Intermittent configuration error

[caa]

We are intermittently getting the infamous Configuration error: "It is an
error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication'
beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not
being configured as an application in IIS." However, in our case the relevant
directory is definitely configured as an IIS Application. I've done a lot of
research online, and haven't found anyone else who gets this problem only
intermittently.

We have two sites running on the same server. They are accessed
independently from the Internet as www.appA.com and www.appB.com. Both share
some common code. The physical directory structure looks like this:
d:\appA
d:\appB
d:\Common

All three apps have pretty close to the default web.config files.

The virtual directories, all of which are applications, are setup like this:
appA --> d:\appA
Common --> d:\Common
appB --> d:\appB
Common --> d:\Common

The configuration error points to the Authentication section of the Common
directory's web.config. The weird thing is this works 99% of the time. Many
thousands of pages are served successfully in between each failure.
Immediately after a failure, you can go to the same server, same failing
page, and it works fine.

So does anybody know what else, besides a virtual directory/application
configuration issue, can cause this problem?

[Frank Mamone]

This also happens if you have a Web.Config in a subdirectory of your
application that includes the <authentication> tag. Although you can use
the <authorization> element in subdirectories, you cannot authenticate again
in it.

Hope this helps,

Frank Mamone

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:18**********************************@microsof t.com...

We are intermittently getting the infamous Configuration error: "It is an
error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS." However, in our case the relevant directory is definitely configured as an IIS Application. I've done a lot of research online, and haven't found anyone else who gets this problem only
intermittently.

We have two sites running on the same server. They are accessed
independently from the Internet as www.appA.com and www.appB.com. Both share some common code. The physical directory structure looks like this:
d:\appA
d:\appB
d:\Common

All three apps have pretty close to the default web.config files.

The virtual directories, all of which are applications, are setup like this: appA --> d:\appA
Common --> d:\Common
appB --> d:\appB
Common --> d:\Common

The configuration error points to the Authentication section of the Common
directory's web.config. The weird thing is this works 99% of the time. Many thousands of pages are served successfully in between each failure.
Immediately after a failure, you can go to the same server, same failing
page, and it works fine.

So does anybody know what else, besides a virtual directory/application
configuration issue, can cause this problem?

[Frank Mamone]

The only explanation is that it will work only when the app is not using the
pages inside that directory.

- Frank Mamone

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:68**********************************@microsof t.com...

I will try switching the authentication section to an authorization section, but is there any explanation for why this works over 99% of the time?

"Frank Mamone" wrote:

This also happens if you have a Web.Config in a subdirectory of your
application that includes the <authentication> tag. Although you can use the <authorization> element in subdirectories, you cannot authenticate again in it.

Hope this helps,

Frank Mamone

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:18**********************************@microsof t.com...

We are intermittently getting the infamous Configuration error: "It is an error to use a section registered as

allowDefinition='MachineToApplication'

beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory

not

being configured as an application in IIS." However, in our case the

relevant

directory is definitely configured as an IIS Application. I've done a

lot of

research online, and haven't found anyone else who gets this problem

only intermittently.

We have two sites running on the same server. They are accessed
independently from the Internet as www.appA.com and www.appB.com. Both

share

some common code. The physical directory structure looks like this:
d:\appA
d:\appB
d:\Common

All three apps have pretty close to the default web.config files.

The virtual directories, all of which are applications, are setup like

this:

appA --> d:\appA
Common --> d:\Common
appB --> d:\appB
Common --> d:\Common

The configuration error points to the Authentication section of the Common directory's web.config. The weird thing is this works 99% of the time.

Many

thousands of pages are served successfully in between each failure.
Immediately after a failure, you can go to the same server, same failing page, and it works fine.

So does anybody know what else, besides a virtual directory/application configuration issue, can cause this problem?

[caa]

No, it actually does work more than 99% of the time on pages in that
directory. If a user gets the error on
http://www.appA.com/Common/testpage.aspx, then I can open a browser on my
computer, connect to the same server, hit the same page and it will work
fine. These are very high traffic sites (millions of page hits per day) and
this error is only occurring about 20 times per day on average. I'm wondering
if it's somehow related to how this app is loaded and cached (I don't know
much about this at all, so it's wild speculation) -- maybe there's a
difference if it's been previously loaded through a page that has a using
directive in the code behind vs. one that does a response.redirect??

