CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net
programmernovice
programmernovice

Reputation: 3941

Do I need a web config file to run an asp.net hello world on IIS 7?

I have uploaded a simple hello world on my IIS server 7 (shared hosting). It doesn't work. Is it necessary to add a web config and what's the minimum in that case ?

Thanks.

Error says:

Server Application Unavailable

The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the "Refresh" button in your web browser to retry your request.

Here's the script, very basic :)

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<html>
<head>
<title>ASP.NET Hello World</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

<p><%= "Hello World!" %></p>

</body>
</html>

Upvotes: 4

Views: 13119

Answers (3)

Shiv Mohan
Shiv Mohan

Reputation: 517

I am not sure about the shared Hosting environment. But If you try to create a web application ( try ASP.Net Empty web application template) and just use Response.write("Hello World !") . it will work without any web.config.

I tried my self and it work successfully.

Only problem is that It may ask you if you wanted to debug your application then it requires to add "compilation = true" attribute in web.config.

Upvotes: 0

CraigTP
CraigTP

Reputation: 44909

A individual, site-specific web.config is not required to be present in order to get a basic "Hello World" site up and running in IIS7, however, it's rather unusual not to have one.

IIS7, unlike previous versions, effectively has the ASP.NET worker process component "built-in". This allows web.config files to specify configuration of not only your ASP.NET site itself, but also how the IIS server hosting your site should be configured (i.e. you can specify (for example) the default document type in an ASP.NET web.config file).

If you don't specify an individual web.config for your ASP.NET site, the IIS7 server will use the "default" web.config, which is usually located in your "windows" folder within the system-wide configuration of the .NET framework itself.

This article:

Working With Configuration Files in IIS 7

from the MSDN library states:

Configuration Files

Configuration exists in a physical directory in either server-level configuration files or in Web.config files. Every configuration file maps to a specific site, application, or virtual directory.

Server-level configuration is stored in the following configuration files:

  • Machine.config. This file is located in %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\framework_version\CONFIG.

  • Root Web.config for the .NET Framework. This file is located in %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\framework_version\CONFIG.

  • ApplicationHost.config. This file is located in %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config.

Site, application, and virtual and physical directory configuration can be stored in one of the following locations:

  • A server-level configuration file. When configuration for a site, application, directory, or URL is stored in a server-level configuration file, you must use a location tag to specify the site, application, directory, or URL to which the configuration applies.

  • A parent-level Web.config file. When configuration for an application, directory, or URL is stored in a parent-level configuration file, you must use a location tag to specify the child at which the configuration applies.

  • The Web.config file for the site, the application, or the directory. When you configure settings for an application, directory, or URL, the configuration is stored in the same directory as the site, application, or directory. You do not need to use location tags.

Storing configuration settings in a parent configuration file is helpful when:

  • You want to store configuration settings in a configuration file that is accessible by only certain users or groups. For example, the ApplicationHost.config file is available only to the Administrator account and to the members of the Administrators group on a specific computer, as well as to domain administrators when a computer is part of a domain.

  • You want to configure a feature at the URL-level (also known as file-level).

Also, see the following article for further information:

The new Configuration System in IIS 7

EDIT:

Regarding the specific error message that you're getting, I've seen this before on an IIS7 server, and the problem turned out to be the Application Pool that the site was set to use wasn't "running". Going into the IIS7 admin gui and starting the Application Pool cured the problem.

I have also seen this error caused wen the relevant permissions have not been set on the folder containing your website code.

See here, here, and here for further information.

Of course, since you're testing a shared hosting environment, you probably don't have access to the web server itself, and it's difficult to know exactly what you do have access to, administration-wise, through your hosting provider, but they probably have some kind of interface to set permissions on folders/files, so I'd look there first. Failing that, you may have to include a web.config file in your "test" site as that will allow you to set configurations within IIS7 that you may otherwise have no access to.

Failing that, you may need to speak to your web host's support team.

Upvotes: 2

Chris Arnold
Chris Arnold

Reputation: 5753

It should be enough to inherit from machine.config. What's the exception?

Upvotes: 1

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