Testing the forum software on a Window Server 2016 virtual machine.

The instructions (whilst not very detailed) state to make sure IIS is installed with ASP classic which I;ve done.

Also set the IIS user to have modify rights on the database folder.

Are there any other settings that need to be enabled in IIS?

If I copy the file to Azure Application service, the forum setup works fine so it cannot be an issue with the file web.config file as per the error message and I miust be missing an IIS setting that's not mentioned in the guide.

Appreciate any assistance.

Error looks to relate to the URL Rewrite Rules in the web.config file.

You can download it from the page below;

https://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite" rel="nofollow - https://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite

Awesome fella !!

That fixed it ... and thanks very much for the quick reply!

Did I miss that instruction anywhere?. Swear I never say it published.

The documentation needs to be updated in case there are people like yourself that might not have installed it.

Sir Bruce .... perhaps you can help with one more thing, connection to the DB.

During setup, there is an extra option compared to the guide screenshot, The SQL database driver option.

I have another VM with SQL server 2017 installed.

Installed the MDAC on the web server VM.

Created a blank DB with the name "webwizforum".

Selecting the native client v11 option produces "adodb.connection provider cannot be found" errors.

Selecting the OLE DB option produces "[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied."

The SA account is disabled by default on installation.

Created another database account but not sure what permissions are required or if there are other missing packages that are not mentioned?

Any ideas please?

Had an error for Named Pipes. Therefore enabled that and TCP/IP settings in Config Mgr but still had same error. Realised a Win FW rule was not created for SQL server on install so created that and did a telnet test to port 1433 which partially resolves the connection bit.

It appears the authentication is now as issue.

The DB name is "WebWizForums"

Trying to give the SA user DB Owner rights fails.

Creating a new DB user called "WebWiz" allows me to make it DB owner but not sure what else is needed.

I'm going to spin up another VM with SQL Express to see if that works and figure out what user settings it uses .... unless you can advise what steps are needed for a new DB user to authentgicate to a fresh DB which I can try to replicate?

Cheers 

I created a new user called "websa" using SQL Authentication in Security/Logins. In the propeties I go to USer Mapping and tick the WebWizForum database. By default the user is "websa" and no deafult schema so I set it to DBO.

This user then appears in Databases/WebWizForums/Security/Users. From here I've set DB_Owner in Owned Schema and Memberships.

Shared Memory, Named Pipes and TCP/IP all enabled. Windows firewall allows 1433 inbound and can telnet test successfully .... But no Coconut.

By default TCP/IP is disabled for SQL Server unless you manually enable it.

Yes that's already enabled.

" Login failed from user 'webwiz' ".

Where webwiz is the database user created.

I can upload screenshots and provide URL links later this morning so you may spot something I may have missed

In your error message is says that you are using the username "webwiz" in your database connection.

If the SQL Server database user you created is "websa" then you should be using this user to connect to the database from Web Wiz Forums.

Away from my lab but will post screenies bit later today.

1. The password for the SQL Server user is incorrect

2. The SQL Server user does not have permission to access the database

Check you ha e the correct password and that in the SQL Server properties for the User that 'User Mappings' has the Web Wiz Forums database checked as well as 'db-owner' and 'public' role memberships on the database.

I've gone over the pwd and definately using the right one.

This 'Enabled' needs to be set to 'Yes' for the IP 192.168.0.20 which you are using to connect to the database.

Once you have set it to 'Yes' for the IP you should restart SQL Server so that the settings take affect.

Also, can you confirm if the WEB config is correct based on the DB config screenshot?

The web.config is only used for rewrite rules in Web Wiz Forums.

The files in the 'database' folder are used in Web Wiz Forums for the database connection.

Spun up a fresh Win19K VM with a SQL17K.

Allied all the usual changes including the guidance mention throughout this thread. Still had the same Auth error issue .... but this time I changed the actual server properties (not just at the DB level) which by default ony allows Windows Auth instead of mixed mode.

Had a minor new issue with the /forum/database folder permissions. I did set the IIS user to read/write/mod ... but kept failing to update the config file during setup. Had to temporarily add the Everyone group with FULL permissions to get it to work before removing the group again. This could be because the default file perms for Windows Server 2016+ is different to older versions of the OS and certainly different to client OS (Win 7 and above) which has the Authenticated Users groups in there etc.

I've captured a set of bullets to get it working on an isolation environment like mine if you want to poilish up the out of dat KB.

Thanks for all your heklp Bruce!