relate this to Asp.Net 5 - both Http Platform Handler and Kestrel (or to be more specific libuv) are linked against default libs. Therefore, to run Asp.Net 5 on Nano, you need forwarders, unless you use WebListener (which should work fine without forwarders).