How To Troubleshoot ASP in IIS 5.0

This step-by-step article describes the troubleshooting steps to take if ASP (Active Server Pages) stops responding on an Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 Web server. The platform may be any version of Windows 2000.

How to Troubleshoot ASP in IIS 5.0

NOTE: Before you begin, ensure that .html or .htm files open on the Web server in question. If these files do not open, this is not an ASP issue.

1. If a Global.asa file exists in the root of your Web site, rename it as Global.old, stop and restart the Web services, and then create a test ASP page in Notepad with the following code:

   <%
   Response.Write "This is a test ASP page."
   %>
   

   Save this file as Test.asp in the root of your Web site, and try to open the file on the Web server.
   
   If ASP pages load in your Web browser after you have performed this step, the problem is with the Global.asa file. If ASP pages still do not load, proceed to step 2.
   
   
   For additional information on troubleshooting the Global.asa file, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   
   
   288245 PRB: Global.asa Does Not Fire from Personal Web Server on Windows 98
   
   265275 FP2000: Global.asa Does Not Run in FrontPage Web
   
2. Set the application protection for the Web site to Low and stop and restart the IISAdmin service. If ASP pages load in your Web browser after you have performed this step, the issue is with the IWAM account, and you can proceed to step 3. If ASP pages still do not load, check Component Services in Administrative Tools to ensure that you can view the IIS packages. This ensures that Component Services is not failing. Make sure the following users exist in the local Users group:
   • NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
   • NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE
   For more information on troubleshooting the Component Services snap-in, see the following Knowledge Base article:
   
   301919 PRB: Cannot Expand 'My Computer' in Component Services MMC Snap-In
   
3. If ASP pages load in your Web browser after you have performed step 2, set the site back to Medium or High application protection, and add the IWAM account to the local Administrators group. If ASP pages load in your Web browser after you have performed this step, a permissions issue involving the IWAM account exists, and you can proceed to step 4. If ASP pages still do not load, run the Synciwam.vbs utility from a command line. To do this, open a command prompt and type C:\Inetpub\adminscripts>cscript synciwam.vbs. For additional information on situations in which the IWAM user account causes ASP to fail, see the following Knowledge Base articles:
   
   308622 How To Perform Administration Tasks in IIS from a Command Prompt
   
   297989 PRB: Configured Identity Is Incorrect for IWAM Account
   
   255770 PRB: Logon Failure: Unknown User Name or Bad Password When You Run Out-of-Process Webs
   
   236007 Domain Controller Demotion Causes Out-of-Process Applications to Fail
   
4. To resolve permissions issues with the IWAM account, use the Regmon and Filemon third-party products for Windows 2000. To download these these utilities, see the following Web site:
   
   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
   Run these utilities while you make a request for an ASP page, then search for "ACCDENIED" in Regmon and "FAILURE" in Filemon for the Dllhost.exe process.
   
   NOTE: Do not be alarmed if you see "access denied" for the Iexplore.exe (Microsoft Internet Explorer) process. This is common behavior.
   
   For more information on the minimum permissions that are required for IIS to function properly, see the following Knowledge Base article:
   
   271071 Minimum NTFS Permissions Required for IIS 5.0 to Work
   
   After you have identified "access denied" error messages for the Dllhost.exe process, use Regedt32 to make any necessary modifications to NTFS permissions in the registry.
5. In the system event log, look for the following events:
   Source: DCOM
   
   Event ID: 10010
   
   User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
   
   Description: The server {3D14228D-FBE1-11D0-995D-00C04FD919C1} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.
   
   This error message is followed in the event log by a warning message like the following:
   
   
   Source: W3SVC
   
   Event ID: 36
   
   User: N/A
   
   Description: The server failed to load application 'AppPath'. The error was 'Server execution failed'.
   
   You may also see entries like the following in your %SystemRoot%\Iis5.log file:
   
   
   OC_ABOUT_TO_COMMIT_QUEUE:Unreg iis_core:FindModules: FindProcessByNameW failed!
   
   If you receive these error messages, the NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users or NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE entry has been removed from the Users group. To resolve the problem, make sure that Authenticated Users and INTERACTIVE are members of the Users Group for that computer.
   
   
   For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   
   
   327153 PRB: ASP Pages Do Not Process and DCOM Event 10010 Appears in System Log
   
6. As a last resort, you can re-create the IIS packages. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Browse to Component Services and delete the following packages:NOTE: To delete the packages, you must first open the properties of the package, click the Advanced tab, and then click to clear the Disable Deletion check box.
      
      
      
      • IIS In-Process Applications
      • IIS Out-of-Process Pooled Applications
      • IIS Utilities
   2. Open a command prompt, and then use the following command to switch directories:
      cd %windir%\system32\inetsrv
   3. Run the following commands:
      rundll32 wamreg.dll, CreateIISPackage
      NOTE: "CreateIISPackage" must be typed exactly; it is case-sensitive.
      
      regsvr32 asptxn.dll
   4. Close and reopen Component Services. You should see all three IIS COM+ applications that have been recreated.
   5. Run IISRESET from a command line and test any ASP page that previously did not load correctly.