Hosting .NET Backend + Frontend with Nginx on Ubuntu

This guide explains how to deploy and host a .NET backend service and a frontend (React/Vue/Angular or static site) using systemd and Nginx on Ubuntu.

📂 Project Structure

Component	Path
Backend (systemd service)	`/etc/systemd/system/mybackend.service`
Backend published files (.dll)	`/var/www/mybackend`
Frontend files (HTML/CSS/JS)	`/var/www/myfrontend`
Nginx config	`/etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp` (linked to `sites-enabled`)

1️⃣ Backend Setup (.NET)

Step 1: Publish the .NET backend

dotnet publish -c Release -o /var/www/mybackend

This generates your backend .dll and related files into /var/www/mybackend.
Ensure the app listens on a fixed port (e.g., 5000) in appsettings.json or launchSettings.json:

"urls": "<http://localhost:5000>"

Step 2: Create a systemd service

Create and edit the service file:

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

Paste the following:

[Unit]
Description=My .NET Backend Service
After=network.target

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

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Hosting .NET Backend + Frontend with Nginx on Ubuntu

📂 Project Structure

1️⃣ Backend Setup (.NET)

Step 1: Publish the .NET backend

Step 2: Create a systemd service

Step 3: Enable and start the service