Active Directory Authentication - Thread was being aborted exception

[chand]

Our application on production is lately receiving the occasional
"Thread was being aborted" error while user is trying to login. We are
using Forms Authentication with Active Directory.

The stack trace shows that there is an error in the web.config file.
But there is nothing wrong with the configuration as such. Because the
error is not consistent and same configuration file is same across all
the machines in the web farm.

We identified a pattern to this error. Once in a while a user when
trying to login gets the "Request Timeout" error.
Request Timeout error is immediately followed by the "Thread was being
aborted error". The error is in the method
System.Web.Security.Membership.Initialize().

After this no one can login to the application until we restart the
IIS. Sometimes we need to restart IIS several times to get rid of
this error!

Application is running on ASP.Net 2.0, IIS6, and Windows 2003 server

I would appreciate any help in trouble shooting the error.

Stack Trace

Error: 72f31f84-6d54-45e2-88fa-2ed2d8b21397, Exception Details:
Exception Type=System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException
type=System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException message=Thread
was being aborted. (serverroot\web.config line 119) stack=
System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Thread was being
aborted. (serverrootI\web.config line 119) at
System.Web.Security.Membership.Initialize() at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.LoginUtil.GetProvider(String providerName)
at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Login.OnAuthenticate(AuthenticateEventArgs
e) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Login.AttemptLogin() at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Login.OnBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs
e) at System.Web.UI.Control.RaiseBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs
args) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs
e) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String
eventArgument) at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String
eventArgument) at
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler
sourceControl, String eventArgument) at
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean
includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean
includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestWithNoAssert(HttpContext context) at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at
ASP.login_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at
System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step,
Boolean& completedSynchronously) at
System.Web.Security.Membership.Initialize() at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.LoginUtil.GetProvider(String providerName)
at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Login.OnAuthenticate(AuthenticateEventArgs
e) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Login.AttemptLogin() at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Login.OnBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs
e) at System.Web.UI.Control.RaiseBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs
args) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs
e) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String
eventArgument) at
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String
eventArgument) at
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler
sourceControl, String eventArgument) at
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean
includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean
includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestWithNoAssert(HttpContext context) at
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at
ASP.login_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at
System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step,
Boolean& completedSynchronously) Properties: Known Exception : True
Info : general Resolution : undefined Message : UI Exception

Thanks,
chand