Why is IIS giving me a 502.5 error on asp.net core app?

I took over a project from a guy who didn't really know what he was doing in terms of angular / .net core / node js, etc.

We have a new version that works on my machine (of course), but for some reason, when I updated the web server, I'm getting 502.5.

Yes, I know there are a lot of 502.5 posts on SO, but still have the problem... not sure what to do next :(. Also, I'm not a web guy, I just took this over as a favor.

Here is what I know right now:

1) works fine on my machine 2) used to work fine on the web server until the latest push (I have done other pushes) 3) the site is NOT a DLL like some of the other SO posts, mine is an exe for some reason. 4) event log shows:

Application 'MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST/xxxCONTROL' with physical root 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\xxxControl\' failed to start process with commandline '.\xx_control.exe ', ErrorCode = '0x80070002' : 0.

Some of the other SO posts with the apps running as DLLs have the exe as the arg and dotnet as the proc. Do I need to do that?

5) if I just run xx_control, it starts and runs on localhost:

6) my web config looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    </handlers>
    <aspNetCore processPath=".\xx_control.exe" arguments="" stdoutLogEnabled="false">
      <environmentVariables />
    </aspNetCore>
  </system.webServer>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="xxxx" connectionString="Server=xxxxxx;Database=xxxxx;Uid=xxxxxx;pwd=xxxxx;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

7) If I try do a publish, it errors out (it always has which is why I was copying the stuff over manually)

1>------ Build started: Project: xxx_Control, Configuration: Release Any CPU ------ 1>xxx_Control -> C:\Source\xxx\xxx\xxx_Control\bin\Release\net472\xxx_Control.exe 2>------ Publish started: Project: xxx_Control, Configuration: Release Any CPU ------ Connecting to C:\Windows\Temp\xxx... xxx_Control -> C:\Source\xxx\xxx\xxx_Control\bin\Release\net472\win7-x86\xxx_Control.exe npm install npm WARN saveError EPERM: operation not permitted, rename 'C:\Source\xxx\xxx\xxx_Control\npm-shrinkwrap.json.1698582667' -> 'C:\Source\xxx\xxx\xxx_Control\npm-shrinkwrap.json' audited 15221 packages in 9.82s found 183 vulnerabilities (125 low, 52 moderate, 5 high, 1 critical) run npm audit fix to fix them, or npm audit for details node node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --config webpack.config.vendor.js --env.prod internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:583 throw err; ^

EXEC(0,0): Error : Cannot find module './$data' at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:581:15) at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:507:25) at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:637:17) at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:20:18) at Object. (C:\Source\xxx\xxx\xxx_Control\node_modules\ajv\lib\ajv.js:10:23) at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:689:30) at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:700:10) at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:599:32) at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:538:12) at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:530:3) C:\Source\xxx\xxx\xxx_Control\xxx_Control.csproj(111,5): Error MSB3073: The command "node node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --config webpack.config.vendor.js --env.prod" exited with code 1.

2>Build failed. Check the Output window for more details. ========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 1 up-to-date, 0 skipped ========== ========== Publish: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

7) I'm supposed to copy the bins from bin\Release\net472 correct? There are also some in the bin\Release\net472\win7-x86 directory.. I tried both for the heck of it... same thing...

Any ideas?

I ran into this recently, with a project that was initially netcoreapp, then had to be changed to net461 for the framework, due to dependencies. Hence the file used is an exe, not a DLL.

Removing all of the files in the deployed directory, and publishing again, got it working for me.