Question

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Unhandled .NET exception in w3wp.exe when "flip the switch"

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>>> Installing Rock on Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials with SQL Express 2014.
Rock install went all the way till the last screen to flip the switch.  Click on the "Flip the Switch" button.

Flip the switch.PNG

then hit the error " An unhandled Microsoft .NET Framework exception occured in w3w.exe [2568]

error 2568.PNG

So downloaded and installed all the available updates, re-run the install and hit a similar error. Error code now [7024]

error 7024.PNG

The JIT debugger won't run because I did not install MS Visual Studio.

 

  • Photo of Jim Michael

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    Ok, I finally got this to work... my SQL issue was that I had to tell it to use another user account instead of system. Once I got that figured out I proceeded with configuring SQL server RockUser login per the docs, then downloaded the Rock installer and put it in c:\inetpub\wwwroot. I then configured IIS Default Web Site to have its document root point at c:\inetpub\wwwroot. I then had to give the IIS_USER write access to c:\inetpub\wwwroot. Then I ran http://localhost/start.aspx and ran the installer. For internal and exteral url I used a A record that I created in our DNS that resolved to the server's IP (http://jimrock.wcrossing.org in my case). 

    The installer completed fine and I was greeted with a login page, which worked fine:

    So, all that said, Rock installed fine for me on Windows Essentials, even though I still don't consider it a good platform for Rock. This VM runs at least half as fast as any other normal Windows VM on my hosts, and I have no idea why.

    • Hock_Hin Lee

      Hock_Hin Lee

      This is great news Jim. Thanks for the good work. So, was it the URL that was causing the problem? If so, then I have to configure my DNS for a URL to point to my server's IP. Do you know if I can use a fixed ip e.g. http://192.168.0.99 as the Internal and Public URLs as a quick fix?

      • Hock_Hin Lee

        Hock_Hin Lee

        Can you please post a screen shot of your App Pools? Just for me to compare. Good night. It is 2:13 am here.

        • Hock_Hin Lee

          Hock_Hin Lee

          I can now report that I have managed to successfully install Rock in Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials. The URLs entered during Rock's Install prompts were not the cause of the problems. I had to enter arbitrary URLs this time also. I think it was the . . . IIS Manager > Default Web Site > Advanced Settings > Physical Path; and Application Pool . . . settings that were important.


          I think my other attempts failed because I did not restore the system before trying again. This time was successful because I did a full install, starting with Windows Server itself.


          Thanks again for all your help Jim.

          • Jim Michael

            Jim Michael

            Great, glad you got it working. It was an interesting learning experience for me, for sure! I will reiterate here (mostly for future people coming upon this thread) that in my opinion, Windows Essentials is not a good choice on which to run Rock, primarily because of it's need to be a Domain Controller. SQL Server isn't even supported to be installed on a DC according to MS https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2032911 That's not to say it "doesn't work" (as you've discovered), it's just an unsupported config with security compromises and (again, my opinion) not worth the cost savings to not just run Windows Server Standard (which has none of these issues), especially since many churches get non-profit pricing for MS software via TechSoup and it's pretty cheap.

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            Can you post a screen shot of your App Pools? 

          • Photo of Hock_Hin Lee

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            • Jim Michael

              Jim Michael

              Hmm... that looks exactly as it should. Unfortunately I'm out of suggestions. I am going to install Essentials into a VM and see if I can replicate your issue here. Based on the fact that the IIS Document Root was in a non-standard spot, I'm guessing there is some other portion of IIS that isn't configured properly on Win Essentials to allow Rock to run, but I need to do it hands-on. I will try to get to it today.

              • Kelley Langkamp

                Kelley Langkamp

                Is there anything in your event log? It could be a permissions issue and IIS will generally put something in the event log if that is the case. If as Jim said the IIS Document Root is in a non-standard spot, then it is possible that the permissions are not set properly.

                • Hock_Hin Lee

                  Hock_Hin Lee

                  Jim, I really appreciate all the effort you are putting in. Thanks. For your info, the OS and program files are in C: drive (Solid State Drive) and I configured SQL express to have the data files in D: drive (Raid 0 Harddisks). See Answer below for details.


                  Kelley, it is now 11:30pm local time here in Malaysia. I am at home and the Server is in the church office. I will check the log tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion.


                  One thing I was thinking of trying is to set the IIS default web path back to its original value and try to install Rock there(the original default IIS folder).

                  • Jim Michael

                    Jim Michael

                    Sorry, just getting back to this after the weekend. I struggled all day Friday with this thing just trying to get SQL Server installed... it keeps failing to run the "Database Engine Services" during install. I tried it all again today with same result... for whatever reason my 2012R2 Essentials VM does NOT like SQL Server Express 2014. Unfortunately I don't have more time to devote to this since it's not really a need for us. That said, having now seen/played with Windows Server Essentials for the first time, I would not want to run Rock on it. The fact that it makes itself a domain controller with DNS, DHCP, etc out of the box with little to no control over that, and the fact that you can't add ANOTHER server to the same network would make it a show stopper for us.

                  • Photo of Hock_Hin Lee

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                    The only thing that is non-standard in my Rock Install (except the Microsoft install screens with slightly different layout/options)

                    Program files in drive C:  SQL data directories in drive D:

                  • Photo of Hock_Hin Lee

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                    >>>>>>>>>>>  Ignore this "Answer" .  I have checked the other ExceptionLog table in my other instances and all of them have these same kind of errors.  Red Herring I think!  I will delete this posting in a few days.

                    This is the latest Error Log I found in the dbo.ExceptionLog table in the Rock database

                    Looks like trying to resolve the Internal URL (which is something I made up).  Probably because of the setups by Server 2012 R2 Essentials.

                    Can I leave the fields blank?  Or what values can I use that will not cause errors?

                    Attached Exception log in Excel format

                    ExceptionLog from DB.xlsx

                    • Jim Michael

                      Jim Michael

                      I don't think you can leave those blank, and you wouldn't want to. They both need to resolve to the IP address of your rock server, and most installs end up using the same url inside and out... so if you want to always get to your server via rockweb.cgmcipoh.org, you would put that in for BOTH internal and external URL.

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                      This default.aspx file found in the C:/inetpub/wwwroot directory was what made me look into the ExceptionLog table in Rock database.

                      I am not familiar with this error description.

                      I did not find the RockExceptions.csv file, but found a RockApplication.csv file, with the following contents

                    • Photo of Jim Michael

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                      Here's a screenshot of my app pools:

                      As you can see there's nothing unusual there, and other than set the Identical to Local System I didn't have to touch them. Regarding your prior question, I'm not sure why mine works and yours doesn't... I didn't do anything "weird" to get it running other than what I mentioned previously regarding file rights... but that can't be your issue as the Rock installer wouldn't run if you didn't have proper rights... so it has to be something more fundamental with your setup vs. mine. Regarding your private/public URLs, I would just set them to http://localhost if you're not going to rely on DNS at this point.

                      Beyond that, I'd ask if your Windows server is installed as English, or another language?

                      • Hock_Hin Lee

                        Hock_Hin Lee

                        Jim, I have some questions for the Advanced Settings of the Default Web Site configuration. Please refer to the next "Answer" panel

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                        I have changed the Physical Path to C:\inetpub\wwwroot

                        But do I need to change the Application Pool to DefaultAppPool ?

                        • Jim Michael

                          Jim Michael

                          Mine is working with the default Root App setting, but I would definitely try changing it to default on yours, since your exception seems to actually mention "RootApp" in the error.