Host an https webservice using ASP.NET Core 2.0 on a Win10IoT device

Goal

This repo will explain how to get an ASP.NET Core app up and running on a Windows 10 IoT device.

Prerequisites

• Windows IoT device (get started, I used the Pi 3)
• Windows 10 IoT v.10.0.15063.0 (didn't test other version, might work though)
• dotnet 2.0
• Visual Studio 2017 (community will do fine)
  • with the ".NET Core cross-platform development" workload

Summary

1. Create the project
2. Create a certificate
3. Use kestral
4. Publish
5. Prepare device
6. Run

Create the project

Use visual studio to create an ASP.NET Core project, make sure you select .NET Core and ASP.NET Core 2.0 in the popup. I choose the WebAPI template, but it should work with MVC as well.

Create the certificate

To run a SSL enabled server, we need a certificate. I suppose you don't have one laying around, so let's create one.

Open a powershell console (must be administrator) and run:

$certData = New-SelfSignedCertificate -certstorelocation cert:\localmachine\my -dnsname localhost
$pwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "p@ssw0rd" -Force -AsPlainText
Export-PfxCertificate -cert "cert:\localMachine\my\$($certData.Thumbprint)" -FilePath c:\temp\testCertificate.pfx -Password $pwd

Copy the certificate to your project root and make sure it pops up in your visual studio. If it doesn't: use project->Add->Existing item

Select the certificate in your project, set it's Copy to Output Directory to Copy if newer. This will make sure it will be copied when published.

Use kestral

Next, we have to make sure we're using kestral as our webserver and configure it properly. Change the Program.BuildWebHost method untill it looks like this:

public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args)
{
    return WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
        .UseStartup<Startup>()
        .UseKestrel(options =>
        {
            options.Listen(
                IPAddress.Any,
                5000,
                listenOptions =>
                {
                    listenOptions.UseHttps("testCertificate.pfx", "p@ssw0rd");
                }
            );
        })
        .Build();
}

And yes, you should add some namespaces to make the errors go away.

Warning: As you can see, I'm using a very easy password and put it in plain text in the code. That's not something you should do in a real life scenario!

Publish

Open a command prompt with dotnet in the path (you can use the Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio 2017 which should be available if you installed VS). Now cd into your solution folder and publish your app with win-arm as runtime:

dotnet publish -r win-arm

Prepare device

Find the deploy folder (my case src\https-aspcore2-win10iot\bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.0\win-arm\publish and copy it to your device. In case of a pi, you can use explorer to browse to \\yourpihostnameorip\c$. Make some directory of your liking, and copy your files.

Open a powershell console (again, as administrator) and enter a remote connection to your device. If this is the first time you try to create this remote connection, make sure you follow this guide first. When done, create the remote connection:

Enter-PSSession -ComputerName [yourpcnameorip] -Credential [yourpcnameorip]\Administrator

Optional: If you want to test your API from another machine in your network, you have to add a firewall exception:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WebAPI test 5000" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=5000

Run

Now, cd into the folder with you published app and run the .exe. You should see something like this:

... and that's it, happy coding all.