ASP.NET Configuration and/or Installation Questions

(Question in a nutshell: how do I setup ASP.NET on my existing IIS/Win2K server without messing existing sites up? Read on for specifics...)

My production server is IIS5 on a locked-down Win2K server, with all service patches applied. This server has multiple websites with different security settings on various folders already set for various users. Everything has been running (more or less) smoothly for over a year since we migrated from the old production server to this one.

I have run into a situation where I must start allowing ASP.NET applications. "Fine," I said. That's a no-brainer. Let's see what I have to do.

1. I verified that I have the .NET Framework 1.1 on the server. I uploaded an ASPX file ("hello world") to see that it works... and nothing. (see footnote)
2. So I poked around online and found that I needed to run the ASPNET_REGIIS application. I did that and verified that the default website configuration now has the .NET DLL loaded. Reloaded the ASPX file in my browser... and nothing. (see footnote)
3. In poking around some more on the 'net, I'm finding references to the ASPNET user (and occasional references to the IWAN_USER). Setting specific directories with read/execute access for these users resulted in... nothing. (see footnote)
4. I'll assume that the reason that VisualStudio.Net can't properly connect to the remote server from my local machine is related in some manner.

(footnote: by "nothing", I mean various ASP.NET error messages, either in the browser window or in the event log. I can share if necessary, but they all appear to be security- or directory-not-found/accessible -related.)

And so it goes. There's a TON of reference material for how to code in ASP.NET, but nothing for how to configure an existing IIS machine to now run .NET files. I don't want to set the ASPNET user at the root and propagate the root security down the directory tree, erasing all that I've setup so far. I don't know where the WEB.CONFIG and/or MACHINE.CONFIG files should be in order to make this work either -- I've placed them in the root and give localized security access to those file to the ASPNET user, to no avail. Is this related to how tightly I've locked down the server? If so, what rights do I need to give the config files?

So, if someone could point me to a step-by-step guide of the checks that I need to run to make sure that the server and/or specific directories on a specific website(s) are configured to setup and run ASP.NET applications, that would be swell. The books that I pored over at [insert name of favorite local bookstore here] over the weekend were less than stellar, going into details about contents of the .config files instead of what I think I'm looking for.

Ideas, suggestions appreciated. Much thanks too.

i also got the same problem..my win2k IIS also can't run asp.net
PHP can success run~

I'm not real familiar with asp.NET, perhaps someone else that has gotten everyting going on W2K will jump in.

Still not working. But things appear to be progressing a bit after I've done the following:

= On the web server, I ran Visual Studio setup and installed the Web Components option. This allowed Visual Studio on my local desktop to not barf when trying to connect to the server. Still not making a successful connection, but at least the server appears to be responding when compared to how it was reacting before.

= On the web server's application log, there were a TON of various ASP.NET-related error messages, generating every 30 seconds or so. According to a number of various websites, this was due to a permissions issue. Since there is no clear-cut answer as to whether I should use the ASP.NET user (for the 1.0 framework) or the IWAN user (for the 1.1 framework) for access, I went with the third option of creating a new ASP.NET user and applying permissions by hand to various directories. This resulted in the error messages stopping their autogeneration every 30 seconds, and now those same messages only generate whenever I try to access the "hello world" ASPX page (I think).

= The event log error message is EventID 1088: Failed to execute request because the App-Domain could not be created. Error: 0x80070005 Access is denied. On the bright side, this error appears to generate only when trying to connect with VS, not whenever the ASPX page is requested through a browser (because that generates a completely different error in the browser, not in the application log).

(wait a second... I'll be right back...)

And NOW it works.

Here's what I ended up doing:

= According to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315158 I may need to create a custom ASPNET user account.

= So I followed the directions listed here ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/SecNetHT01.asp ) to create the account AND apply appropriate permissions across my entire server. The one piece in this article that appears to be missing is where the web.config file needs to exist. I didn't have one in my initial ASP.NET folder, so I had it in my website root... and needed to apply additional rights there.

= And hey! The VS now connects just fine AND creates the appropriate BIN and web.config files in the project folder. Whoo!

So now that I've gotten this thing (finally) working in my DEV environment, all I have to do is worry about whether the files will work when they get copied to the production website. But at least then I'll know what security needs to be setup.

In this particular case, I think I'll keep all ASPX files isolated from the regular ASP files... just in case I end up mucking with security all over the place I won't break the working files.

In any case, I hope the links above help others in the same situation I was in. Thanks for everyone's assistance.

Run the following command and it will work. The problem in my case was that I have installed IIS after installing the .NET framework.

The folder may be different if you have another .NET version.

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322>aspnet_regiis.exe -i

I hope it works.

Bye,
Gabriel Dumbrava

1) Install .NET Framework 1.1
2) Run aspnet_regiis -i from the framework version folder. This registers that version of the framework with IIS.