SharePoint 2010 – Access denied during ApplyWebConfigModifications()

I have SharePoint 2010 installed on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine which is also hosting SQL Sever 2008 R2. I am attempting to deploy a solution that includes web parts in the 2010 environment that is working fine in MOSS 2007.

The Web Part feature has a feature receiver that updates the web.config. When I try to activate the feature through the Site Collection Feature GUI, I receive an access denied message. I am logged on to the server and in SharePoint with the APP Pool account which is also a member of the domain administrator group, local administrator group and SharePoint Farm Admin group. This account is also dbo on SQL Server.

This same feature activates fine using the stsadm command.

I have dug into this issue at length and here is what I have found:

Looking at the Microsoft assemblies in reflector, my error is coming from the SPWebApplication.ApplyWebConfigModifications() method. I can see the trace statements from SPWebConfigFileChanges.RemoveModificationsWebConfigXMLDocument and SPWebConfigFileChanges.ApplyModificationsWebConfigXMLDocument. The next line is a Save(str).

Below is the output from the SharePoint logs that pertain to this error:

Apply web config modifications to web
app
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
General 8grn
Medium WebConfigModification:
Applying web config modifications to
web app in server tw-s1-m4400-007
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 88gw
Medium WebConfigModification:
Applying web config modifications to
file
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b
Medium Removing web config node –
Path
configuration/system.web/httpModules
Node name
add[@name='JivePageController']
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b
Medium Removing web config node –
Path
configuration/system.web/httpHandlers
Node name
add[@path='ScriptResource.axd']
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b
Medium Removing web config node –
Path
configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding"
and
namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"]
Node name
[local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions.Design"]
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b
Medium Removing web config node –
Path
configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding"
and
namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"]
Node name
[local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions"]
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8
Medium WebConfigModification:
Adding web config node – Path –
configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding"
and
namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"]
Node name –
[local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions"]
Node value –

in web.config file
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8
Medium WebConfigModification:
Adding web config node – Path –
configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding"
and
namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"]
Node name –
[local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions.Design"]
Node value –
in web.config
file
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8
Medium WebConfigModification:
Adding web config node – Path –
configuration/system.web/httpHandlers
Node name –
add[@path='ScriptResource.axd'] Node
value – in web.config file
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8
Medium WebConfigModification:
Adding web config node – Path –
configuration/system.web/httpModules
Node name –
add[@name='JivePageController'] Node
value – in web.config file
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe
(0x15C4)
0x1444 SharePoint Foundation
Topology e5mb
Medium WcfReceiveRequest:
LocalAddress:
'http://tw-s1-m4400-007.jivedemo.local:32843/15702467ece1408f881abeabac3b5077/MetadataWebService.svc'
Channel:
'System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel'
Action: xxx MessageId:
'urn:uuid:4e859532-ed7f-4937-8b88-68d3af43d589'
9f403ede-2c94-490b-a05c-e169cc5fe58d

02/24/2010 16:05:41.10 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology f6kh
High WebConfigModification:
Save of web.config file
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config
for applying modifications to web app
SharePoint – 2008 failed. Error
message – Access to the path
'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config'
is denied.
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.10 w3wp.exe
(0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8j2o
High WebConfigModification:
Changes not applied to web application
SharePoint – 2008 with Url xxx
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

Any help would be appreciated!