Configuring location redirects for IIS, behind ARR, on the application server

Question

I have a WebForms application where a particular program no longer exists. Instead of returning a 404 response, the client insists they want this particular link to redirect to another page on the website.

So I set up this Web.config in the directory where the since deleted file used to live:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <location path="questionnaireactivations.aspx">
    <system.webServer>
      <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="default.aspx" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
    </system.webServer>
  </location>
</configuration>

This works great on my local machine, but when I push it to our test application server, which sits behind an Application Request Router, it would appear that the request for redirect is being ignored, and an error that the .aspx file can not be found is returned.

Are there known issues that prevents ARR requests from using the Web.config defined in a particular directory, in the same way as if ARR did not exist in the first place?

Answer 1

HTTP Redirection needs to be installed as a Role Service for the Web Server role.

Once installed, the web.config worked.