A very long time ago I managed a server with some websites on it. So long ago, in fact, that this "cutting edge" deployment was on Windows 2000 Server. I made a virtual machine backup of this server at the time, burned the files onto a DVD and filed this away in case I ever needed it. And recently I had reason to want some data off this ancient machine. I was able to get it fired up, but it took a little effort to get there. It feels like a minor miracle that I was able to make this run, so I wanted to write down some of the things I messed about with - partly so I'll remember if I ever have to do something similar again, and partly because this might be of interest to (a small number of) others too...
I was hacking up an app as a personal project recently, and decided to try out the latest preview (Number 7) of ASP.Net Core for .Net 7. I happened to be deploying this project to a server which had never run ASP.Net Core before, and that deployment left me scratching my head for some time. So in case this issue hits others, here's what happened to me:
[ Edited to add: Since I wrote this, both the hardware and software has moved on, and I've had some other issues maintaining this server, which you might be interested in...]
I've been building myself a new home server this week and figured I should write down a few things about what I've been up to in case anyone else is trying to do a similar thing and hits the same roadblocks I have...