Portability Suite 8 - Install Error: Cannot connect to IIS with HTTP or HTTPS Solved!

rynardtspies: All I can say is another long day. Still in the office at 2.45am 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Novell Platespin Portability Suite – Cannot connect to IIS with http or https.

Last week when trying to reinstall Novell Platespin Portability Suite 8, I ran into the following error during the installation.

"Cannot connect to IIS with http or https". As I was sure that my IIS and ASP.NET installation was correct, I couldn't for the life of my work out as to why I was getting the error. After turning to the search engines, I found that the problem was covered on several sites, including that of Novell. However, even Novell only seemed to point out that the problem is due to ASP.NET not being registered with IIS properly. They also provided instructions on how to "fix" the issue by reinstalling IIS as well as re-registering ASP.NET with IIS. None of the remedies they offered worked in my case.

So, I decided to go with what I had in log files and to simply try and work out for myself what the problem could be. I then turned my attention to the IIS Manager. I noticed that whenever the installer tried to access the PortabilitySuiteAppPoll, the pool's state would changed from "Running" to "Stopped - Unknown Error". That would then explain the reason for the Portability Suite not being able to connect to IIS then. The question then was: "Why would the application pool shut down whenever the installer tried to connect?"

I then turned my attention to the logs. It turns out that in the Windows System Event log (Start -> Run -> eventvwr.msc) was logging the following error quite often.

"Warning, Event ID: 1021, Description: " The identity of application pool "PortabilitySuiteAppPool" is invalid. If it remains invalid when the first request for the application pool is processed, the application pool will be disabled. The data field contains the error number."

Well, that just spells out exactly what was happening. Whenever the Portability Suite installer tried to access IIS, it would disable the PortabilitySuiteAppPool.

How I went about solving the issue:

I turned my attention to the IIS manager (Start -> Run -> iis.msc) again. Under Application Pools, I selected PortabilitySuiteAppPool. From the file menu, click "Action -> Properties". Under the "Identity" tab, I noticed that "Configurable" was selected and the User Name field contained "Portability Suite".

I then went on to inspect the "Portability Suite" user's properties using Computer Manager (Start -> Run -> compmgmt.msc). A closer look at the user's properties, revealed that the user was "Locked Out". Unlocking the user account solved the problem and the installation of Portability Suite went without issues.

I guess that when you uninstall Portability Suite, the user account is locked out, probably fopr security reasons. However, when installing Portability suite, the installer will try to create a new account, but as the account already exists, it just opts to use it as is, without making sure that the account is indeed active.

What a way to waste two hours of my already packed day!