Website Administration has errors

[Herb]

Using the Website...ASP Configuration tool, when I try to do anything in
"Security" I get the following error. Using Forms ID and a CreateuserWizard,
I am able to creat users through my websote, but not on the Admin website.

Error:

An error was encountered. Please return to the previous page and try again.

The following message may help in diagnosing the problem: Unable to connect
to SQL Server database. at
System.Web.Administration.WebAdminPage.CallWebAdminHelperMethod(Boolean
isMembership, String methodName, Object[] parameters, Type[] paramTypes) at
ASP.security_wizard_wizardpermission_ascx.OnInit(EventArgs e) at
System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) at
System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) at
System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) at
System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) at
System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint,
Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hello Herb,

Welcome to the ASP.NET newsgroup.

From your description, I understand you have an ASP.NET 2.0/VS 2005 web
project. The application is configured to use SQL Server
provider(membership, role ...). The application can works at runtime,
however, when you use the web admin site to manage the web application's
security setting, you're getting "Unable to connect to SQL Server database"
error, correct? If there is anything I missed, please feel free to let me
know.

Based on my experience, such problem is possibly caused by security
permission issue when the webadmin site page try connecting to the target
SQL Server database engine.And this is a bit hard to troubleshoot from the
appearance.

Would please help me confirm the following things on your problem machine?



1. whether your ASP.NET 2.0 application is using the default local SQL
Express provider? Or have you manually changed to use other sqlserver
engine as the database provider?

2. If it is using the default sqlexpress provider, have you checked the
default "localSqlServer" connectionString value in the machine.config file
to see whether it remains the default value(with .net framework
installation)? The default value should look like below:

===========
<connectionStrings>
<add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="data
source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated
Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|aspnetdb.mdf;User
Instance=true" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
===========



I have searched over the web and checked our internal database and found
some similar issues, some are caused by the user account doesn't have
sufficient permision, some are caused by the SQL Express is not correctly
installed.

AS for user account permission, since the web admin site will use the
current logon user(which is using visual studio) as the security identity,
I suggest you verfify whether the current user account has been added in
the machine's "users" group. If it is a domain account, it is naturally
added in the machine's users group.

As for Sql Express database, since the default "LocalSqlServer" connection
string use "User instance" setting, it will create dynamic sql express mdb
files under the following directory(and start a separate sqlserver instance
against it):

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Data\SQLEXPRESS"

You can verify whether there is any mdf files there. If not exists, the
problem is possibly caused by the sql express user instance is not
correctly created. There may exists some issue with the sqlexpress
installation.



In addition, for generic troubleshooting, we can do the following tests:

1) use sql profiler to trace the sqlexpress's connecting status when the
web admin site try connecting to it
(need to have sqlserver 2005 workstation components installed)

2) use filemon tool to trace any NTFS file access failure on the machine:

http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/filemon.html

Hope this helps you some. If there is anything unclear, please feel free to
let me know.

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead


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[Herb]

Steven,

Your assumptions are correct. I am using SQL Server 7 on a different server.
When I use the CreateUserWizard within my ASP page, I can create users. When
I use the Website...ASP.Net Configuration it shows me that I have 1 user
defined (so it sees the data), but any attempts to use "Manage Users", etc
gives the error from the original message. My provider in my web.config is
defined as:

<connectionStrings>
<!--- OLEDB to SQL7 Database -->
<add name="NuclearDedication" connectionString="Provider=SQLOLEDB;
Data Source=BVRPASDATASVR01;Integrated Security=SSPI;
Initial Catalog=NuclearDedication"
providerName="System.Data.OleDb"/>
<!-- provider for security -->
<add name="loginConn" connectionString="Data Source=BVRPASDATASVR01;
Integrated Security=SSPI;Initial Catalog=aspnetdb"/>
</connectionStrings>


<membership defaultProvider="SqlProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15">
<providers>
<clear />
<add
name="SqlProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider"
connectionStringName="loginConnection"
applicationName="NuclearDedication"
enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
enablePasswordReset="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"
requiresUniqueEmail="true"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"
passwordFormat="Hashed" />
</providers>
</membership>

 

[Herb]

Oops. That message had 1 typo. In <connectionStrings/> I typed the name as
"loginConn" and in <providers/> I typed it as "loginConnection". It is
actually "loginConnection" in both places.

 

[Herb]

I have found that by adding the following code to my web.config, everything
works. This is in addition to the code I uploaded before. Question, I now
have 2 sections called <providers>, one in ,roleManager> and one in
<membership>. Is this kosher?

<roleManager defaultProvider="SqlProvider"
enabled="true"
cacheRolesInCookie="true"
cookieName=".ASPROLES"
cookieTimeout="30"
cookiePath="/"
cookieRequireSSL="false"
cookieSlidingExpiration="true"
cookieProtection="All" >
<providers>
<add
name="SqlProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider"
connectionStringName="loginConnection"
applicationName="NuclearDedication" />
</providers>
</roleManager>

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Thanks for your response and the further information.

As you mentioned that the problem went away after you added the following
config sections:

=========================
<roleManager defaultProvider="SqlProvider"
enabled="true"
cacheRolesInCookie="true"
cookieName=".ASPROLES"
cookieTimeout="30"
cookiePath="/"
cookieRequireSSL="false"
cookieSlidingExpiration="true"
cookieProtection="All" >
<providers>
<add
name="SqlProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider"
connectionStringName="loginConnection"
applicationName="NuclearDedication" />
</providers>
</roleManager>

========================

I think this make sense because if you're using both membership and role
management service(enable role) in the ASP.NET application, the admin site
will try establishing the connection to the storage of both the membership
and role management providers(they're separated). Therefore in your
scenario, if you haven't provided the custom "RoleManager" provide setting
which pointing to your own SQL Server 7.0 database, the ASP.NET runtime
still try connecting to the default "Local SQL Express" database, and
result to the error you mentioned earlier. Do you think so?

In addition, here is a blog article which has provided many good resources
on ASP.NET 2.0 membership and role management service:

#ASP.NET 2.0 Membership, Roles, Forms Authentication, and Security
Resources
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/24/438953.aspx

Hope this also helps. Please feel free to let me know if there is anything
else you're looking for or we can help you.

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead


==================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may

learn and benefit from your issue.

==================================================


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.



Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)