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February 02, 2006

The case of the missing ASP.NET

Today while working at a client site, I came across a problem in a Event Viewer log on a Windows 2003 server. The problem wasn't that much of an issue: WSUS was having problems updating. I tried to log into the WSUS administrative interface but it had been corrupted due to a Windows Sharepoint Services installation.

"No problem," I thought to myself, "I'll just uninstall WSUS and clean up the server a bit". I called the technician that usually takes care of the site to verify that WSUS wasn't in use and that it was OK to take the service off the server. He told me that it wasn't in use and that I was OK to go.

The uninstallation of WSUS was uneventful at best. I was able to remove it using the Add/Remove Programs feature found in all modern versions of Windows software. Once it had been removed, I opened a Web browser to access the Sharepoint site to make sure nothing was broke.

If you're a regular reader of my site, you already know the answer to that one.

So, Sharepoint was broke. I was recieving a 404 error message (can't find a file or directory). I called the technician to make sure that he hadn't done anything special with the Sharepoint installation, which he reported that it was a standard install with no special configurations. I then called for a second opinion from our boss who agreed that it would be a problem either with IIS or perhaps the MSSQL database that was running.

I combed over the Web site configurations in IIS and couldn't find *ANYTHING* wrong. I checked and double checked and triple checked my findings. I searched Google and Microsoft's support site to make sure that all of the settings were correct, which they were.

My next thought was that it had to be the database. All of the files existed and the database itself, MSSQL$SHAREPOINT, was running properly. My boss was able to help at this point and remoted into the server to see if we couldn't find a solution by putting our heads together. He was able to verify the same things that I had: IIS was configured properly and the database appeared to be running. But when we tried to access the Sharepoint site, it would only come up with a 404 error.

At this point, we had spent way too much time trying to get the service back up and running. Defeated, we decided that it was in our best interest to re-install Windows Sharepoint Services and restore the database backup. I hung up the phone and began the process of downloading WSS with SP2, stopping the MSSQL services and moving old data so it wouldn't be written over.

When the WSS-SP2 download was completed, I ran the executable and received a notice that went something like this:

"Windows Sharepoint Services requires that ASP.NET be allowed in Internet Information Services. To verify that ASP.NET is allowed, open IIS and click on the Web Service Extension folder."

At this point, I'm thinking: "ASP.NET? Why would it be disabled? Would WSUS prohibit ASP.NET during an uninstall process?" So, I opened IIS once again and clicked on the Web Service Extention folder. Low and behold, the ASP.NET service was indeed prohibited. I selected the extension, clicked on the "Allow" button and waited a few seconds. I then opened a Web browser, typed in the address of the Sharepoint site, waited a second ... and boom ... there it was.

The source of all my problems ... ASP.NET. Click for larger image.

Now, I'm posting this hoping that somehow, maybe someone else out there might be running into the exact same problem that I did and might find this bit of information helpful, as there wasn't really any specific information available on the Web that was able to help me.

Update: For some reason, I was typing MySQL when I really meant MSSQL. I've gone through and made corrections so that the post is no longer confusing. Thanks for the heads up, Troy.

~out...

Posted by ed at February 2, 2006 03:00 PM

Comments

Posted by: Troy Overton at February 3, 2006 09:19 AM

Posted by: eengelking at February 3, 2006 10:16 PM

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