The Realm of the Verbal Processor

Applicationhost.config – not well formed XML Problems

On Friday I was troubleshooting an issue on our SCCM server related to updating a package on a Distribution Point. It kept failing with errors like the following:

2302    “SMS Distribution Manager failed to process package “”Random App”” (package ID = ABC00003).”    Possible cause: …
2342    “SMS Distribution Manager is starting to distribute package “”Random App”” to distribution point “”[“”Display=\\SCCMServer\””]MSWNET:[“”SMS_SITE=ABC””]\\SCCMServer\””.”
2300    “SMS Distribution Manager is beginning to process package “”Random App”” (package ID = ABC00003).”
30125    “User “”domain\user”” added new distribution points to a package named “”Random”” (ABC00003).”

After digging around for a while I came to discover that the IIS services had failed to start. When I tried to start the IIS service, I got the lovely message that applicationhost.config is not well-formed XML. Now…that file on my server is over 1000 lines long. I don’t know if it is well formed or not. So…I hit Google and came across a page talking about an issue where that file will get corrupted if you are using either OneCare or Forefront Client Security as your anti-virus software. I’m using FCS on my server.

The workaround listed on that page is:

Create the following key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MpFilter\Parameters” .

Add a DWORD value “ScanOnCleanup” and set it to 0.

Restart OneCare/Forefront service.

I did the above workaround, but what about the corrupted applicationhost.config? I took a gamble…perhaps the file is corrupted, but the text is intact. I simply opened the applicationhost.config file in EditPlus, saved it as a new file, and copied the new file to the proper location.

IIS Started. SCCM distributed the package. I went home happy.

June 2, 2008 Posted by Jarvis | ConfigMgr | Forefront Client Security, IIS | 3 Comments