From 9a899d3682076bb593483e7b4d92e299fc83c2ab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Daniel Covington <danielc@kentcommunications.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:46:53 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Fix deploy: admin site/pool restart being silently skipped

Root cause: the final restart block called Get-WebAppPoolState first to
decide Restart- vs Start-WebAppPool. With \Continue = 'Stop',
any transient error from that check (most likely right after
Wait-AppPoolFullyStopped had to force-kill a lingering worker process,
leaving the pool's WAS state briefly inconsistent) threw an uncaught
error and aborted the rest of the script - silently skipping the admin
site/pool start even though the public site had already restarted
successfully by that point.

Fix: Start-WebAppPool/Start-Website are no-ops if already started, so
drop the state check entirely. Both public and admin site/pool starts
now go through Start-SiteAndPool, which wraps each call independently
in try/catch so one failing doesn't prevent the other from starting,
and reports (rather than swallows or aborts on) any failure.
---
 scripts/deploy-iis-remote-apply.ps1 | 41 +++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/deploy-iis-remote-apply.ps1 b/scripts/deploy-iis-remote-apply.ps1
index 28eef32..74d9c6f 100644
--- a/scripts/deploy-iis-remote-apply.ps1
+++ b/scripts/deploy-iis-remote-apply.ps1
@@ -157,23 +157,36 @@ if($RunMigrations){
   }
 }
 
-Write-Host "Starting IIS site $SiteName and app pool $AppPool"
-if((Get-WebAppPoolState -Name $AppPool).Value -eq 'Started'){
-  Restart-WebAppPool -Name $AppPool
-} else {
-  Start-WebAppPool -Name $AppPool
-}
-Start-Website $SiteName
+# Start-WebAppPool/Start-Website are no-ops (no error) if already started, so there's no
+# need to check current state first - and checking first (via Get-WebAppPoolState) is what
+# was silently killing this whole block: with $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop', a transient
+# error from that check (e.g. right after Wait-AppPoolFullyStopped had to force-kill a
+# lingering worker process) aborted the script before the admin site/pool were ever started.
+# Each start below is independently wrapped so a problem with one site doesn't prevent the
+# other from starting, and every failure is reported instead of aborting silently.
+function Start-SiteAndPool {
+  param([string]$PoolName, [string]$WebsiteName)
+
+  if(![string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($PoolName)){
+    try {
+      Start-WebAppPool -Name $PoolName -ErrorAction Stop
+      Write-Host "Started app pool $PoolName"
+    } catch {
+      Write-Host "WARNING: failed to start app pool $PoolName : $($_.Exception.Message)"
+    }
+  }
 
-if(![string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($AdminSiteName)){
-  if(![string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($AdminAppPool)){
-    if((Get-WebAppPoolState -Name $AdminAppPool).Value -eq 'Started'){
-      Restart-WebAppPool -Name $AdminAppPool
-    } else {
-      Start-WebAppPool -Name $AdminAppPool
+  if(![string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($WebsiteName)){
+    try {
+      Start-Website -Name $WebsiteName -ErrorAction Stop
+      Write-Host "Started site $WebsiteName"
+    } catch {
+      Write-Host "WARNING: failed to start site $WebsiteName : $($_.Exception.Message)"
     }
   }
-  Start-Website $AdminSiteName
 }
 
+Start-SiteAndPool -PoolName $AppPool -WebsiteName $SiteName
+Start-SiteAndPool -PoolName $AdminAppPool -WebsiteName $AdminSiteName
+
 Write-Host 'Remote apply complete.'