Anyway, the changed web.config is in QA now, where the error very rarely
happens for some reason. It'll go to production in a couple of weeks and
we'll see if there's any difference there.

"Frank Mamone" wrote:

The only explanation is that it will work only when the app is not using the
pages inside that directory.

- Frank Mamone

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:68**********************************@microsof t.com...

I will try switching the authentication section to an authorization

section,

but is there any explanation for why this works over 99% of the time?

"Frank Mamone" wrote:

This also happens if you have a Web.Config in a subdirectory of your
application that includes the <authentication> tag. Although you can use the <authorization> element in subdirectories, you cannot authenticate again in it.

Hope this helps,

Frank Mamone

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:18**********************************@microsof t.com...
> We are intermittently getting the infamous Configuration error: "It is an > error to use a section registered as
allowDefinition='MachineToApplication'
> beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not
> being configured as an application in IIS." However, in our case the
relevant
> directory is definitely configured as an IIS Application. I've done a lot of
> research online, and haven't found anyone else who gets this problem only > intermittently.
>
> We have two sites running on the same server. They are accessed
> independently from the Internet as www.appA.com and www.appB.com. Both
share
> some common code. The physical directory structure looks like this:
> d:\appA
> d:\appB
> d:\Common
>
> All three apps have pretty close to the default web.config files.
>
> The virtual directories, all of which are applications, are setup like
this:
> appA --> d:\appA
> Common --> d:\Common
> appB --> d:\appB
> Common --> d:\Common
>
> The configuration error points to the Authentication section of the Common > directory's web.config. The weird thing is this works 99% of the time.
Many
> thousands of pages are served successfully in between each failure.
> Immediately after a failure, you can go to the same server, same failing > page, and it works fine.
>
> So does anybody know what else, besides a virtual directory/application > configuration issue, can cause this problem?

[Frank Mamone]

Let us know how it goes.

-Frank

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:34**********************************@microsof t.com...

No, it actually does work more than 99% of the time on pages in that
directory. If a user gets the error on
http://www.appA.com/Common/testpage.aspx, then I can open a browser on my
computer, connect to the same server, hit the same page and it will work
fine. These are very high traffic sites (millions of page hits per day) and this error is only occurring about 20 times per day on average. I'm wondering if it's somehow related to how this app is loaded and cached (I don't know
much about this at all, so it's wild speculation) -- maybe there's a
difference if it's been previously loaded through a page that has a using
directive in the code behind vs. one that does a response.redirect??

Anyway, the changed web.config is in QA now, where the error very rarely
happens for some reason. It'll go to production in a couple of weeks and
we'll see if there's any difference there.

"Frank Mamone" wrote:

The only explanation is that it will work only when the app is not using the pages inside that directory.

- Frank Mamone

"caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:68**********************************@microsof t.com...

I will try switching the authentication section to an authorization

section,

but is there any explanation for why this works over 99% of the time?

"Frank Mamone" wrote:

> This also happens if you have a Web.Config in a subdirectory of your
> application that includes the <authentication> tag. Although you can

use

> the <authorization> element in subdirectories, you cannot

authenticate again

> in it.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Frank Mamone
>
> "caa" <ca*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:18**********************************@microsof t.com...
> > We are intermittently getting the infamous Configuration error:

"It is an

> > error to use a section registered as
> allowDefinition='MachineToApplication'
> > beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual

directory

> not
> > being configured as an application in IIS." However, in our case

the > relevant
> > directory is definitely configured as an IIS Application. I've done a lot

> of
> > research online, and haven't found anyone else who gets this

problem only

> > intermittently.
> >
> > We have two sites running on the same server. They are accessed
> > independently from the Internet as www.appA.com and www.appB.com.

Both > share
> > some common code. The physical directory structure looks like this: > > d:\appA
> > d:\appB
> > d:\Common
> >
> > All three apps have pretty close to the default web.config files.
> >
> > The virtual directories, all of which are applications, are setup like > this:
> > appA --> d:\appA
> > Common --> d:\Common
> > appB --> d:\appB
> > Common --> d:\Common
> >
> > The configuration error points to the Authentication section of the Common

> > directory's web.config. The weird thing is this works 99% of the

time. > Many
> > thousands of pages are served successfully in between each failure. > > Immediately after a failure, you can go to the same server, same

failing

> > page, and it works fine.
> >
> > So does anybody know what else, besides a virtual

directory/application

> > configuration issue, can cause this problem?
>
>
>