w3svc won't start on my SBS 2003 machine with all the SP1 updates and all
critical updates applied (Critical updates were added about 1 week before
this problem started.


I have determined that the MBschema.xml file is corrupt (I am familiare with
tags).

All of the copies in the history folder are also crorrupt. The metadata
folder contains the original file of a bit smaller size. I copy that to the
right place and try to start up w3svc again and the service does not start.
The file grows to the same size as the corrupted size again?

Can anyone help? I can't get any response from iisadmin even though the
service is running. Was this caused from an update?


Details below....


Thanks




Check if w3svc service is running No
Check if iisadmin service is running Yes

C:
cd \windows\system32\inetsrv
dir METABASE.xml MBschema.xml history metaback

notepad METABASE.xml
notepad MBschema.xml

line 211 of MBschema.xml is corrupt for sure

cd history (look at automatic iis backups)
All automatic backups are also corrupt
check whether the nodes "W3SVC" and "W3SVC/1" exist in your current
metabase.xml. I donâ??t think the nodes exist
2. Also, on the commandline, run:
CSCRIPT %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
Does not respond
C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>CSCRIPT
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.

Re: w3svc won't start on small business server by David

David
Thu Feb 02 03:33:47 CST 2006

I doubt critical updates *caused* the corruption.

IIS6 has had maybe 2-3 critical fixes to date, none directly in IIS itself,
and none touch configuration, so I doubt critical updates caused corruption.
Now, updates which restart the server and cause unexpected closure of the
configuration file handle... that may cause data corruption.

Since you have data corruption, your best option is to restore from a valid
backup of those XML files.

You could try to hand-modify the textual XML file, but without an idea of
what was originally "valid", this will be hard. It will also take some skill
to reconstruct the file, and it may not be correct.

There is no way to regenerate a valid IIS configuration without
reinstallation of IIS, and since SBS involves OWA, Exchange, and Sharepoint
running on top of IIS, this pretty much means you should reinstall the
entire SBS all over. You should be able to backup/restore Exchange and
Sharepoint data independent of IIS, so you can reinstall SBS and the restore
your Exchange/Sharepoint data over it.

And remember the backups this time! Data corruption is generally harder to
fix and far easier to simply restore a backup.

--
//David
IIS
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
//

"The_Canuck" <cruisein2002@yahoo.com.DONOTSPAM> wrote in message
news:AAC2D6FE-F2C0-4199-A372-F4C18CBD5DEA@microsoft.com...
> w3svc won't start on my SBS 2003 machine with all the SP1 updates and all
> critical updates applied (Critical updates were added about 1 week before
> this problem started.
>
>
> I have determined that the MBschema.xml file is corrupt (I am familiare
> with
> tags).
>
> All of the copies in the history folder are also crorrupt. The metadata
> folder contains the original file of a bit smaller size. I copy that to
> the
> right place and try to start up w3svc again and the service does not
> start.
> The file grows to the same size as the corrupted size again?
>
> Can anyone help? I can't get any response from iisadmin even though the
> service is running. Was this caused from an update?
>
>
> Details below....
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
>
> Check if w3svc service is running No
> Check if iisadmin service is running Yes
>
> C:
> cd \windows\system32\inetsrv
> dir METABASE.xml MBschema.xml history metaback
>
> notepad METABASE.xml
> notepad MBschema.xml
>
> line 211 of MBschema.xml is corrupt for sure
>
> cd history (look at automatic iis backups)
> All automatic backups are also corrupt
> check whether the nodes "W3SVC" and "W3SVC/1" exist in your current
> metabase.xml. I donâ??t think the nodes exist
> 2. Also, on the commandline, run:
> CSCRIPT %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
> Does not respond
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>CSCRIPT
> %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
> Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
> Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.
>
>
>



Re: w3svc won't start on small business server by cruisein2002

cruisein2002
Thu Feb 02 10:37:28 CST 2006

We have backups in place. It's just a little hard to work with on the
crippled server.

Question -> When restoring these files is it important to restore
METABASE.xml MBschema.xml at the same time?

I tried restoring MBschema.xml and when I tried to start the w3svc service
manually from services I noted that w3svc did not start and the file was
changed. The MBschema.xml is being changed when w3svc is attempting to
start up.

I am *suspicious* that SAV10 (Symantec AntiVirus) may have something to do
with this problem. Note that SAV10 should have the approriate exclusions set
for exchange as indicated in Symantecs technical bulletin. SBS (Small
Business server is a bit different though.

Can anyone tell me if I can restore MBschema.xml and METABASE.xml
independantly?


Can anyone explain why the MBschema.xml is being modified when w3svc
service attempts to start?



