Hosting WCF service in IIS and System.Web.WebPages.Deployment

As per MSDN the System.Web.WebPages,Deployment namespace contains "the classes that are used to confirm the deployment of web applications". It make sense for web applications which contains web pages created using .aspx or Razor. But what is the relation between this System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll and WCF service application which hosted inside IIS which is exposed via netNamedPipes ?

As we have seem in my previous post about SSMS and System.Transactions.dll, I got a machine crash and the machine started behaving in its's own way which resulted in problems. Now when I host WCF services inside IIS there are problems. The services, I was able to browse before the crash stopped working with below error message.

Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Deployment, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest

The call stack looks as follows

---

[BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Deployment, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.]
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +0
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +34
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +152
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean forIntrospection) +77
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) +16
   System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) +28
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +38

[ConfigurationErrorsException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Deployment, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.]
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +752
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssembly(AssemblyInfo ai) +57
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig) +170
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetPreStartInitMethodsFromReferencedAssemblies() +91
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods(String preStartInitListPath) +258
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ExecutePreAppStart() +135
   System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +516

[HttpException (0x80004005): Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Deployment, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.]
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +9873912
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +101
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +254

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One possibility for BadImageFormatException is the mismatch of runtime. ie if we try to load x86 assembly in x64 application or other way we may get this exception. I tried enabling 32 bit support in the application pool by setting the "Enable 32-Bit Applications" flag in IIS. 

It did't help.

Then looked at all the config files possible such as aspnet.config and machine.config. Nowhere I was able to find any entry to the problematic dll. Then I decided to find out the assembly binding information which is as follows

=== Pre-bind state information ===
LOG: User = NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
LOG: DisplayName = System.Web.WebPages.Deployment, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35
 (Fully-specified)
LOG: Appbase = file:///<drive>:/TFS/TestDotNet/WcfService1/
LOG: Initial PrivatePath = <drive>:\TFS\TestDotNet\WcfService1\bin
Calling assembly : (Unknown).
===

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Here its clear that the calling assembly is unknown which I assume any framework dll. May be it was earlier getting loaded from GAC and after the crash GAC registration might be broken. So I figured out the location of he dll and registered into GAC.

Location of System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll - <Install drive>:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v2.0\Assemblies

But the GACUtil failed with a message as follows.

The module 'System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll' was expected to contain an assembly manifest.

Then I tried open the dll in reflector and could see that, it was not able to open as its no more a .net dll and it displayed more detailed error message

File is not a portable executable. DOS header does not contain 'MZ' signature.

This leads to a conclusion that the System.Web.Webpages.Deployment.dll is corrupt. So next option is repair or re-install. So went to appwiz.cpl and re-installed "Microsoft ASP,Net Webpages 2".

It worked!!!

But why WCF hosted in IIS needs System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll which is for web page related :-(