Search results matching tag 'troubleshooting'

Use Process Monitor to filter w3wp processes, capture user property (w/pictures) article

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:38:00 GMT

Here is article I put together (with pictures) using process monitor to filter information on a specific W3WP process, listing USER property. I commonly reference how to do this @ http://forums.iis.net

http://www.iislogs.com/articles/processmonitorw3wp/

Hope this helps,

Steve Schofield
Microsoft MVP - IIS

Error connecting to SQL Server from Windows 7 / Windows 2008 R2 with ASP.NET

bills — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:41:00 GMT

Just ran into this and thought I’d share. If you are trying to connect to a "user instance" of SQL Server from your Web application running on Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 and you’re getting a message that looks like this:

Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to failure in retrieving the user's local application data path. Please make sure the user has a local user profile on the computer. The connection will be closed.

I can probably help you out.

Note: this error only happens if you have User Instance=true in your connection string. The IIS team made a change to the default identity of the worker process. Starting with IIS 7.5, Application Pools run with a unique identity based on the Application Pool name, rather than NetworkService – the default identity for IIS6 and IIS7. The primary reason for this change is to increase the security of IIS and Application Pools by default, providing a much better sandbox between Applications and other Windows services by default.

Unfortunately, the new identity does not have a user profile, and as you can see from the error, this causes the SqlClient data stack to fail. There are a few things you can do to "fix" this error: 1) switch back to NetworkService 2) switch to a user account that has a local profile (like a real user / domain user account). To do that, fire open IIS Manager and browse to Application Pools node for your computer. Click on the AppPool for the application you are trying to run and select the “Advanced Settings” task (in yellow on right). Select identity and choose NetworkService as a built-in account, or select “Custom account” and type in the user/password.

If you’re a command-line person, you can do it this way (all on one line):

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config  
-section:system.applicationHost/applicationPools /[name='YOUR_APPPPOOL_NAME_HERE'].processModel.identityType:"NetworkService"  
/commit:apphost

PAL - Performance Analyzer with IIS

ganeshanekar — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:30:03 GMT

PAL is a very good tool when it comes to analyzing perfmon data. This automated tool generates a nice report in html format which can be sent to customer’s directly. This tool is written by BizTalk PFE and few others. As this is a free tool, customers can download the tool on their own. Tool has built in templates for OS/Exchange/MOSS/AD/BizTalk/SQL with recommended(baseline) counter values specific to products and which can be customized further.

Check out these links for more information:
http://www.codeplex.com/PAL/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=16807
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc296652.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/clint_huffman/archive/2008/09/02/how-to-use-the-pal-tool-for-biztalk-performance-analysis.aspx

PAL Download - http://www.codeplex.com/PAL/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=16807

Note: It requires Microsoft Log Parser. Log Parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files, and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows operating system such as the event log, the registry, the file system, and Active Directory® ,directory service. You may want to use this tool to query a significant amount of logging information.

You can download the Log Parser tool at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=85574.

More Info on PAL Tool - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc296652.aspx

Troubleshooting performance counter problems with perfmon and a debugger

Anonymous — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:17:00 GMT

Performance counters are a wonderful tool when it comes to quickly assessing system health and performance of Windows subsystems. In addition to learning much about the operation of Microsoft products, exposing performance counters from your own code...(read more)

Workaround for using IIS 7 url authorization with ASP.NET roles

Anonymous — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:33:00 GMT

When using the IIS 7.0 Integrated pipeline, you gain access to a ton of cool scenarios where IIS and ASP.NET features work together to provide value for your application – regardless of the application content. Most of these features involve using...(read more)

Troubleshooting: Silverlight and IIS 6

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:54:00 GMT

If you have noticed Silverlight and IIS 6 do not go well by default. When we come to think of it, din't Silverlight come a long time after Windows Server 2003? Yes, but that doesn't mean that they do not support each other totally. It's just that the MIME types needed to run Silverlight are not present by default on IIS 6. So here's how to do add them:
--> Open up IIS manager
--> Right-click Server Name
--> Properties
--> Mime Types
--> New
and add the following 3 entires one after the other:
Extension : .xap Mime Type: application/x-silverlight-app
Extension: .xaml Mime Type: application/xaml+xml
Extension: .xbap Mime Type: application/x-ms-xbap
Once done with this, you should be good to go ...
Oh by the way, you would have to do the same if you are still running the RTM version of Vista (IIS 7). From Vista SP1 onwards this was taken care by default. More info at iis.net
Have Fun!

