Dave Bost

Rob Caron has already touched on this, but I thought I spread the message here as I’m the one who encountered this odd behaviour. Thanks to a three way IM session between myself, Rob, and Eli Robillard, we were able to figure out what was going on.

Essentially, I was going through the steps to install the VSTS Beta 2 bits. I started with my base Windows Server 2003 VPC image, installed ASP.NET, than Active Directory, than SQL 2005 April CTP (SQL install comes before WSS!) than Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS). When WSS finished installing, it’s suppose to launch the sharepoint site in a browser. Unfortunately, I received a generic error. You know, the kind you get because . I proceeded to turn CustomErrors off to see the true error message and say this:

Access to the path “C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\Temporary ASP.NET Files\_layouts\7908a291\1034c155″ is denied.

Basically what I was able to delineate was the fact that the ASP.NET process couldn’t create my temporary ASP.NET files. I was currently logged in as my machine’s Administrator and looking at the ACLs on the temp files folder, the Administrators group (which Administrator is a member of) had Full Control. Yet, I was still getting an access denied error. I also noticed that there was a listing for the “Autenticated Users” group, but that particular group didn’t have “Write” access. I went ahead and modified the assignment and gave “Authenticated Users” “Write” acces. Switched back to my browser, and it worked. But I wasn’t happy with the solution.

Why did I need to go through this extra step? Why didn’t the WSS installer set up the appropriate rights? To make a long story short and to not bore with the details of the conversation and thoughts going back and forth between me, Rob and Eli, Rob hit on a topic about the ordering of my install. I thought, “maybe something is out of whack with my ordering”. Who’s responsible for creating the temp files folder? ASP.NET install, that’s who. Who’s responsible for all sorts of policies and permissions definitions, Active Directory install, that’s who. Why did I install ASP.NET before I made the machine a domain controller (installing Active Directory)? I wasn’t sure.

So, I flipped back to VPC and basically started all over again with a fresh base image of Windows Server 2003. This time my install pattern followed as such: Active Directory, ASP.NET, WSS, and when the WSS install completed, my browser brought up the WSS site without a hitch. Bingo, problem solved.

When I informed Rob and Eli of my success, Eli was kind enough to point outthis remark in the Windows Sharepoint Services Administration Guide:

Running Windows SharePoint Services on a Domain Controller

So it just goes to show you… RTFM!

After all that… I said my “adieu” to Rob and Eli and continued on with my VSTS install. At this point, I was on the “Install SQL 2005 April CTP” step. I proceeded to install SQL2K5 to be greeted with some strange error at some point in the process that I can’t remember. Another cry for help to Rob, and he proceeds to tell me, “RTFM”. In this case it’s the VSTS install guide, which informs the user to install WSSAFTER SQL2K5. So I flip back to yet another fresh image of Windows Server 2003 and proceed to install: Active Directory, than ASP.NET, than SQL 2K5, than WSS, and all is well - so far.

Team System