Abdul Muazzam

If you’ve been building apps with .NET Core / .NET 6+, you probably know one of its coolest features — it’s cross-platform. That means your app isn’t tied to Windows anymore. You can run it on Linux servers too, which is awesome if you’re working with cloud providers or want a lightweight, cost-efficient server.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the exact steps to deploy a .NET Core app on a Linux server. Don’t worry if you’re new to Linux — I’ll keep it simple and clear. By the end, your app will be running live on your domain, just like any production-ready app should.

What You’ll Need

A Linux server (Ubuntu/Debian works great)
SSH access to the server
A .NET Core project ready on your local machine

1. Update Your Linux Server

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install .NET Runtime (or SDK)

If you just want to run your app on the server, install the runtime. If you want to also build or test on the server, grab the SDK.

wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb -O packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y dotnet-runtime-8.0   # runtime only
sudo apt install -y dotnet-sdk-8.0       # sdk (optional)
dotnet --version

3. Publish Your Project

cd /path/to/your/project
dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained false -o ./publish

This creates a publish folder with everything your app needs to run.

Tip: If you don’t want to install .NET on the server, you can publish --self-contained true so the runtime is bundled with your app.

4. Copy Files to the Server

scp -r ./publish username@yourserver:/var/www/myapp

5. Run the App Manually

cd /var/www/myapp
dotnet YourApp.dll

By default, it will start on http://localhost:5000. If you see it running — congrats, your app works on Linux!

But we’re not done yet. Running it manually isn’t practical for production. Let’s fix that.

6. Add Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

We’ll use Nginx to forward traffic from your domain (port 80/443) to your app.

Install Nginx:

sudo apt install nginx -y

Create a config:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp

Paste this:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection keep-alive;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Now your app is accessible at http://yourdomain.com.

7. Run Your App as a Service

You don’t want to manually restart your app every time the server reboots. Let’s fix that with systemd.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service

Add this:

[Unit]
Description=My .NET Application
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/myapp
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dotnet /var/www/myapp/YourApp.dll
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
SyslogIdentifier=myapp
User=www-data
Environment=ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable myapp
sudo systemctl start myapp
sudo systemctl status myapp

Wrap-Up

And that’s it! You’ve successfully:

Published your .NET Core app
Deployed it to a Linux server
Set up Nginx as a reverse proxy
Configured it to run as a background service

Your .NET app is now production-ready on Linux.

Next step: Add SSL with Let’s Encrypt to secure your app with HTTPS (it’s free and easy!).

Post: How to Deploy a .NET Core Project on Linux (Beginner-Friendly Guide)