Iis – Server Application Unavailable – Could not load file or assembly System.Web, Access is denied

iispermissionswcf

I'm a developer trying to set up a virtual directory for a WCF web service on a Windows Server 2003 (32 bit) machine and I keep on getting "Server Application Unavailable" with the following logged in the event log:

Message: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. Access is denied.

So far I've tried:

  • Double checking the account used for anonymous access control (this is a local administrator)
  • Checking the permissions on the C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework directory (ASPNET has read / write access, I've even given Everyone access)
  • Disabling and enabling the ASP.Net v2.0 extension
  • Deleting and re-creating the .svc extension in the list of application extensions
  • Checking to make sure that System.Web is present in the GAC
  • Re-Installing the .Net framework 3.5 SP 1
  • Giving the virtual directory its own application pool
  • Fusion logging tells me nothing of interest

I cant figure it out – there is another .asmx web service that appears to work perfectly on the same web server with the same settings. What have I missed?

Are there any techniques that can be used to figure out these sorts of permissions issues? It would be useful to know the user account and path that its trying to access, but enabling the Failure events in the machines Audit Policy didnt seem to do anything.

Best Answer

Ugg my bad - this appears to be a dupe of https://serverfault.com/questions/63675/server-unavailable-and-removed-permissions-on-net-sites-after-windows-update. I checked the permissions on the directory that the service itself was contained within and all was well.

I also noticed that in the other question FileMon was used to see more detailed information on what / who was failing to access what.

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