Using Manifest gives an error 'parameter is not recognized' from MSDeploy.exe

Question

For ASP.NET project MSBuild gives some files in E:\\tmp such as:

• TestProjectA.deploy.cmd
• TestProjectA.SetParameters.xml
• TestProjectA.SourceManifest.xml
• TestProjectA.zip

To deploy from Windows 7 to Windows Server 2008 R2 (IIS 7)

Executing command gives following error message:

Command

C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3>msdeploy.exe -verb:sync -source:manifest="E:\tmp\TestProjectA.SourceManifest.xml" -dest:auto -declareParamFile="E:\tmp\TestProjectA.SetParameters.xml"

Error Message

Error: The declared parameter 'IIS Web Application Name' is not recognized. E:\\tmp\\TestProjectA.SetParameters.xml
Error count: 1.

TestProjectA.SetParameters.xml file contains:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <parameters>
     <setParameter name="IIS Web Application Name" value="Default Web Site/TestProjectA_deploy" />
     <setParameter name="DefaultConnection-Web.config Connection String" value="Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=aspnet-TestProjectA-20140131141721;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|\aspnet-TestProjectA-20140131141721.mdf" />
  </parameters> 

In IIS TestProjectA_deploy App exist under Default Web Site .

Is there any idea to solve it?

Answer 1

Was having similar issue on the cmd line using -setParam:'IIS Web Application Name'='Default Web Site/'

Resulting in "Error: Unrecognized argument 'IIS Web Application Name=Default Web Site/'"

What I needed to do was drop the -setParam (which produced an error related to authenticaiton and contentPath) and change then change -dest:auto to -dest:contentPath='Default Web Site'