cannot get IIS 5.0 to process ASP, error 500 (Internal server error)

[spyordie007]

As the topic reads I have a Windows 2000 Server (IIS 5.0) and can not for the life of me get it to process ASP pages, whenever I try and bring one up (even a blank test.asp page) I get a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error sent to the browser.

Application configuration shows ASP as a Mapped application using the default verbs (GET,HEAD,POST,TRACE).

I've tried removing IIS from this server completely, than installing SP4 (was previously SP3) and reinstalling IIS and of course deleting and re-creating the site.

Anyone have a suggestion that may help me to resolve this?

thanks in advance.

-Spy

 

[spyordie007]

if it's useful the event log error I get is:

The server failed to load application '/LM/W3SVC/1/Root'. The error was 'General access denied error'.
Event ID 36

The IUSER has r/w/x permissions to the script (and to the whole www directory), system has full control over the asp dll.

I have not been able to find anything useful on microsoft's KB in regards to this error.

 

[bsobel]

What happens when you add permissoins to the IWAM_* account also?
Bill

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: bsobel
What happens when you add permissoins to the IWAM_* account also?
Bill

My mistake for not mentioning, the IWAM account has access as well.

-Spy

 

[cleverhandle]

Perhaps you've already checked, but does EventID's writeup help? Personally, I have little idea what you're talking about, but they always offer me good pointers with Windows problems.

 

[Thor86]

Most likely an ACL issue.

You need to let IUSER and IWAM accounts read/execute rights to at least the entire Inetpub and Winnt/System32 folders to start with. If you are also using ASP+ADO/ODBC, you also need to give Program Files/Common Files/System folder access.

Good luck.

 

[spyordie007]

Well although I found Q297989 (linked off of eventid.net) quite useful pulling the IUSER and IWAM passwords out of the IIS Metabase and reseting the user accounts to match that and using synciwam.vbs to sync the passwords did not fix the problem.

both the IUSER and IWAM accounts have read/exe privilages to the root directory of the web server and for troubleshooting purposes I also gave them the same permissions for /WINNT/System32 + /Program Files/Common Files/System.

I would say this sounds like a corrupt IIS Metabase but I would like to think that removing IIS and re-installing it would fix that

Thanks for the suggestions guys, unfortunetly I have yet to resolve this issue.

-Spy

 

[spyordie007]

any other suggestions?

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
both the IUSER and IWAM accounts have read/exe privilages to the root directory of the web server

Does it also have permissions for the wwwroot folder?

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: Thor86

Originally posted by: spyordie007
both the IUSER and IWAM accounts have read/exe privilages to the root directory of the web server

Does it also have permissions for the wwwroot folder?

The root directory is not c:/inetpub/wwwroot it is on a seperate partition; however the IUSER and IWAM accounts do have privilages to it all the same.

-Spy

 

[Thor86]

Ok, final question, so your x:\inetpub and all subfolders and x:\winnt\system32 and all subfolders, your ACLs should at least be:

Administrator - full
System - full
IUSER - r/x
IWAM - r/x

If it still gives you errors, then I suggest you uninstall IIS5.0 and all components, unplug the system off the network, re-install IIS5.0 (with at least these components - common files, IIS snap-in, is manager html, world wide webserver), re-install Win2k SP4, goto windowsupdate and update all critical updates.

And if that doesn't work, then your Win2k install is fubar'd.

 

[spyordie007]

If that's the case than the Win2K install may be fubar'd

While it was running SP3 I uninstalled IIS (all components) than applied SP4 and reinstalled IIS hoping that would take care of the problem.

I would like to think there exists a solution besides formating and reinstalling, this server has several other functions and I dont much feel like taking the time to backup/setup the system unless I have to.

-Spy

 

[bsobel]

Either turn on failure auditing or grab filemon from sysinternals and look for failures for the iis process. This should help narrow down what is causing the failure...
Bill

 

[spyordie007]

well thanks to filemon I figured out what it was, a few of the DLLs in the system32 directory were not inheriting permissions correctly and that was the cause of the failure. Now I have to carefully reapply the permissions to the system32 directory however asp is working.

Thanks for the help!

-Spy

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
well thanks to filemon I figured out what it was, a few of the DLLs in the system32 directory were not inheriting permissions correctly and that was the cause of the failure. Now I have to carefully reapply the permissions to the system32 directory however asp is working.

Thanks for the help!

-Spy

Sorry it took so long, I should have mentiond that option sooner (brain freeze ). Glad your running.
Bill