Take the 2-minute tour ×

We have a Windows Server 2008 R2 box setup as a Terminal Server with Visual Studio 2012 installed on it for remote developers to be able to do development on our ASP.net systems.

We would like to be able to do debugging on out projects the same way we do when developing on our local machines using visual studios internal development server.

I am trying to start local debugging on an ASP.Net project (F5) in VS2012 - the project compiles - IE comes up with my localhost url and then it just spins with "connecting..." and the page never comes up.

Pulling up the same workspace on a local machine and debugging comes up just fine.

I've exhausted my google-fu on looking for solutions here and humbly ask you all for any insight.

share|improve this question
add comment

3 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

Visual Studio works a little differently when you are debugging on a server. You don't really want to use VStudio to play/debug on a web server. You need to use the menu option "Debug", "Attach to process". There will be several processes running, so it might take a few tries to find the right process.

Be careful though. Because your break-points will actually freeze IIS for the entire server. It could be a pretty big inconvenience for everyone who is using IIS at the time.

share|improve this answer
This box is actually setup as a Terminal server - not a web server - we are trying to do debug in VS2012 using the Visual Studio Development Server. –  FDPiech Feb 21 '13 at 18:50
Okay. Now I get it. So, are your TS guests connecting as administrators? If not, then I don't think they will be able to activate the TCP ports that the built-in VStudio web server uses, or connect to the processes, etc. VStudio needs to be running with max local privileges –  tgolisch Feb 21 '13 at 20:50
Now that is worth checking deeper into - I'd bet that they do not - let me research this a bit deeper. –  FDPiech Feb 22 '13 at 13:10
add comment

If you are trying to debug the project from your IIS server, you need to verify if the account has Administrator rights, also if the project has been deployed with its source files, you can attach the process (maybe it is w3wp.exe) in Visual Studio and debug it.

Another way is to open the solution using Visual Studio and change in the web project's property the server: Use Visual Studio Development Server.

Let me know more info about your scenario to provide you more paths.

share|improve this answer
"Another way is to open the solution using Visual Studio and change in the web project's property the server: Use Visual Studio Development Server." -- This is actuually what we are trying to do. When we do this - the IE comes up - but the page never displays and it just says "connecting..." for several min until it times out. –  FDPiech Feb 21 '13 at 18:48
add comment

What I would do is attach to the IIS process on the server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/3s68z0b3.aspx you can even do this off your machine.

make sure debug is enabled in web.config for that app and you've mounted the remote project. Add a break point, debug by attaching to the IIS app pool process & it'll trigger the break point.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