"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

> I doubt critical updates *caused* the corruption.
>
> IIS6 has had maybe 2-3 critical fixes to date, none directly in IIS itself,
> and none touch configuration, so I doubt critical updates caused corruption.
> Now, updates which restart the server and cause unexpected closure of the
> configuration file handle... that may cause data corruption.
>
> Since you have data corruption, your best option is to restore from a valid
> backup of those XML files.
>
> You could try to hand-modify the textual XML file, but without an idea of
> what was originally "valid", this will be hard. It will also take some skill
> to reconstruct the file, and it may not be correct.
>
> There is no way to regenerate a valid IIS configuration without
> reinstallation of IIS, and since SBS involves OWA, Exchange, and Sharepoint
> running on top of IIS, this pretty much means you should reinstall the
> entire SBS all over. You should be able to backup/restore Exchange and
> Sharepoint data independent of IIS, so you can reinstall SBS and the restore
> your Exchange/Sharepoint data over it.
>
> And remember the backups this time! Data corruption is generally harder to
> fix and far easier to simply restore a backup.
>
> --
> //David
> IIS
> http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> //
>
> "The_Canuck" <cruisein2002@yahoo.com.DONOTSPAM> wrote in message
> news:AAC2D6FE-F2C0-4199-A372-F4C18CBD5DEA@microsoft.com...
> > w3svc won't start on my SBS 2003 machine with all the SP1 updates and all
> > critical updates applied (Critical updates were added about 1 week before
> > this problem started.
> >
> >
> > I have determined that the MBschema.xml file is corrupt (I am familiare
> > with
> > tags).
> >
> > All of the copies in the history folder are also crorrupt. The metadata
> > folder contains the original file of a bit smaller size. I copy that to
> > the
> > right place and try to start up w3svc again and the service does not
> > start.
> > The file grows to the same size as the corrupted size again?
> >
> > Can anyone help? I can't get any response from iisadmin even though the
> > service is running. Was this caused from an update?
> >
> >
> > Details below....
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Check if w3svc service is running No
> > Check if iisadmin service is running Yes
> >
> > C:
> > cd \windows\system32\inetsrv
> > dir METABASE.xml MBschema.xml history metaback
> >
> > notepad METABASE.xml
> > notepad MBschema.xml
> >
> > line 211 of MBschema.xml is corrupt for sure
> >
> > cd history (look at automatic iis backups)
> > All automatic backups are also corrupt
> > check whether the nodes "W3SVC" and "W3SVC/1" exist in your current
> > metabase.xml. I don�t think the nodes exist
> > 2. Also, on the commandline, run:
> > CSCRIPT %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
> > Does not respond
> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>CSCRIPT
> > %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
> > Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
> > Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>

Re: w3svc won't start on small business server by David

David
Thu Feb 02 23:54:01 CST 2006

metabase.xml and mbschema.xml should be restored together.

Usually, it ends up being ok to just restore the metabase.xml because real
configuration is stored in there. mbschema.xml is just data related to how
to interpret the real configuration in metabase.xml. Usually the schema is
never customized hence never changes; thus you can safely restore just
metabase.xml.

Not certain why your mbschema.xml is being changed -- mine stays the same
when starting W3SVC. In fact, mine stayed the same since installation across
reboots/restarts. I only see metabase.xml being changed when starting up,
which is ok because some volatile runtime data gets stored and thus the
datestamp change.

