How to debug and test custom Sitecore OrderCloud middleware on your local environment

Many companies and their developers use Azure DevOps platform for project deployment. Azure DevOps provides a big list of build-in tasks that can be useful, but very often it is not enough and you have to implement your own scripts. In this article I share my TOP of useful powershell scripts that can be helpful for everyone.

Disclaimer: avoid of using IIS Web App Manage taks for IIS and App Pool managing. Problem: it fails with error if current status is not the same as expected. Example: "Stop App Pool" task will fail if application pool is already stopped.

1. Stop Website (if exists) or Create new and Stop (if not exists)

   
   Import-Module WebAdministration
   $siteName = 'website.com';
   $path = "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\website.com"
   
   $exist = (Get-Website -name $siteName) -ne $null
   
   if($exist){
   	$status = Get-WebsiteState -name $siteName
   
   	if ($status.Value -ne 'Stopped'){
   	   Write-Output ('Stopping IIS Website: {0}' -f $siteName)
   		Stop-WebSite -Name $siteName
   	}
   }
   else{
           # create new IIS website and 80 port binding
   	New-Item IIS:\Sites\$siteName -bindings @{protocol="http";bindingInformation=":80:" + $siteName} -physicalPath $path
   	$status = Get-WebsiteState -name $siteName
   	if ($status.Value -ne 'Stopped'){
   	   Write-Output ('Stopping IIS Website: {0}' -f $siteName)
   		Stop-WebSite -Name $siteName
   	}
   }
   
   

2. Stop App Pool (if exists) or Create new and Stop (if not exists)

   
   Import-Module WebAdministration
   $siteName = 'website.com';
   
   if(Test-Path IIS:\AppPools\$siteName){
   	$status = Get-WebAppPoolState -name $siteName
   
   	if ($status.Value -ne 'Stopped'){
   	   Write-Output ('Stopping Application Pool: {0}' -f $siteName)
   		Stop-WebAppPool -Name $siteName
   	}
   }
   else{
   	New-Item IIS:\AppPools\$siteName
   	Set-ItemProperty IIS:\Sites\$siteName -name applicationPool -value $siteName
   	$status = Get-WebAppPoolState -name $siteName
   
   	if ($status.Value -ne 'Stopped'){
   	   Write-Output ('Stopping Application Pool: {0}' -f $siteName)
   		Stop-WebAppPool -Name $siteName
   	}
   }
   
   

3. Ensure that Website and App Pool are both stopped

   
   Import-Module WebAdministration
   $siteName = 'website.com';
   
   $exist = (Get-Website -name $siteName) -ne $null
   if($exist){
   	if(Test-Path IIS:\AppPools\$siteName){
   		$success = $false;
   		# timer in 60 sec 
   		$sec = 60;
   
   		do{
   			$iisState = (Get-WebsiteState -name $siteName).Value
   			$iisstopped = $iisState -eq "Stopped"
   			$poolState  = (Get-WebAppPoolState -name $siteName).Value
   			$poolstopped = $poolState -eq "Stopped"
   
   			Write-Output "Website state: $iisState"
   			Write-Output "AppPoolstate: $poolState "
   
   			$success = $iisstopped -and $poolstopped
   
   			if(!$success){
   			 Start-Sleep -s 1
   			 $sec = $sec - 1;
   			}
   		}
   		while (!$success -and $sec -gt 0)
   
   		if(!$success){
   		  throw "Can not stop IIS or App pool"
   		}
   	}
   }
   
   

4. Set App Pool Identity user

   
   Import-Module WebAdministration
   $siteName = 'website.com';
   $appUser = 'Apppool_User';
   $appPassword = 'Apppool_User_Password';
   
   Set-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\$siteName -name processModel -value @{userName=$appUser;password=$appPassword;identitytype=3}
   
   
   

5. Set SSL certificate and add HTTPS binding to Website

   
   Import-Module WebAdministration
   $siteName = 'website.com';
   $fqdn = 'website.com';
   
   # get certificate by Subject
   $newCert =  dir Cert:\localmachine\My | where-Object {$_.subject -like "*website.com*"};
   # get certificate by thumbprint
   #$newCert =  dir Cert:\localmachine\My | where-Object {$_.Thumbprint -eq "1d486045ed3af7513b62ae43135421268bcde3dd"};
   
