Install on IIS

Install Squidex on Windows with IIS and a custom MongoDB server.

You can also read this useful guide from Microsoft, How to Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS.

This document is just a shorter version of the official guide.

Supported Operating Systems

The following operating systems are supported:

• Windows 7 or later

• Windows Server 2008 R2 or later

Step 1. Install all Requirements

1.1. Install IIS

If you're reading this page and you're planning to setup Squidex under Windows, you are probably already familiar with IIS and have it installed on your machine. If not you can read the docs:

IIS configuration (Microsoft)

1.2. Download and Install .NET Core Hosting Bundle:

Download the installer using the following link:

Current .NET Core Hosting Bundle installer (direct download)

Ensure that the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT environment variable is set to Production

1.3. Download and Install MongoDB

Following the official setup instructions:

Install MongoDB Community Edition on Windows

Step 2. Install Squidex

2.1. Download the binaries

Go to the release page and download the binaries.zip file from the latest release:

Squidex Releases

Create a folder for your Squidex installation and extract the archive to this folder.

2.2. Create the IIS Site

1. In IIS Manager, open the server's node in the Connections panel. Right-click the Sites folder. Select Add Website from the contextual menu.

2. Provide a SiteName and set the Physical path to the Squidex folder that you created in the previous step. In this case we host Squidex at https://localhost:80

3. Ensure that you also create an https binding with a proper certificate or development certificate. Due to recent security changes in Chrome, you are no longer able to login to Squidex if you are using http instead of https. You can also use Cloudflare as https termination if you don't want to pay for a certificate.

4. Confirm the process model identity has the proper permissions.

   If the default identity of the App pool (Process Model > Identity) is changed from ApplicationPoolIdentity to another identity, verify that the new identity has the required permissions to access the App's folder, database, and other required resources. For example, the App pool requires read and write access to folders where the app reads and writes files.

IIS Site configuration

2.3 Configure the Application Pool

1. Under the server's node, select Application Pools.

2. Right-click the site's App pool and select Basic Settings from the contextual menu.

3. In the Edit Application Pool window, set the .NET CLR version to No Managed Code:

IIS Application pool

2.4. Configure Squidex

1. Go to your Squidex installation folder.

2. Create a file called appsettings.Production.json which overrides the default settings. When you make an update and download a newer release your customized settings will not be overridden. You can also configure all settings with environment variables which is the recommended method for all other platforms, but in this case a file is easier.

3. Enter the following settings. The baseUrl is the most important setting as it must match the domain that you're using. All other settings are optional. If you use a version lower than 5.6 you must define the initial username and password in settings.

{
  "urls": {
    /*
     * The url where your Squidex installation is available at.
     */
    "baseUrl": "http://localhost"
  },
  "identity": {
    /*
     * Disable authentication with google, github and microsoft login.
     */
    "googleClient": "",
    "googleSecret": "",
    "githubClient": "",
    "githubSecret": "",
    "microsoftClient": "",
    "microsoftSecret": "",
    /*
     * Initial username and password. Only needed before Squidex 5.6
     */
    "adminEmail": "[e-mail]",
    "adminPassword": "save1q2w3e$R"
  },
  "assetStore": {
    "folder": {
      /*
       * Define where to store the assets.
       */
      "path": "E:\\Sites\\squidex\\assets"
    }
  },
  "orleans": {
    /*
     * Disable clustering!
     */
    "clustering": "Development"
  },
}

The password must contain a lowercase and uppercase letter, a number and a special character. If you use Squidex 5.6 or later you will see a simple setup screen when you open your site for the first time and no user is created. You can create the initial user on this screen.

Start the IIS site and go to http://localhost. Login and start editing.

Troubleshooting

Where Can I see the Logs?

Squidex logs to standard output.

To forward the logs to a file, open web.config and set stdoutLogEnabled="true".

I Get a HTTP Error 404.0 - Not Found

Ensure that the Physical path of your site points to the correct location.

I Get a HTTP Error 502.5 - Process Failure

It is very important that you restart IIS after you have installed the .NET Core Windows Server Hosting package. Restart the server or execute net stop was /y followed by net start w3svc from a command prompt with elevated permissions to pick up a change to the system PATH.

I Get a HTTP Error 504 - Method not allowed

This can happen when you try to make an API call with the PUT or DELETE verb. For example when you use the Management UI. The reason is that WebDAV might be installed on your server and it blocks these verbs. You have to add the following lines to the web.config file.

<system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="false">
        <remove name="WebDAVModule" />
    </modules>
</system.webServer>

I only see a spinner on a white background

Ensure that the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT environment variable is set to Production.

Squidex logs all environment variables on the first start. Search for the following output in the logs:

{
  "logLevel": "Information",
  "message": "Application started",
  "environment": {
    ...
    "aspnetcoreEnvironment": "Production",
  }
}

I do not see referenced content items or assets when I add a lot of references

To fetch the referenced content items or assets the user interfaces makes an API call where all IDs are added to the query string. When you have too many items, the query string becomes too long and IIS will return a 404status code. Newer versions of Squidex will fall back to POST requests but you can also increase the request limit.

<system.webServer>
    <security>
        <requestFiltering>
            <requestLimits maxQueryString="8192" />
        </requestFiltering>
    </security>
</system.webServer>

More issues?

For other issues, it is likely that you have a configuration problem not related to hosting under IIS. Checkout the following documentation:

Configuration