There doesn't seem to be a way to install ASP.NET Core Windows Hosting Bundle

[catmanjan]

I see someone asked about this before, but via the install.ps1 there doesn't seem to be a way to install the hosting bundle

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-aspnetcore-10.0.10-windows-hosting-bundle-installer

This is the one that lets you host kestrel apps under IIS

[ellahathaway]

Thanks for raising this! The Windows Hosting Bundle is intentionally not supported by dotnet-install.ps1. The script is designed specifically for CI scenarios where .NET needs to be installed without admin rights and without user interaction. The Hosting Bundle breaks these constraints:

1. It requires admin rights — it installs the ASP.NET Core Module (ANCM) into IIS, which is a system-level operation.
2. It's a Windows .exe installer, not an archive — the script works by downloading .zip/.tar.gz archives and extracting them directly. There's no archive equivalent for the Hosting Bundle.
3. It's Windows/IIS-specific — the script is cross-platform (there's a bash counterpart dotnet-install.sh), and the Hosting Bundle is fundamentally a Windows/IIS concept.

The -Runtime options (dotnet, aspnetcore, windowsdesktop) all correspond to extractable archives on the feed. The Hosting Bundle only exists as a .exe installer, so it can't be supported the same way.

Hope that clarifies things! Similar context was discussed in #335 as well.

[catmanjan]

Can this be added to the doco somewhere?

In particular, what is the Microsoft approved way to install the hosting bundle for CI processes

Our situation is we need to run the hosting bundle in a docker container - we are now just downloading the exe and running it but that doesn’t seem like best practice, but maybe it is?

[baronfel]

@joeloff do you know for any guidance for the hosting bundle here?