The Proper Way to Reinstall IIS 7.x and WAS/WPAS

by vIISual.net(at)hotmail(dot)com

May 2010

Problem and Symptoms:

There is a trick to reinstalling IIS7x that is not documented well presently and not very intuitive. For those familiar with IIS 6.0, it is natural to try to uninstall IIS 7.0 (or 7.5), reboot, and expect it to reinstall fine. If it doesn’t, it is somewhat natural, thinking still in terms of IIS 6.0, to go try to delete the metabase.xml file, which for IIS 7.x translates mostly to the three config files stored at c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config. At this point the IIS administrator sees the IIS 7.x installation seem to hang for an extended period of time and then fail with a very vague error message such as:

“installation failed”

and

“the server needs to be restarted to undo the changes.”

Unfortunately there is no hint given at this point to check the c:\windows\iis7.log file. If there were the relevant errors would be:

< WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

and

< !!FAIL!! > LaunchCommand result=0x80070002

Root cause:

The WAS (Windows Activation Service or Windows Process Activation Service) needs to be uninstalled after IIS is uninstalled to properly remove the config files IIS uses for storing metadata and to properly remove IIS’ dependency on the old config files.

Solution:

Uninstall IIS (from server roles)

Uninstall WAS/WPAS (from features)

Reboot

Install IIS

Removing IIS from Windows 2008 R2. . .

(Reboot)

Note that the three config files were not deleted when IIS was installed.

Here I rename the three config files to sabotage the reinstall of IIS. . .

I like to rename the c:\windows\iis7.log file when troubleshooting. . .

Reinstalling IIS. . .

It begins to install based on this view but doesn’t get very far.

The progress bar may get to 2/3rds of the way done. . .

But then it just hangs there.

The IIS7.log file shows:

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\iissetup.exe" /install CoreWebEngine

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] < WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] Install of component CoreWebEngine succeeded!

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] Success!

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] [ End of IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\iissetup.exe" /install W3SVC

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] < WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] < !!FAIL!! > Install of component W3SVC result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] < !!FAIL!! > COMPONENT::ExecuteCommand result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:20] [ End of IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\iissetup.exe" /launch C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe reset config -section:system.webServer/security/access

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] < WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] Launching command C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe, with params C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe reset config -section:system.webServer/security/access

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] < !!FAIL!! > LaunchCommand result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] [ End of IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\iissetup.exe" /launch C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe reset config -section:system.webServer/handlers

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] < WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] Launching command C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe, with params C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe reset config -section:system.webServer/handlers

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] < !!FAIL!! > LaunchCommand result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] [ End of IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\iissetup.exe" /launch C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe reset config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] < WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] Launching command C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe, with params C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe reset config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] < !!FAIL!! > LaunchCommand result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:21] [ End of IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\iissetup.exe" /install Metabase

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] < WARNING! > Failed to detect if config redirection is enabled. result=0x80070490.Assuming config is not redirected and continuing.

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] Successfully updated IIS_IUSRS rights.

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] Successfully populated IIS_IUSRS.

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] Successfully set IISADMIN install state.

[05/22/2010 19:00:38] Successfully removed old metabase files.

[05/22/2010 19:00:40] Successfully started IISADMIN.

[05/22/2010 19:00:40] < !!FAIL!! > METABASE_UTIL::InstallIisAdminMetabaseEntries result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] Successfully stopped IISADMIN.

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] < WARNING! > METABASE_UTIL::InstallLegacySnapInMetabaseEntries result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] Successfully started IISADMIN.

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] < !!FAIL!! > Install of component Metabase result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] < !!FAIL!! > COMPONENT::ExecuteCommand result=0x80070002

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] [ End of IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ]

[05/22/2010 19:00:46] [ ***** IIS 7.0 Component Based Setup ***** ]

I renamed the three config files while it was hung. . .

Vague failure message:

Forced to restart before can reinstall was

Back to “Remove features”

The way to uninstall WAS, or the Windows Process Activation Service. . .

Note how the config folder and its files are now totally gone. . .

This time the IIS 7.x install proceeds fine.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc735229(WS.10).aspx

IIS Windows Process Activation Service (WAS)

Updated: January 20, 2010

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) manages application pool configuration and the creation and lifetime of worker processes for HTTP and other protocols. The World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC) and other services depend on WAS.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930911

The Windows Process Activation Service feature is not turned off when you turn off the IIS 7.0 feature