More Tips and Troubleshooting Help for Classic ASP Developers

bills — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:10:18 GMT

Back in May of 2007 I posted a tips for Classic ASP developers post which has since received more than 50 comments and 85,000 views. Robert McMurray just posted a set of fabulous tutorials for Classic ASP developers. If you’re out there and having issues with Classic ASP and IIS7 and need some help, you’re not alone! Read these articles to get help:

Classic ASP is not installed by default on IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

In IIS 7.0 and 7.5, the classic version of ASP is not installed by default. Because of this, you might see HTTP 404 errors when you try to browse to an ASP page on your server, or you might see the source code for your ASP page displayed in your browser window ...

Using Classic ASP with Microsoft Access Databases on IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

Note: Microsoft Access databases have been popular for many years with developers who use Active Server Pages (ASP) for small-scale applications, but Microsoft Access databases are not designed for scalability, therefore Access databases should only be used ...

Classic ASP script error messages are no longer shown in a Web browser by default

In earlier versions of IIS, error messages from classic ASP scripts were sent to a Web browser, by default. Because these error messages might reveal sensitive information to malicious users, IIS 7.0 disables this feature by default. When your classic ASP ...

Using Failed Request Tracing to troubleshoot Classic ASP errors

One of the great troubleshooting features that is built in to IIS 7.0 is Failed Request Tracing, which lets you configure tracing rules on your server that will create detailed troubleshooting log files for custom failure conditions that you define. For example ...

Classic ASP parent paths are disabled by default

Classic ASP Parent Paths let developers use relative addresses that contain ".." in the paths to files or folders. For example, the following code excerpt illustrates an ASP page that maps a parent path: % Response.Write Server.MapPath("../example.asp")%> ...

APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH Server Variable on Windows Vista RTM

The original release of IIS 7.0 that shipped with Windows Vista returned a different value for the APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH server variable than that which was returned by previous

IIS 7.0/IIS6.0 - URLSCAN 3.1 and Outlook Web Access

ganeshanekar — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:15:00 GMT

I was working with one of the customer on Urlscan and their requirement was to install Urlscan on Windows Server 2003 64-bit to hide Server's identity. Basically in Urlscan.ini, we can configure "RemoveServerHeader=1" to server's identity from HTTP Header.

As Urlscan 2.5 has urlscan.dll in 32-bit, we weren't able to get it work on Windows 2003 64-bit and the only option was to switch IIS worker process to run in 32-bit mode (Enable32bitAppOnWin64). But they wanted to run it in 64-bit. So we downloaded latest Urlscan 3.1 64-bit and installed it on Windows Server 2003 64-bit.

Download URLSCAN 3.1 from following locations:
Download the x86 version from Microsoft Download Center here.
Download the x64 version from Microsoft Download Center here.

Once you download desired URLSCAN, you can double click .msi to to install Urlscan and here is how it looks:

By Default Urlscan keeps all the files in "%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\urlscan" folder on Windows 2003/2008/Vista. We successfully installed Urlscan 3.1 64-bit on Windows Server 2003 64-bit and found that urlscan.dll ISAPI filter is loaded (shows up green arrow) in Default Web Site>ISAPI Filters Tab in IIS 6 Manager.

Note: If you install Urlscan 2.5 which is 32-bit on 64-bit machine, it copies all the file to "%systemroot%\SysWOW64\inetsrv\urlscan" folder.

Customer had Exchange 2007 installed with OWA configured. When OWA users tried to access the OWA site, they got a Blank page, little strange. So we looked at Urlscan logs, we found that the OWA URL was rejected by urlscan. The reason for rejection "AllowDotInPath" was not permitted [set to 0 (Zero)]. After changing "AllowDotInPath=1" in Urlscan.ini, all OWA users were able to successfully browse/login to OWA site.

Here is a MS KB 823175 which talks about sample Urlscan.ini template file for OWA. Anytime you configure Urlscan and if it does not work, simply look at urlscan log file and check reason for URL rejection.

Later I installed Urlscan 3.1 on my 64-bit Vista machine running IIS 7.0. You can see Urlscan 3.1 ISAPI filter gets installed in ISAPI filters lists.

