Troubleshooting IIS and ASP.NET Settings Import
When you attempt to import settings from an IIS server, you might see the following messages:
"The user name and password specified are not authorized to import IIS Settings. Verify that the user name and password are correct and that you have network access to the IIS Web server from which you are trying to import settings."
Check that the credentials you provide have administrator access to the IIS Web server or that they have appropriate rights to the IIS Metabase sections in the registry. You can provide the latter access by using the Metabase Editor that is included in the IIS Resource Kit. If you are attempting to import settings from a server that is running Windows Vista, you need membership in the IIS_IUSRS group as well as administrator credentials on that server.
Alternately, the IIS Metabase might be corrupt.
"Cannot import IIS Settings. Verify that IIS Configuration Manager is installed and that the server is accessible."
When this error occurs, the import wizard is unable to obtain a valid connection to the IIS Web server. Either the server will not authenticate the credentials provided or network errors (COM exceptions) are occurring. Check to ensure that the IIS console tools are installed on your local machine.
If the IIS Web server you are trying to access is running on Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1, the Windows firewall can block settings import and result in this error message. To work around this, add inetinfo.exe to the list of exceptions in Windows Firewall using the following procedure.
To add inetinfo.exe to the list of Windows Firewall exceptions
Type the following at the command line of the IIS server: %SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe Inetinfo ENABLE.
- Or-
Do the following through the user interface:
Open Control Panel.
Open Windows Firewall.
Click Add Program on the Exceptions tab.
Browse to locate inetinfo.exe.
Click OK.
After you have done this on the remote machine, both IIS import and IIS administration work correctly.
"There is an error trying to read key <registry key name>. Admin or sufficient credentials are required."
The specific metabase key could not be read. If you are not an administrator on the IIS Web server, ensure that you have sufficient access to the registry keys for metabase settings.
"IIS settings import failed due to security reasons. Visual Studio will now close."
An attempt to revert back to the original user credentials has failed if this error occurs. There is no known workaround.
"Error performing OpenKey operation on path /LM/W3SVC/AppPools." and related OpenKey operation errors.
If you are importing from a Windows 2000 machine running IIS version 5.0, or a Windows XP machine running IIS version 5.1, this error is by design. The AppPools key is not available in IIS 5.0 or 5.1; and was introduced in IIS version 6.0.
To work around this, clear the Import Application Pools check box on the second page of the IIS Import wizard.
Import of global configuration settings randomly fails with "Error performing GetAllData operation…" error messages or no error message.
IIS Import sometimes fails when importing from localhost multiple times in a row. To work around this, wait a few minutes before trying again.