IIS 7.5 Tracing area "...." is not recognized - HTTP Error 500.0 - Internal Server Error

Question

Everything was working fine and all of a sudden I started getting the following error for all my web projects and websites. One thing is for sure that this is IIS issue since the compiler is not even reach the code.

Error Message:

HTTP Error 500.0 - Internal Server Error

Tracing area "Authentication,Security,Filter,StaticFile,CGI,Compression,Cache,RequestNotifications,Module,FastCGI,WebSocket,Rewrite,RequestRouting,iisnode" is not recognized

I've already tried following things one by one but no luck:

1. Re-install Tracing - 'Turn Windows features on or off',
2. Re-install IIS,
3. aspnet_regiis -i (also tried with -u),
4. Removed ISAPI .DLL

Windows Features:

I'm using Visual Studio 2013 to build a web project (asp.net C#).

I would really appreciate any help/information on this Issue.

Answer 1

In my case I was getting the error in IIS (NOT IIS express). I answered this question here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/51717759/2817987

Answer 2

To add to Sanket's solution:

In case you are not using IIS Express, in

C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot\Web.Config 

Delete the line with:

"Authentication,Security,Filter,StaticFile,CGI,Compression,Cache,RequestNotifications,Module,FastCGI,WebSocket,Rewrite,RequestRouting,iisnode" verbosity="Verbose" 

Answer 3

From Richard Marr's Blog here, following solutions are listed and second solution worked for me.

1. Using Programs and Features find the Extension that is missing trace areas, right click select REPAIR.
2. Manually add the trace areas to the Applicationhost.config file as shown below. Remember to add in the "WWW Server" xml Node.

Answer 4

Sanket's suggestion works, but for me what was missing was

<add name="RequestRouting" value="2048" />

a few lines above in the applicationhost.config file, where all areas are defined. Adding this fixed it. Btw. using VS2015 also fixes the problem without editing the .config file.

Answer 5

I removed below tag from applicationhost.config file located under C:\Users\Sanket\My Documents\IISExpress\config path on windows 7 machine.

<add provider="WWW Server" areas="Authentication,Security,Filter,StaticFile,CGI,Compression,Cache,RequestNotifications,Module,FastCGI,WebSocket,Rewrite,RequestRouting,iisnode" verbosity="Verbose" />

See if this helps.

Answer 6

Do you have all modules listed in error message installed? You can download extensions here: (link for rewrite module) http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite