I hate IIS - "Server Application Unavailable" error message

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:
!> I do NOT have a folder for "Application Pools"

Sorry to tell you this...but you probably have a bad IIS installation.
That folder *should* be there if you installed IIS 6.0 on W2K3.

The only thing which occurs to me is that you might be running IIS 6.0 in IIS 5.0 compatibility mode.
Then, Application Pools would not be available.

If you are not running IIS 6.0 in IIS 5.0 compatibility mode, you can try one of two things:

1. Uninstall and reinstall IIS
or
2. Install W2K3 into a fresh partition.

Uninstalling/reinstalling IIS isn't too painful.
You can get that done inside of a half hour.

re:.
!> or a folder for "Default SMTP Virtual Server"

That doesn't have to be there. It only shows if you have installed the SMTP server.

re:
!> I DO have a need for a domain controller.

If you do, that's fine.

You *can* run IIS in a domain controller, provided you run ASP.NET
as a custom account, following the details in the link I provided.

What you should *not* do is run ASP.NET as the System account,
even if you think you're sufficiently protected.

 

[Kevin Liebowicz]

re:
!> I do NOT have a folder for "Application Pools"

Sorry to tell you this...but you probably have a bad IIS installation.
That folder *should* be there if you installed IIS 6.0 on W2K3.

Arrrghhh. The folder is definitely -not- there. I rebooted and checked
again. Nothing.

The only thing which occurs to me is that you might be running IIS 6.0 in IIS 5.0 compatibility mode.
Then, Application Pools would not be available.

How do I tell? AFAIK all of my .asp apps have been running just fine
for the past several years. I know have a need to server just
one .aspx page and this is what I'm running into. Not that it's
impossible but I don't see anything anywhere telling me that I'm
running in 5.0 compat mode.

If you are not running IIS 6.0 in IIS 5.0 compatibility mode, you can try one of two things:

1. Uninstall and reinstall IIS

Not fun but the lesser of two evils.

or
2. Install W2K3 into a fresh partition.

No thanks. It took me years to configure the domain, login scripts and
everything else "just right" so I'm not going to nuke everything in
hopes that it might fix this.

Uninstalling/reinstalling IIS isn't too painful.
You can get that done inside of a half hour.

re:.
!> or a folder for "Default SMTP Virtual Server"

That doesn't have to be there. It only shows if you have installed the SMTP server.

It's unlikely that I installed the SMTP server. It's mail anyhow so it
shouldn't be related to this. But then again... the fact that I run a
domain controller is VERY related to running a web-server so you can
never be sure.

re:
!> I DO have a need for a domain controller.

If you do, that's fine.

You *can* run IIS in a domain controller, provided you run ASP.NET
as a custom account, following the details in the link I provided.

What you should *not* do is run ASP.NET as the System account,
even if you think you're sufficiently protected.

Well Juan... it turns out that there is GOOD news after all. My
machine.cfg file did NOT have userName and password field in the
processModel tag. So I added one, rebooted for good measure and ran
the little code snippet from the URL that you sent me.

Guess what... it @#$*! works. Here's the output that I got.
<quote>
Windows Identity Check
Name: FAMILY\aspxuseraccount
</quote>

This "aspxuseraccount" is the account that I created when I started
following the steps in the link you provided. I'm very experienced
with ASP and all of this .NET and .aspx stuff is completely foreign to
me but what I think this is telling me is that *ALL* of my .aspx
scripts will run in the context of this account.

The real test is this one page in this web-app that I bought. I hit
the page... wait a couple of seconds and voila! It freakin works. I
have no idea why it works but adding the username/password fields in
the <processmodel> tag seemed to get things running. I still don't
have a "application pools" item but I really don't care at this point.

Thanks again and take care.

- Kevin

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:
!> Guess what... it @#$*! works. Here's the output that I got.
!> <quote>
!> Windows Identity Check
!> Name: FAMILY\aspxuseraccount
!> </quote>

heh... sometimes going back over suggestions already made pays off.
This is definitely one of those cases.

re:
!> what I think this is telling me is that *ALL* of my .aspx
!> scripts will run in the context of this account.

Exactly. That's what will happen.

re:
!> adding the username/password fields in
!> the <processmodel> tag seemed to get things running.

I think that was the *first* thing I suggested,
although it was in the context of the System account.

I should have been a bit more specific and reminded you that if you use a different
account (like aspxuseraccount) *that* is the acount which goes in that property.

re:
!> I still don't have a "application pools" item but I really don't care at this point.

You don't really need them, unless you're going to run different .Net Framework applications.
Then, you'd have to assign 1.1 apps, 2.0 apps and 3.0 apps to different Application Pools.

re:
!> Thanks again and take care.

You're quite welcome...and I will.

You took a huge step today, Kevin.
Congratulations...and enjoy fiddling with ASP.NET!

re:
!> I do NOT have a folder for "Application Pools"

Sorry to tell you this...but you probably have a bad IIS installation.
That folder *should* be there if you installed IIS 6.0 on W2K3.

Arrrghhh. The folder is definitely -not- there. I rebooted and checked
again. Nothing.

The only thing which occurs to me is that you might be running IIS 6.0 in IIS 5.0 compatibility mode.
Then, Application Pools would not be available.

How do I tell? AFAIK all of my .asp apps have been running just fine
for the past several years. I know have a need to server just
one .aspx page and this is what I'm running into. Not that it's
impossible but I don't see anything anywhere telling me that I'm
running in 5.0 compat mode.

If you are not running IIS 6.0 in IIS 5.0 compatibility mode, you can try one of two things:

1. Uninstall and reinstall IIS

Not fun but the lesser of two evils.

or
2. Install W2K3 into a fresh partition.

No thanks. It took me years to configure the domain, login scripts and
everything else "just right" so I'm not going to nuke everything in
hopes that it might fix this.

Uninstalling/reinstalling IIS isn't too painful.
You can get that done inside of a half hour.

re:.
!> or a folder for "Default SMTP Virtual Server"

That doesn't have to be there. It only shows if you have installed the SMTP server.

It's unlikely that I installed the SMTP server. It's mail anyhow so it
shouldn't be related to this. But then again... the fact that I run a
domain controller is VERY related to running a web-server so you can
never be sure.

re:
!> I DO have a need for a domain controller.

If you do, that's fine.

You *can* run IIS in a domain controller, provided you run ASP.NET
as a custom account, following the details in the link I provided.

What you should *not* do is run ASP.NET as the System account,
even if you think you're sufficiently protected.

Well Juan... it turns out that there is GOOD news after all. My
machine.cfg file did NOT have userName and password field in the
processModel tag. So I added one, rebooted for good measure and ran
the little code snippet from the URL that you sent me.

Guess what... it @#$*! works. Here's the output that I got.
<quote>
Windows Identity Check
Name: FAMILY\aspxuseraccount
</quote>

This "aspxuseraccount" is the account that I created when I started
following the steps in the link you provided. I'm very experienced
with ASP and all of this .NET and .aspx stuff is completely foreign to
me but what I think this is telling me is that *ALL* of my .aspx
scripts will run in the context of this account.

The real test is this one page in this web-app that I bought. I hit
the page... wait a couple of seconds and voila! It freakin works. I
have no idea why it works but adding the username/password fields in
the <processmodel> tag seemed to get things running. I still don't
have a "application pools" item but I really don't care at this point.

Thanks again and take care.

- Kevin

 

[Rbrt]

I am having exactly the same problem as Kevin Liebowicz. In my case, I am a
professional developer and the reason I have IIS running on a domain
controller is that I have a small development network with a server (domain
controller/web server/SQL Server) and a couple of workstations. The server
also serves as a test deployment server for applications I build for my
customers. This should not be unusual given the population of MSDN members
(of which I am one). I have talked to a handful of them at Microsoft events
who do the same thing.

My server is Win 2003 Server standard, which I upgraded from Win 2000
Server. This in itself was a nightmare and I had to burn one of my 4 support
incidents to get it done. Took two days altogether. I couldn't believe how
badly it went. All of my software comes from my MSDN subscription.

Now I am trying to deploy an ASP.NET 2.0 app to the server from the
development workstation to testbed it.

I have all the same symptoms as Kevin - no applicatin pools (they were there
when I installed ASP.NET 2.0 on the Win 2000 server before I upgraded, and
now have disappeared), same error messages in the app log. I did all of the
things specified in the KB articles as well as the stuff recommended in this
thread.

The big difference for me is that I put the user account and password in the
machine.config file and it still does not work.

Please do not lecture me about not running IIS on a domain controller. This
is a development environment and it is very tightly secured behind a
firewall. And please, no lame comments from the Linux crowd, OK? We've heard
it all before. When my customers switch to Linux, then may6be I will too.
Until then, I work with what they've got.

Any advice from anybody else out there who has gone through this nightmare
would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Robert