Running ASP.Net on a Linux based server
Solution 1
It depends what specific .NET technologies you're using. The Mono Project provides an Apache module (mod_mono) for running ASP.NET sites, and from what I gather it works well.
Mono doesn't support all the .NET APIs, though - notably WPF (and possibly WCF too, I can't remember) - but it does provide good support for much else of the framework.
If you're starting from scratch and particularly want to target non-Windows servers, then ensuring your project works with Mono would be a good goal to aim for. However, if you need particular APIs or language features that are not supported by Mono, then you will need to use a Windows server for deployment. It's a design-time/architectural choice that should make up front.
Solution 2
So I know this is an older question but I think it could stand an updated answer.
Microsoft has officially released asp.net vnext and its open source and deploy-able to both Linux and Mac. Its all still pretty new but does rely on the latest builds of mono and thus currently needs you to compile the mono-framework
but in time I suspect that it will be easier to access as various linux distros release updated versions of mono. This is a how to setup guide
This information may be somewhat volatile and with updates is due to change.
Update ASP.NET CORE 11/10/2017
- asp.net vnext is now known as asp.net core.
- asp.net core is being treated as a high priority in Microsoft due in part to its use with microservice architecture and docker and container technologies
- It has become much more compatible with existing .net libraries due to .net standard 2.0.
- It performs well when compared to other technology stacks such as go and node.js
Solution 3
You might want to consider this guide that helps Windows developers port their code to Mono/Linux:
Guide: Porting ASP.NET Applications - Mono
Solution 4
I can speak from experience. Even if your ASP.net website only uses .NET libraries supported by Mono you are going to have a hard time getting it to run if its anything beyond Hello World.
You won't have to re-write much code but you will spend hours/days/weeks dealing with little issues with mod_mono/xsp/apache configuration and file permissions and error handling and all the little things that go into a large website. (Be prepared to spend a lot of time asking questions on serverfault :) )
The problem is that a lot of people don't use Mono for ASP.net websites and so there aren't as many people reporting bugs so a lot of things that are minor bugs go un-fixed for a long time.
Solution 5
Now you can publish ASP.NET 5 app to Docker on Linux with Visual Studio. See the below post from Scott Haselman
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PublishingAnASPNET5AppToDockerOnLinuxWithVisualStudio.aspx
Anand
Web and iOS Developer. <3 Ruby, Javascript and ObjectiveC.
Updated on November 11, 2020Comments
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Anand over 3 years
For a developer with a Java background, I am interested in exploring software development using the ASP.NET tools/platform as well.
Java web applications (.jsp and servlets) can run on many server platforms.
Question: Will a .NET web application be able to run in a Linux based server? Considering the scenario of not being able to use a Windows server for hosting a web app.