MSDEPLOY unable to contact remote temporary agent

Question

I have been running an MSDEPLOY command successfully for the past couple weeks until yesterday (at least that's when I was first made aware of the deploy script failure). I did install Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 on the build server yesterday to fix an issue related to web.config transformations, and I do run the MSDEPLOY script from that server to install on a remote server (running Windows Server 2008 R2 IIS 7.5).

I stepped up the MSDEPLOY command to verbose and got the following trace:

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 Start executing msdeploy.exe
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 "C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\msdeploy.exe" -source:package='E:\Staging\ChildSupportWebsite.Beta1\Release\_PublishedWebsites\Csws.UI_Package\Csws.UI.zip' -dest:auto,computerName='HFSWP121-03720',userName='DOMAIN\USERNAME',password='PASSWORD',includeAcls='False',tempAgent='true' -verb:sync -disableLink:AppPoolExtension -disableLink:ContentExtension -disableLink:CertificateExtension -setParamFile:"E:\Staging\ChildSupportWebsite.Beta1\sit.Csws.UI.SetParameters.xml" -skip:Directory="Csws\\Participant" -skip:objectName=filePath,absolutePath="bin\\.*.xml|pdb"  -whatif  -verbose
Verbose: Using ID '557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' for connections to the remote server.
Verbose: Creating temporary directory '\\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' on remote target.
Verbose: Copying temporary agent file C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\Microsoft.Web.Delegation.dll to \\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d\Microsoft.Web.Delegation.dll.
Verbose: Copying temporary agent file C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\Microsoft.Web.Deployment.dll to \\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d\Microsoft.Web.Deployment.dll.
Verbose: Copying temporary agent file C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\MsDepSvc.exe to \\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d\MsDepSvc.exe.
Verbose: Copying temporary agent file C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\x64\axnative.dll to \\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d\x64\axnative.dll.
Verbose: Copying temporary agent file C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\x86\axnative.dll to \\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d\x86\axnative.dll.
Verbose: Executing command line 'C:\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d\MsDepSvc.exe -listenUrl:http://+:80/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d/' on remote target.
Verbose: Temporary agent started on remote target. Process ID 2592.Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Verbose: The temporary deployment agent at 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' could not be contacted. It may still be starting up. The connection will be attempted again.
Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Verbose: The temporary deployment agent at 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' could not be contacted. It may still be starting up. The connection will be attempted again.
Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Verbose: The temporary deployment agent at 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' could not be contacted. It may still be starting up. The connection will be attempted again.
Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Verbose: The temporary deployment agent at 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' could not be contacted. It may still be starting up. The connection will be attempted again.
Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Verbose: The temporary deployment agent at 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' could not be contacted. It may still be starting up. The connection will be attempted again.
Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Verbose: Performing synchronization pass #1.
Verbose: Pre-authenticating to remote agent URL 'http://HFSWP121-03720/557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' as 'DOMAIN\USERNAME'.
Info: Adding sitemanifest (sitemanifest).
Verbose: Terminating the temporary agent process (ID 2592) on the remote target.

Verbose: Deleting temporary directory '\\HFSWP121-03720\C$\Windows\TEMP\MSDEPLOY\557f88cc-6194-41fb-84b0-6895fe8bc47d' on remote target.

Error: Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentProviderOptions' to type 'Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentProviderOptions'.
Error count: 1.

I have googled this but I have not found any information that can get me to a resolution. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

For anyone out there who has been using this from the command line, it may be that you have both v1 and v2 installed in which case change

"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy\msdeploy.exe" in the command line to

"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy v2\msdeploy.exe"

It fixed this issue for me. Hope that helps.