--
//David
IIS
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
//

"The_Canuck" <cruisein2002@yahoo.com.DONOTSPAM> wrote in message
news:2CED4455-3E4A-4C77-9349-E5A51AC5F4A0@microsoft.com...
> We have backups in place. It's just a little hard to work with on the
> crippled server.
>
> Question -> When restoring these files is it important to restore
> METABASE.xml MBschema.xml at the same time?
>
> I tried restoring MBschema.xml and when I tried to start the w3svc
> service
> manually from services I noted that w3svc did not start and the file was
> changed. The MBschema.xml is being changed when w3svc is attempting to
> start up.
>
> I am *suspicious* that SAV10 (Symantec AntiVirus) may have something to do
> with this problem. Note that SAV10 should have the approriate exclusions
> set
> for exchange as indicated in Symantecs technical bulletin. SBS (Small
> Business server is a bit different though.
>
> Can anyone tell me if I can restore MBschema.xml and METABASE.xml
> independantly?
>
>
> Can anyone explain why the MBschema.xml is being modified when w3svc
> service attempts to start?
>
>
>
> "David Wang [Msft]" wrote:
>
>> I doubt critical updates *caused* the corruption.
>>
>> IIS6 has had maybe 2-3 critical fixes to date, none directly in IIS
>> itself,
>> and none touch configuration, so I doubt critical updates caused
>> corruption.
>> Now, updates which restart the server and cause unexpected closure of the
>> configuration file handle... that may cause data corruption.
>>
>> Since you have data corruption, your best option is to restore from a
>> valid
>> backup of those XML files.
>>
>> You could try to hand-modify the textual XML file, but without an idea of
>> what was originally "valid", this will be hard. It will also take some
>> skill
>> to reconstruct the file, and it may not be correct.
>>
>> There is no way to regenerate a valid IIS configuration without
>> reinstallation of IIS, and since SBS involves OWA, Exchange, and
>> Sharepoint
>> running on top of IIS, this pretty much means you should reinstall the
>> entire SBS all over. You should be able to backup/restore Exchange and
>> Sharepoint data independent of IIS, so you can reinstall SBS and the
>> restore
>> your Exchange/Sharepoint data over it.
>>
>> And remember the backups this time! Data corruption is generally harder
>> to
>> fix and far easier to simply restore a backup.
>>
>> --
>> //David
>> IIS
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>> //
>>
>> "The_Canuck" <cruisein2002@yahoo.com.DONOTSPAM> wrote in message
>> news:AAC2D6FE-F2C0-4199-A372-F4C18CBD5DEA@microsoft.com...
>> > w3svc won't start on my SBS 2003 machine with all the SP1 updates and
>> > all
>> > critical updates applied (Critical updates were added about 1 week
>> > before
>> > this problem started.
>> >
>> >
>> > I have determined that the MBschema.xml file is corrupt (I am familiare
>> > with
>> > tags).
>> >
>> > All of the copies in the history folder are also crorrupt. The
>> > metadata
>> > folder contains the original file of a bit smaller size. I copy that
>> > to
>> > the
>> > right place and try to start up w3svc again and the service does not
>> > start.
>> > The file grows to the same size as the corrupted size again?
>> >
>> > Can anyone help? I can't get any response from iisadmin even though
>> > the
>> > service is running. Was this caused from an update?
>> >
>> >
>> > Details below....
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Check if w3svc service is running No
>> > Check if iisadmin service is running Yes
>> >
>> > C:
>> > cd \windows\system32\inetsrv
>> > dir METABASE.xml MBschema.xml history metaback
>> >
>> > notepad METABASE.xml
>> > notepad MBschema.xml
>> >
>> > line 211 of MBschema.xml is corrupt for sure
>> >
>> > cd history (look at automatic iis backups)
>> > All automatic backups are also corrupt
>> > check whether the nodes "W3SVC" and "W3SVC/1" exist in your current
>> > metabase.xml. I don�t think the nodes exist
>> > 2. Also, on the commandline, run:
>> > CSCRIPT %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum
>> > w3svc/1/root
>> > Does not respond
>> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
>> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
>> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
>> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
>> > C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>CSCRIPT
>> > %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc/1/root
>> > Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
>> > Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>



Re: w3svc won't start on small business server by cruisein2002

cruisein2002
Fri Feb 03 11:09:53 CST 2006

David thanks for these "tidbits" I am off this morning to restore these
files from tape. Wish me luck.

If I restore the original files (not the backup ones in history) but the
original files from the MetaBack folder

C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>dir MetaBack
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 4CF0-3E29


Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\MetaBack

02/09/2005 11:47 AM <DIR> .
02/09/2005 11:47 AM <DIR> ..
02/09/2005 11:47 AM 45,655 Initial Backup - created
automatically by IIS setup.MD1
02/09/2005 11:45 AM 258,976 Initial Backup - created
automatically by IIS setup.SC1
2 File(s) 304,631 bytes
2 Dir(s) 1,848,832,000 bytes free

The medadata folder is somelike like 30% of the current one in production.
Since this was the file that was used during the install is it ok to use this
file now. For example I am sure that a lot of SBS wizards have been run
(like sharepoint and exchange). Also SP1 for small business server (really
5 SP in one) was also installed ion this server. I wonder if any of these
files modified these files?


C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>dir METABASE.xml MBschema.xml
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 4CF0-3E29

Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv

02/01/2006 09:10 PM 272,766 MetaBase.xml

Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv

02/01/2006 09:08 PM 263,671 MBSchema.xml
2 File(s) 536,437 bytes
0 Dir(s) 1,848,758,272 bytes free

C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>



Question 1

Should either of these files be very big. We are not big IIS users here
-just default SBS stuff. I will try to diff them to see changes.

