SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:07:38 Z

I have an existing Vista machine running IIS/W3SVC with .NET v3.5 installed. I run several services off the web server including CM and SSRS.

After applying SP1 the WWW service fails to start saying WAS isn't running. Trying to start WAS generates a useless message saying an element can not be found (could have at least told me the element). Looking in the event log I see a group of errors from WAS saying:

Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) is stopping because it encountered an error. The data field contains the error number. Data=80070490

The Windows Process Activation Service failed to generate an application pool config file for application pool '*'. The error type is '0'. To resolve this issue, please ensure that the applicationhost.config file is correct and recommit the last configuration changes made. The data field contains the error number.

The configuration manager for Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) did not initialize. The data field contains the error number. Data= 80070490

The file exists, appears to be a valid file and contains the appropriate entries for the sites and webs I've configured.

Michael Taylor - 12/11/07

http://p3net.mvps.org

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:04:15 Z

More information. I was hoping that it was a conflict with existing settings in IIS so I uninstall IIS and tried to reinstall. Reinstalling IIS fails and generates 1500 (yes, 1500) errors in the event log. Each entry says it is changing the state of something and then changing it to install. After a while the installer comes back and says it failed to install some components (namely all of them). The event log errors all came from Servicing. The only good side to this problem is that my machine logs in faster because it doesn't have to wait for WAS to error out. Otherwise I'm still without IIS and SSRS.

I'm contemplating removing SP1 but it has some fixes that I need. I'll probably rollback unless someone can provide a solution.

Michael Taylor - 12/18/07

http://p3net.mvps.org

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:26:48 Z

I'm having a similar problem. IIS won't start because WAS won't start. When I try to start WAS (net start was), I get the following message in the event log:

"The Windows Process Activation Service service terminated with the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified."

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see the name of the offending file in event log entry.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          12/27/2007 6:58:35 PM
Event ID:      7023
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      benday-vista.work.benday.com
Description:
The Windows Process Activation Service service terminated with the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
    <Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908D1-A6D7-4695-8E1E-26931D2012F4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49152">7023</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2007-12-27T23:58:35.000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>53890</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>benday-vista.work.benday.com</Computer>
    <Security />
</System>
<EventData>
    <Data Name="param1">Windows Process Activation Service</Data>
    <Data Name="param2">%%2</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

This is cramping my ability to do dev on this box. Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,

-Ben Day

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:31:30 Z

I found a solution to my WAS problem.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/0618d6b1-6b0d-4358-a5fd-7d610cbfc0921033.mspx?mfr=true

Essentially, a temp directory used by WAS (c:\inetpub\temp\appPools) wasn't there. I re-created the directory and set the permissions as shown in the link above and was able to restart WAS and W3SVC.

-Ben

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:26:45 Z

I was finally able to get WAS and W3SVC to run under SP1 RC on my machine. It turns out that the upgrade process did not properly update my applicationhost.config file. As a result WAS failed to start. I was missing the configHistory section definition from my file.

I diagnosed this problem by looking through TechNet for the various causes of a WAS failure. One of the ongoing themes was to be sure to have a backup of the config file. Further reading indicated that any changes to the file should generate a backup automatically but it wasn't on my machine. I looked in the config file to see where it was placing the backups to see if there was a problem and, to my surprise, there was no such section. Adding the section caused a different (and more useful) error from WAS. The error said that configHistory was not a defined section. The schema for the section is in TechNet but the section definition is not. I loaded up my Vista VM, applied the SP and compared the two config files. Copying the section definition from the good file to my machine resolved the issue. I still don't have a configHistory section but the definition is available.

I would propose that MS enhance their error message for bad configuration files to include the section/element that can't be found. Although I wasn't able to duplicate any WAS failures in my VM (I tried it 3 times with differing software installed) I suspect that there is a problem somewhere such that the install should have either generated an error or properly updated my config file. Nevertheless my problem is now resolved.

Michael Taylor - 1/3/08

http://p3net.mvps.org

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:46:54 Z

do you mind posting the relevant section of the config file?

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:03:41 Z

i added the "configHistory" element to the .config file (shown below) at C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config, started WAS and then was able to start IIS. let me know if i've done something wrong here. thanks.

SP1, RC1 causes web server to fail to start

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:13:06 Z

Code Snippet

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Michael Taylor - 2/17/08

http://p3net.mvps.org