   
   $webbindings = Get-WebBinding -Name $siteName
   $webbindings
   
   
   $hasSsl = $webbindings | Where-Object { $_.protocol -like "*https*" }
   
   if($hasSsl)
   {
       Write-Output "An SSL certificate is already assigned."
   }
   else
   {
       Write-Output  "Applying TLS/SSL Certificate"
       New-WebBinding -Name $siteName -Port 443 -Protocol https -HostHeader $fqdn; #could add -IPAddress here if needed (and for the get below)
   	
   	$httpsBinding = Get-WebBinding -Name $siteName -Port 443 -Protocol "https" -HostHeader $fqdn;
   	
   	Write-Output $httpsBinding
   	
       $httpsBinding.AddSslCertificate($newCert.Thumbprint, "my")
   
       Write-Output  "`r`n`r`nNew web bindings"
       $webbindings = Get-WebBinding -Name $siteName
       $webbindings
   }
   
   

6. Set environment variable

   
   Import-Module WebAdministration
   $siteName = 'website.com';
   $fqdn = 'website.com';
   
   $envVariables = "/system.applicationHost/applicationPools/add[@name='$(SITE_NAME)']/environmentVariables"
   $configSection = $envVariables + "/add[@name='ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT']"
   $subsections=get-webconfiguration $configSection -PSPath iis:
   $subsections | foreach { $_.attributes | select name,value }
   
   if($subsections -eq $null){
   	$cmd='c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe'
   &$cmd set config -section:system.applicationHost/applicationPools /+"[name='$(SITE_NAME)'].environmentVariables.[name='ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT',value='$(ENVIRONMENT)']" /commit:apphost
   }
   
   

7. Ping Website to be sure if it starts

   
   $KeepAliveUrl = "https://website.come/keepAlive"
   $InitTimeoutSec = 300
   $ReInitTimeoutSec = 60
   $ThirdTimeoutSec = 5
   
   Write-Host "KeepAliveUrl: " + $KeepAliveUrl;
   
   ## Enable TLS 1.2 to allow HTTPS communication
   [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
   
   ## The first request after the deployment may take a long time 
   Write-Host "Request page to send a wake-up call and wait $InitTimeoutSec seconds to complete initialization"
   Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $KeepAliveUrl -TimeoutSec $InitTimeoutSec -UseBasicParsing
   
   ## Second request may still take a while as some initialization processes could
   ## have been started after first request (such as package installation via fridaycore), so smaller timeout here to make sure it is alright 
   Write-Host "Requestto send another wake-up call and wait $ReInitTimeoutSec seconds to complete"
   Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $KeepAliveUrl -TimeoutSec $ReInitTimeoutSec -UseBasicParsing
   
   ## Third and any further requests must be responded within 5s
   Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $KeepAliveUrl -TimeoutSec $ThirdTimeoutSec -UseBasicParsing
   
   

8. Sometimes you need to install .Net Core related software with specific version, but you don`t have access to server and have to install in by pipeline tasks. The easiest way to do it is download dotnet-install.ps1 and use it for installations.

   
   [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
   
   $WebClient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
   $WebClient.DownloadFile("https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/scripts/v1/dotnet-install.ps1","D:\dotnet-install.ps1")
   
   

9. Install .NET Core Runtime version

   
   [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12 
   d:\dotnet-install.ps1 -Runtime dotnet -Version 2.2.8
   
   

10. Install ASP.NET Core Runtime version

    
    [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
    d:\dotnet-install.ps1 -Runtime aspnetcore -Version 2.2.8
    
    

11. Execute SQL script

    
    $Query = "select * from [MyDatabase].[dbo].[MyTable]"
    Invoke-Sqlcmd -ConnectionString "$(ConnectionString)" -Query $Query | Out-File -FilePath "D:\temp\select_log.txt"
    
    

12. Show logs by mask (for specific date)

    
    $logpath = "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\website.com\logs"
    $today = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd"
    $userDate = $(Date)
    
    if(![string]::IsNullOrEmpty($userDate)){
     $today = $userDate
    }
    
    if (Test-Path -Path $logpath ){
    	Get-ChildItem -Path $logpath
    
    	Get-ChildItem $logpath -Filter *$today*.txt | 
    	Foreach-Object {
    		Get-Content $_.FullName
    	}
    }
    
    

13. Zip and Upload directory

    
    $OutputDir = "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\output"
    
    Compress-Archive -Path $OutputDir -DestinationPath $OutputDir -Force
    Write-host "##vso[task.uploadfile]$OutputDir.zip"