IIS 10.0 on Windows Server 2016 and higher

PREREQUISITES: Starting with Windows Server 2016, you need to install the Desktop Experience when installing Windows Server OS.

1. Download the Windows Server 2016 PowerShell script and save it on your server.
2. In the context menu of the downloaded file, click Run with PowerShell.
3. Restart the server.

NOTE: When running the PowerShell script, your system may become slower. Keep in mind that the script modifies Windows features that can affect other parts of the system.

You can also perform the configuration manually.
For more information, see Manually configure the server to host Sitefinity CMS projects.

1. Prepare your development project for deployment.
   For example, build the project in Release configuration and remove the obj and packages folders.
2. Copy the project’s folder from your developer machine and place it inside C:\inetpub\wwwroot folder on your server.
   If you do not see folder inetpub, IIS is not installed on your server, and you must install it.
   The project folder is the path where the various Web.*.config files reside.

1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. In the left pane, expand your server’s node and in the context menu of Sites node, select Add Web Site…
   The Add Website window appears.
3. In Site name, enter a name for the website.
4. If you have a dedicated application pool for this website, click Select… button and select it from the Application pool dropdown box. Otherwise, for each website you are adding, IIS creates a corresponding application pool.
5. In Physical path, click the … button and browse to select inetpub\wwwroot\<your project name> folder, where you have chosen to locate your project files.
6. In the Binding section, if you have a dedicated IP address for the website, select it. If you have multiple websites sharing the same IP address, enter the host name of your website.
7. Click OK.
   The Add Web Site window closes.
8. If you are using SQL Server or SQL Server Express, perform the following:
   1. In the left pane, click Application Pools node.
   2. Select the application pool of your website and in the right pane, click Advances Settings…
   3. Change the Load User Profile setting to True.
   4. Click OK.
9. Since Sitefinity CMS configurations are stored in the App_Data folder, the Application pool must have write permissions to this location. To grant such permissions, perform the following:
   1. In Windows Explorer, open folder inetpub\wwwroot\<your project name>.
   2. Open the context menu of App_Data folder and click Properties.
   3. On tab Security, click Edit… » Add…
   4. In From this location, select your server.
   5. Enter the object name using the following naming convention:
      IIS APPPOOL\<Application pool name>.
   6. Click OK.
   7. To grant permission to modify the App_Data folder, select the Allow checkbox of the Modify permission.
   8. Click OK » OK.

RESULT: Your website is ready to work. To verify this, open the IIS Manager, select the uploaded site, and in the left pane, click Browse. The website runs in the browser, hosted on the IIS.