IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1

Posted: Sep 22, 2008  9 comments  

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Tags
configuration
errors
iis 7.0
sp1
vista

Some time ago, I tried to start up the IIS Management Console on my Vista machine and I received an exception. After trying a few quick fixes, I gave up. I had several VPC images that I worked from and I didn't particularly need this machine to work when I had so many others.  However, I've been doing a great deal of development on this machine now, and having IIS working is obviously rather handy. So, I tracked down the exception and solved my problem. I thought I'd go ahead and chronical my adventures for anyone else who is having this issue and needs help.

So first of all, the error that was displayed when I started inetmgr was as follows:

---------------------------
Failed to connect
---------------------------
There was an error when trying to connect. Do you want to retype your credentials and try again? 
Details: Creating an instance of the COM component with CLSID {2B72133B-3F5B-4602-8952-803546CE3344}
from the IClassFactory failed due to the following error: 8007000d. --------------------------- Yes No ---------------------------

So I thought that this might be a configuration error. I tried to roll back to a known good configuration but appcmd failed with the following exception:

ERROR ( hresult:80070426, message:Command execution failed.
The service has not been started. )

I tried to start the service with a good old fashion iisreset command and the following exception occurred:

Attempting stop...
Internet services successfully stopped
Attempting start...
Restart attempt failed.
The IIS Admin Service or the World Wide Web Publishing Service, or a service dep
endent on them failed to start.  The service, or dependent services, may had an
error during its startup or may be disabled.

Once again, I thought I'd go into the services console and try to start IIS manually. After trying to start it manually, it failed, stating that a dependent service failed. So I looked at Windows Process Activation Services (WAS) and noticed it was stopped. I tried to start it manually and found the following:

---------------------------
Services
---------------------------
Windows could not start the Windows Process Activation Service service on Local Computer.
Error 13:
The data is invalid.
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

So I checked out the event log and found the following four entries:

First Event :

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          9/21/2008 11:52:00 PM
Event ID:      7001
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
The World Wide Web Publishing Service service depends on the Windows Process Activation Service service which failed to start because of the following error:
The data is invalid.

Second Event:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          9/21/2008 11:52:00 PM
Event ID:      7023
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
The Windows Process Activation Service service terminated with the following error:
The data is invalid.

Third Event:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          9/21/2008 11:51:59 PM
Event ID:      5005
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) is stopping because it encountered an error. The data field contains the error number.

Fourt Event:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          9/21/2008 11:51:59 PM
Event ID:      5036
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
The configuration manager for Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) did not initialize. The data field contains the error number.

I checked through my event logs and realized that this started happening after I had upgraded to SP1. I hadn't recognized this as the issue because, as I said, don't typically use IIS on this machine on a regular basis. I decided to go back to my initial assessment that this had to be configuration related. I started doing comparisons between configuration of a pure Vista installation vs a Vista machine with SP1. I found that the schema had changed during the install, but something had been left out.  The schema file was updated to add the configurationHistory configuration section, but a corresponding section definition was not added to the applicationHost.config file.  

Whether this was what was causing the problem or not, I knew this was going to cause a problem. I added the following configuration entry to the applicationHost.config file under the section group for "system.applicationHost". 

<section name="configHistory" allowDefinition="AppHostOnly" overrideModeDefault="Deny" />

After this I started the WAS service, the World Wide Publishing Service and the IIS Admin Service. I opened up the IIS Management Console and everything was working just fine.

I'm not sure what exactly happened during the SP1 upgrade that caused this file to not be updated, but I'm pleased to report that all things are up and running again.

Comments

  1. IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1: Tobin Titus Blog
    September 22, 2008

    Pingback from  IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1: Tobin Titus Blog

  2. Anonymous
    September 22, 2008

    hmmm.

  3. Windows Vista News » IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1
    September 22, 2008

    Pingback from  Windows Vista News  &raquo; IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1

  4. Najlepsze Programy, Recenzje, Informacje. » Blog Archive » IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1
    September 22, 2008

    Pingback from  Najlepsze Programy, Recenzje, Informacje.  &raquo; Blog Archive   &raquo; IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1

  5. IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1
    September 22, 2008

    Pingback from  IIS cannot start after upgrade to Vista SP1

  6. Anonymous
    September 26, 2008

    Hello,

    I tried changing the file in:

    C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-iis-sharedlibraries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_0eb2b0c8b7e74678\applicationhost.config

    The system wouldn't let me. Is this the right file?

  7. TobinTitus
    September 30, 2008

    No. The file you want should be in \windows\system32\inetsrv\config\

  8. Anonymous
    December 3, 2008

    Hey! Good job man. My IIS was back again. Thanks alot you saved my time.

  9. Amit Choudhary
    January 26, 2009

    Hi,

    I started to getting this error. I try to access IIS after a long time. I check the applicationhost.config file and it already has the configHistory entry with the corrected values. I am in a deep trouble, any help is greatly appriciated.

    FYI. I upgraded to SP1 way back and I am 100% sure that I was able to access the IIS after that. My system is uptodate with Latest Windows updates. I have windows vista business edition (32 bit).

    Thanks

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