Without any re-configuration in Urlscan.ini file, I simply tried browsing a HTML page and here is what I got:

By Default, anything which is NOT in allow section, will get rejected and normally show "404 Error" on the page.

You can check URLSCAN logs to see what is the cause of rejection. The log resides in "%system%\system32\inetsrv\urlscan\logs" folder.
Look for recent file e.g. - urlscan.121708.log.

Here is a example of rejected URL by URLSCAN 3.1.

#Software: Microsoft UrlScan 3.1
#Version: 1.0
#Fields: Date Time c-ip s-siteid cs-method cs-uri x-action x-reason x-context cs-data x-control
2008-12-17 05:05:38 ::1 2 GET /default.aspx/SampleNamespaceOne/Welcome.html Rejected URL+contains+dot+in+path URL - -

Check out blogs on UrlScan v3.1 by Wade
SQL Injection attack

IIS 7.0 - Application Pool Recycles - Log a event in Windows Event Log

ganeshanekar — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:18:00 GMT

This is my 1st blog post on IIS 7.0.

Application Logging

Apart from the standard IIS logs type, other items can be logged. Many of these options can be set in UI using the IIS Manager or by using Appcmd.exe - IIS command line administration Tool.

Application Pool - Process Recycling Logging

In IIS 7.0, events are logged to the Windows event log when an application pool recycles. You can control eight recycling application pool configuration settings with each option listed in Table below:

Recycling Options Under Generate Recycle Event Log Entry
Option	Description	Default Setting
Application Pool Configuration Changed	Event is logged when the application pool recycles due to a change in its configuration	No
ISAPI Report Unhealthy	Event is logged because an ISAPI extension has reported itself as unhealthy	No
Manual Recycle	Event is logged when the application pool has been manually recycled	No
Private Memory Limit Exceeded	Event is logged when the application pool recycles after exceeding its private memory limit	Yes
Regular Time Interval	Event is logged when the application pool recycles on its scheduled interval	Yes
Request Limit Exceeded	Event is logged when the application pool recycles after exceeding its request limit	No
Specific Time	Event is logged when the application pool recycles at a scheduled time	No
Virtual Memory Limit Exceeded	Event is logged when the application pool recycles after exceeding its virtual memory limits	Yes

In IIS Manage UI, you can find above options as below:

1. Open IIS Manager

2. Go application pools.

3. Highlight the application pool and select "Advanced Settings".

4. Under Recycling, Expand "Generate Recycle Event Log Entry"

Classic ASP Error Logging:

For Classic ASP (Active Server Pages) in IIS 7.0, you can configure options for logging ASP errors under the ASP section in the IIS Manager. You may use the following options to discover issues when migrating your Classic ASP applications to IIS 7.0.

Enable Log Error Requests - Controls whether the Web server writes ASP errors to the application event log
Log Errors To The NT Log - Specifies that ASP errors are recorded in the Windows event log

Note: These options are also available in IIS 6.0, but you have to use ADSUtil.vbs to enable them in the metabase. Now, in IIS 7.0, you can use the IIS Manager to enable these options or use command line appcmd.exe tool.

Logging ASP.NET Exceptions:

All ASP.NET 2.0 unhandled exceptions are always written to the Application Event log. Along with application pool recycle events or other errors in the event logs, this can be very helpful in troubleshooting application errors. It is always a good idea to debug Unhandled Exceptions in ASP.NET. See following blogs for more information:

Debugging Unhandled Exceptions in ASP.NET
Learning how to Debug ASP.NET App Issues (Memory Leaks, Crashes, Deadlocks, etc)

IIS 6.0 Events Reference
IIS logs events in the windows event viewer which helps to analyze performance and troubleshooting. Review "Event Reference" for more information.

Why IIS7? Top 12 cool features…

bills — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:13:45 GMT

Every time I talk with customers in meetings or at conferences I’m struck by how many cool amazing new capabilities IIS7 has. I can go on for literally hours talking about the new features and benefits, and showing demos. And with each new IIS7 Extension, the list of new features just gets bigger and bigger. A few months ago I realized we didn’t have the top list of features written up anywhere, and so we started the process of distilling down the list to the top 10. We almost made it! We ended up with the top 12 reasons you should get IIS7 today. Check them out here:

http://www.iis.net/getstarted

Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding a cool demo for each of the reasons to show the features in action. Be sure to check back soon!