In some rare cases, after installing CSWorks and running Pipes and Tanks Demo, you can see the following error:



This means one simple thing: ASP.NET cannot run LiveData Web Service code. There can be different reasons for this. The first thing you should do in this case is to get as much additional error information as possible. Check application event log - it may give you some clues. Also, try to get LiveData Web Service definition from your browser at http://localhost/CSWorksDemo/LiveDataWebService/Service.asmx.

The browser will probably give you some more details about the error. Consider the following example.
 


The problem in this particular case is that ASP.NET cannot write temporary binary it compiles for a specific page or web service. There can be several root causes for that, for example: error in the ASP.NET installation, changing ASP.NET  worker process account without modifying temp folder privileges etc. There is a lot of information about this issue in the net, here are some good sources:

http://forums.asp.net/p/1060279/1520411.aspx
http://weblogs.asp.net/rchartier/archive/2006/01/05/434626.aspx

The idea is to give the account ASP.NET runs under, say NETWORK SERVICE, or LocalSystem, or "ASP.NET v4.0 Classic" account (depends on which account you are using, see your IIS Manager settings, Application Pools, "ASP.NET v4.0 Classic" pool properties) full access to all temporary folder it may use while compiling ASP.NET page or service. Those folders include:

c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\...\Temporary ASP.NET Files
c:\windows\temp

One would assume that ASP.NET setup (or aspnet_regiis command executed manually) should do that, but it looks like there is no 100% guarantee. Fixing folder access manually seems to be the best option. Unfortunately, there is nothing CSWorks installer can do here - it's ASP.NET setup problem.

Symptoms

A few customers were getting the following message when running CSWorks installation:

Failed while processing WebVirtualDirs. (-2147024894 ) (see screenshot)

Setup log file contains the following entry:

ConfigureIIsExec:  Error 0x80070002: Failed to find Web base

Why does this happen?

CSWorks installer installs demo application to IIS (Internet Information Services) website with following properties:

• IP address: all unassigned;
• Port: 80;
• Header: <empty>

These are the default settings for “Default Web Site” created by IIS installer, and they usually remain unchanged unless system administrator edits them manually. CSWorks installer assumes there is a web site with those properties running on this machine, otherwise it throws the error above.

A similar issue is discussed with WiX installer developers at http://n2.nabble.com/WriteMetabaseChanges-Error-0x80070057-failed-to-create-web-application-td3190173.html, here is an excerpt:>

“Make sure the IP, Port and Header all exactly match the website on the machine. These are the 3 things we use to determine if we've found the right website or not.”

Is it possible to improve CSWorks installer so it can handle more complex scenarios? We probably can do that, but:

• it will increase installer complexity and decrease its reliability;
• installer will have to make some changes in demo applications’ settings on-the-fly which is a risky thing.

We may consider adding support for those complex scenarios, but this is not a top priority at the moment. We are sorry about the inconvenience caused and we appreciate your understanding in this regard.

Workaround

Before installing CSWorks, make sure that “Default Web Site” is configured to run on port 80 for all unassigned IP addresses, and host header name for this configuration is empty, as shown at this screenshot (Windows XP). When done, run CSWorks installer and make sure CSWorks demo applications work properly. All demo applications are configured to run from http://localhost/CSWorksDemo, and they won’t run if you change port or header for the web site that hosts CSWorksDemo virtual folder.

Users who are new to .NET web development keep asking asking questions about CSWorks installation errors related to IIS and ASP.NET, here are some of them:

Cannot connect to Internet Information Server. (-2147221164)

IIS (Internet Information Services) version 5 or higher must be installed

IIS (Internet Information Services) version 7 or higher and IIS 6 Management Compatibility (appcmd.exe) must be installed

All these messages signal about the same thing: IIS/ASP.NET is not working properly on this machine. Please follow the steps below to install IIS/ASP.NET on your machine

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Vista

I will describe the process for Windows Server 2008. Windows 7 interface is very similar, Vista interface is slightly different, but names and descriptions are pretty much the same.

In "Programs and Features", click on "Turn Windows features on or off". See screenshot.

Add Web Server Role if needed, and click on it to configure. See screenshot.

Select all Web Server role service required for ASP.NET application hosting as on the screenshot below. Please pay special attention to the "Application Development" and "Management Tools" sections. See W2K8 screenshot , or Windows 7 screenshot.

You may need to enable ASP.NET ISAPI extension manually. Find "ISAPI and CGI Restrictions" under IIS properties (see screenshot), and enable ASP.NET extensions (see screenshot).

Windows XP

Go to Settings -> Control Panel ->Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components. Select "Internet Information Services", and select required components - see screenshot.

Navigate to your Microsoft .NET windows directory which is usually C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 and run aspnet_regiis -i and aspnet_regiis -c.

Go to My Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Internet Information Services, Select "Default Web Site", right-click on it and modify ASP.NET tab of site properties so it uses ASP.NET 2.0. See screenshot.

Update: starting from CSWorks 1.4.3820, choose ASP.NET 4.0 in this drop-down.

Windows Server 2003

Go to Settings -> Control Panel ->Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components. Select "Internet Information Services", and select required components - see screenshot.

Navigate to your Microsoft .NET windows directory which is usually C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 and run aspnet_regiis -i and aspnet_regiis -c.

Go to My Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Internet Information Services, Select "Default Web Site", right-click on it and modify ASP.NET tab of site properties so it uses ASP.NET 2.0. See screenshot.

Update: starting from CSWorks 1.4.3820, choose ASP.NET 4.0 in this drop-down.

Select "Web Service Extension" node of local IIS server and enable ASP.NET v2.0 extension.See screenshot.