Question 2

Since we pretty much a default SBS/IIS site (with SP1) would it be an option
to get these files from another similarly conifured machine and change
(install points/IP addresses and server names) and use those files?


"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

> metabase.xml and mbschema.xml should be restored together.
>
> Usually, it ends up being ok to just restore the metabase.xml because real
> configuration is stored in there. mbschema.xml is just data related to how
> to interpret the real configuration in metabase.xml. Usually the schema is
> never customized hence never changes; thus you can safely restore just
> metabase.xml.
>
> Not certain why your mbschema.xml is being changed -- mine stays the same
> when starting W3SVC. In fact, mine stayed the same since installation across
> reboots/restarts. I only see metabase.xml being changed when starting up,
> which is ok because some volatile runtime data gets stored and thus the
> datestamp change.
>
> --
> //David
> IIS
> http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> //


Re: w3svc won't start on small business server by David

David
Sat Feb 04 02:58:02 CST 2006

SBS involves Exchange, OWA, and Sharepoint, which all customize IIS
configuration. Thus, the initial backup file made by IIS is useless because
it will not contain the changes made by Exchange, OWA, and Sharepoint. And
unless you can "reinstall the SBS packages" to recover that configuration, I
cannot think of any way other than to reinstall the entire OS with SBS. You
should be able to save your user data of Exchange and Sharepoint across the
OS installation, though, since they do not involve your missing IIS
configuration data.

It is not possible to directly copy and use IIS configuration file from one
machine to another. You can try to manually duplicate IIS settings using
metabase Backup/Restore or Import/Export, but I have no idea which ones are
necessary nor whether you get them all.

A backup of the system when it was first completely setup is the most
useful. Everything else requires you to manually keep track of the
configuration changes.

--
//David
IIS
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
//

"The_Canuck" <cruisein2002@yahoo.com.DONOTSPAM> wrote in message
news:0F8A51F3-12C0-4400-8186-BC0F3411F3CC@microsoft.com...
> David thanks for these "tidbits" I am off this morning to restore these
> files from tape. Wish me luck.
>
> If I restore the original files (not the backup ones in history) but the
> original files from the MetaBack folder
>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>dir MetaBack
> Volume in drive C has no label.
> Volume Serial Number is 4CF0-3E29
>
>
> Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\MetaBack
>
> 02/09/2005 11:47 AM <DIR> .
> 02/09/2005 11:47 AM <DIR> ..
> 02/09/2005 11:47 AM 45,655 Initial Backup - created
> automatically by IIS setup.MD1
> 02/09/2005 11:45 AM 258,976 Initial Backup - created
> automatically by IIS setup.SC1
> 2 File(s) 304,631 bytes
> 2 Dir(s) 1,848,832,000 bytes free
>
> The medadata folder is somelike like 30% of the current one in production.
> Since this was the file that was used during the install is it ok to use
> this
> file now. For example I am sure that a lot of SBS wizards have been run
> (like sharepoint and exchange). Also SP1 for small business server
> (really
> 5 SP in one) was also installed ion this server. I wonder if any of these
> files modified these files?
>
>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>dir METABASE.xml MBschema.xml
> Volume in drive C has no label.
> Volume Serial Number is 4CF0-3E29
>
> Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv
>
> 02/01/2006 09:10 PM 272,766 MetaBase.xml
>
> Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv
>
> 02/01/2006 09:08 PM 263,671 MBSchema.xml
> 2 File(s) 536,437 bytes
> 0 Dir(s) 1,848,758,272 bytes free
>
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>
>
>
>
> Question 1
>
> Should either of these files be very big. We are not big IIS users here
> -just default SBS stuff. I will try to diff them to see changes.
>
> Question 2
>
> Since we pretty much a default SBS/IIS site (with SP1) would it be an
> option
> to get these files from another similarly conifured machine and change
> (install points/IP addresses and server names) and use those files?
>
>
> "David Wang [Msft]" wrote:
>
>> metabase.xml and mbschema.xml should be restored together.
>>
>> Usually, it ends up being ok to just restore the metabase.xml because
>> real
>> configuration is stored in there. mbschema.xml is just data related to
>> how
>> to interpret the real configuration in metabase.xml. Usually the schema
>> is
>> never customized hence never changes; thus you can safely restore just
>> metabase.xml.
>>
>> Not certain why your mbschema.xml is being changed -- mine stays the same
>> when starting W3SVC. In fact, mine stayed the same since installation
>> across
>> reboots/restarts. I only see metabase.xml being changed when starting up,
>> which is ok because some volatile runtime data gets stored and thus the
>> datestamp change.
>>
>> --
>> //David
>> IIS
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>> //
>