The Dreaded “Aspnet_wp.exe Could Not Be Started” Error

This morning started on a bad foot. We officially designated one of our dev machines as “pooched”.

Inside the application log was the dreaded ‘Aspnet_wp.exe Could Not Be Started’ message. I cringe at the sight of this message because it could be the result of any number of security or permission related mis-configurations. One way to start troubleshooting the problem is by enabling auditing and getting some tools from sysinternals.com. See my post Security Whodunit and read Anil’s comment.

Going through all the KB articles (linked below) and trouble-shooting steps did not solve the problem. After four hours, the computer was one runtime error away from being placed into a charcoal picnic grill outside the building and set on fire. That’s when we realized a second machine was complaining about certificate errors and not being able to connect to SQL Server.

Both of these machines had something in common. Some of our client’s have moved to using VPN solutions over SSL, and both machines were setup to use this. The advantages to this type of VPN are the ability to tunnel over port 443 from just about anywhere, and (in theory) there is no need for client software deployment. In fact, everywhere I look the VPN over SSL vendors insist there is no need to deploy software on the client and make messy configuration changes. This white paper even claims the technology gives you “clientless access”. Isn't that an oxymoron?

You typically start a VPN over SSL session by browsing to a secure website outside the destination’s firewall and entering some credentials. The browser then asks if you want to install some signed ActiveX software onto your machine. I’m guessing since this is “clientless access” it doesn’t count as a software deployment. Nevertheless, after going into Add / Remove programs and instructing the software to uninstall from the clientless machine, ASP.NET worked perfectly again – even though the uninstall barfs on an access violation just before it completes.

The VPN software we were using was from Juniper networks. According to the signature, Neoteris wrote the ActiveX control. Neoteris, by the way, was bought by NetScreen, which in turn was bought by Juniper. You know when you are running an installation program and see signs of three different companies it’s going to be trouble. If this is a low cost deployment, then I want the Cisco IPSEC client back. Oh, I forgot, it's not really a deployment - it's clientless.

There are many other reasons you might see this error. It could be that the account for the ASP.NET worker process is disabled, missing, locked out, or you have the wrong password setup in machine.config. You might be trying to run ASP.NET on a domain controller. Alternatively, the ASP.NET process account might not have the permissions to access files that it needs, and woe to anyone who names their machine “SYSTEM”. These scenarios and fixes are described in the following KB articles.

FIX: ASP.NET Does Not Work with the Default ASPNET Account on a Domain Controller

PRB: "Aspnet_wp.exe Could Not Be Started" Error Message When You View an ASP.NET Page

You receive a "W3wp.exe could not be started" error message in the application event log when you view an ASP.NET page

FIX: Cannot Browse to ASP.NET Pages If Computer Name Contains Certain Words