Exchange Server component Client Access Role failed.

Error: Error:
Unable to create Internet Information Services (IIS) directory entry. Error message is: The system cannot find the path specified.
. HResult = -2147024893.

The system cannot find the path specified.

This can also be found in event log.

This is yet another one of these annoying problems which can mean multiple things and have multiple solutions (doh)

so to explain my scenario, we need to go back in time.

The Exchange 2007 installation was installed from scratz, and in 3 roles (Hub transport, Edge transport,Client Access Server (CAS) )

Since this was before my time, i assume that what went wrong, was that the CAS role was not entirely dedicated to our “CAS” server, since the Hub transport server had the role too, without using it tho.

i have written about this before, some weird message appearing in the console

http://www.annoying.dk/2008/06/09/microsoft-exchange-error-the-following-errors-were-reported-while-loading-topology-information/

(took a while to find out that the hub transport actually had the CAS role, it had never crossed my mind)

One thing i hate about the installation of SP1, is that it spends 20minuts doing checks, and prepares for everything, and then it stumples upon something lame (HEY YOU, you got a powershell open, close it ! ) and then you can restart SP1 setup.

We then tried to uninstall CAS role, by doing

setup.com /mode:uninstall /roles:ca

which just laughed at me and told me that it wouldnt do it since i had earlier started SP1 setup, and now i should finish it…. ?

I finally started checking logs (i know, shoud have done that from the start but..)

checking out c:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetupLog.txt gave me

[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] [WARNING] IIS://server.annoying.lan/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync was not found. Please make sure you have typed it correctly.
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] Administrator Active Directory session settings are:Â View Entire Forest: ‘True’, Configuration Domain Controller: ‘ad.annoying.lan’, Preferred Global Catalog: ‘ad.annoying.lan’, Preferred Domain Controllers: ‘{ ad.annoying.lan }’
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] Searching objects “server\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site)” of type “ADMobileVirtualDirectory” under the root “$null”.
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] Previous operation run on domain controller ‘ad.annoying.lan’.
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] [ERROR] Unable to create Internet Information Services (IIS) directory entry. Error message is: The system cannot find the path specified.
. HResult = -2147024893.
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] [ERROR] The system cannot find the path specified.

[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] [WARNING] Object server\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site) has been corrupted and it is in an inconsistent state. The following validation errors have occurred:
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] [WARNING] Exchange has detected an inconsistency in the Active Directory configuration for the following virtual directory(ies). This can happen if Mobile Sync virtual directories were deleted in Internet Services Manager. Please verify that you have access to the metabase on the servers listed below. In order to fix this inconsistency, run the following command, which will remove references to these virtual directories from the Active Directory:

Remove-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Identity “Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site)”
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] Ending processing.
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [2] Ending processing.
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [1] The following 1 error(s) occurred during task execution:
[28-09-2008 18:32:12] [1] 0. ErrorRecord: Unable to create Internet Information Services (IIS) directory entry. Error message is: The system cannot find the path specified.
. HResult = -2147024893.

so yea, why on earth is it trying to contact my hub transport (i named it server.annoying.lan here )

note that “Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync” etc can be other services, but the error message itself looks the same.

another line

[WARNING] IIS://server.annoying.lan/W3SVC/1/ROOT/EWS was not found. Please make sure you have typed it correctly.

is the semi important one.

the funny thing about this, is that the IIS dosnt have any virtual directories, not even a single file/folder/option that makes you believe that exchange has been on it.

but since exchange belives it, theres no other way.

Remove-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -identity “Server\EWS (Default Web Site)”

EWS is the one missing, and aslong as its missing, other virtual directories within it cannot be made or removed (as far as i remember) so remove it from exchange’s memory, and recreate it with

new-webservicesvirtualdirectory -ExternalUrl https://server.annoying.lan/EWS/exchange.asp

it it dosnt complain, the setup should now be able to create the desired virtual directories required for the CAS role (even tho i dont need it)

the SP1 installation then went smooth, and i was able to remove CAS role later on without any problem.

Before ending, i should make aware of that all this happend in a planned downtime schedule, and with all the problems appearing from out of the blue, i barely had the time to take notes and/or understand it all fully. so this post might contain alot of nonsense and errors, so please make me aware of it

another blog that helped me getting closer to my issue is

blog.justinho.com

and a few ms tech links explaining the commands i used

Remove-WebServicesVirtualDirectory

New-WebServicesVirtualDirectory

i had ensured that my exports list was correctly set up, actually, i had it tested from my tvix (was able to browse the share) but from another nix server, i got this message.

there’s probably alot of different solutions for this, since its anything else than accurate error description.

in my case, the other server i tried to access my server from, didnt have the nfs-common package installed.

after installing it, everything went just smooth..

When you try to access http://sharepointserver/site after finishing site setup, you might get the following

message “Cannot connect to the configuration database”

And when checking out locally Event viewer might reveal

Event Type:Â Â Â Error
Event Source:Â Â Â Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category:Â Â Â Database
Event ID:Â Â Â 3351
Date:Â Â Â Â Â Â 08-09-2008
Time:Â Â Â Â Â Â 14:19:10
User:Â Â Â Â Â Â N/A
Computer:Â Â Â COMPUTER
Description:
SQL database login failed. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.

Login failed for user ‘Domain\COMPUTER$’.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

and on the MSSQL server

Event Type:Â Â Â Failure Audit
Event Source:Â Â Â MSSQLSERVER
Event Category:Â Â Â (4)
Event ID:Â Â Â 18456
Date:Â Â Â Â Â Â 08-09-2008
Time:Â Â Â Â Â Â 14:06:02
User:Â Â Â Â Â Â DOMAIN\COMPUTER$
Computer:Â Â Â MSSQL_SERVER
Description:
Login failed for user ‘DOMAIN\COMPUTER$’. [CLIENT: 10.100.x.x1]

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 18 48 00 00 0e 00 00 00Â Â .H……
0008: 0c 00 00 00 53 00 4b 00Â Â ….S.K.
0010: 49 00 44 00 42 00 4c 00Â Â I.D.B.L.
0018: 41 00 44 00 4e 00 49 00Â Â A.D.N.I.
0020: 52 00 00 00 07 00 00 00Â Â R…….
0028: 6d 00 61 00 73 00 74 00Â Â m.a.s.t.
0030: 65 00 72 00 00 00Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â e.r…

Since the account was used for creating the main tables etc. on the mssql server, the account permissions should be correct.

Problem occours in selection of “predefined” in Security Account tab. this selects “Network Service” as the account
used to communicate with the MSSQL database.

(i was following instructions for installing a CRM system, hence my selection)

Simple solution for this is….

Under IIS, select “Application Pools – DefaultAppPool – Default Application” or whatever Application pool is associated with the Sharepoint
Web site.

Select properties, and select “Identity”

Choose, Configurable, and enter a Domain user with adminsitrative permissions (domain\user)

Save and restart IIS.

And horay! problem solved.

(yes, im aware that theres a bunch of other problems that throw out same error message like this, but answer for those are easy to google )

With the default option, selecting the windows media to be a DVDR, with flatfiles, you might encounter that it complains that i cant find specific files.

you might notice smartstart is based on nix, and the dvd is mounted at /mount/dvd/xxx

some people write that its enough to specify /mount/dvd/ as the folder, alltho i didnt have any luck with it (you should try it out just in case)

oh well, it wasnt worse that just using the smartstart cd to create the raid array, and then just boot up the Windows server 2008 dvd and do a normal install (and remember to install the support tool afterwards)

a few people has reported this issue, and a few others with the new 8.x smartstart cd’s, so hopefully we will see a new version soon.