SYSTEM DOWN: IIS wont register Web App

[Arthur Dent]

Hello all.... i am having a very frustrating problem, because it has KILLED
my website, and i cant seem to get it working again.

I have an ASP.NET 2.0 site, which worked without any problems a few days
ago. The past few days i have been working on a different project, and have
not touched this project. I have checked in Windows Update, and no updates
were installed in the past couple days and no work has been done on the
server.

In my web app, i am using Forms Authentication, and consequently have both
an AUTHENTICATION element and an AUTHORIZATION element.When i try to go to
the site, ... well, the first problem is it is not recognizing my
customErrors mode=Off setting. So i have to go to the server to find out
what's really wrong (this is probably related to my main problem).

But when i go to the site now on the server, i get the following error:
===== BEGIN ERROR =====
Parser Error Message: It is an error to use a section registered as
allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This error
can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application
in IIS.

Source Error:

Line 68: <authentication mode="Forms"> <----- this line is
highlighted.
Line 69: <forms defaultUrl="index.aspx" loginUrl="login.aspx"
name="bnlpcasAUTHX" protection="All" slidingExpiration="true" timeout="90"/>
Line 70: </authentication>
===== END ERROR =====

I checked the directory in IIS and it is set up as an application. I tried
removing the application and recreating it. Nojoy. I tried switching the
site to .NET 1.1, Nojoy, switched it back to 2.0, Nojoy. IIS seems to have
lost the fact that this is an application and no matter what i do, i can't
seem to get it recognized as an application again, even though the IIS gui
does show it as an application. This has happened to both our 2.0 sites and
our 1.1 sites. One or two sites ive been able to get back up by removing the
application and recreating it, but not most of them.

As part of the same problem, it also doesnt recognize other settings in the
web config... such as the customErrors and connectionStrings keys.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated as this currently has our development system
essentially down and development stopped.
Thanks in advance!!!!!
- Arthur Dent

 

[Guest]

This can be caused by several things, but the most common is that the folder
from which your app is being loaded has a web.config file but is not marked
as an IIS application (or it's an ASP.NET 1.1 app and should be a 2.0 app, or
vice-versa).
If it is supposed to be a "sub web", then remove the web.config and the
web.config from the higher-up folder IIS App will be operant.
Pete

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com

 

[Arthur Dent]

As i said, this is an application, and has the application configured in
IIS. But even though the IIS gui says it is an application (it has an
application name in the properties dialog, and it has the different icon),
it still is not properly recognizing it as an application. I have tried
uninstalling and reinstalling both .NET 1.1 and 2.0 from the server
entirely, and reapplying all updates from Windows Update, but still nojoy.
Again... the directory IS supposed to be an application, and is marked as
such in the IIS gui, but it is not being processed as an application when a
user browses to the various sites.

For explanation, the way we have it set up is ... we are a web development
and hosting company. So we have a sub-domain set up that goes
http://test.ourcompany.com. then under there we have subdirectories for each
client/project such as test.ourcompany.com/client1,
test.ourcompany.com/client2 etc etc. Each of these subdirectories are
ASP.NET web apps (some 1.1, some 2.0). IIS shows them as being applications,
with the funny little box icon, and a name in the properties dialog. But
even so, when i go to them in a browser, i get the message about using a
Machine-to-Application level setting beyond an application.

Why is IIS not serving my apps up as applications? What could cause this?

 

[Guest]

Arthur,
Aside from the recommendation to run ASP.NET 1.1 and 2.0 Applications under
separate AppPools, it could be that one or more of your applications is not
configured for the corect Framwork version.

Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com

 

[Arthur Dent]

The server is Win2000, so it has an older version of IIS, which does not
have the application pools part like on aWin2003 server.
How would i do that? I tried setting the Application Protection to High
(Isolated), but that did not make any difference.

If it were because a site or two was set to the wrong version of the
framework, why would that kill mostly ALL the sites on the server?

I just tried creating a brand new folder on the webserver, setting it up as
an app, and copying all the files from the first to the second....
thinking that perhaps it was something in the IIS metabase for the original
site that got screwed up. But even the new folder did not work.
I think somehow something with IIS has gotten hosed.

I just tried also running aspnet_iisreg -u -i and -c for both versions of
the framework, but nojoy.

 

[Arthur Dent]

In case any one else reads this looking for answers...

What i ultimately had to wind up doing was completely uninstalling all of
IIS from the server (through Add/Remove Programs > Windows Components) and
reinstall it... now everything works beautifully again.