My application is based on the "DevForce Silverlight Business Application" template (DevForce 6.0.7), which included support for the authentication/authorization features of ASP.Net's membership provider.

When it is running on my development machine, everything works great - login/logout function works, role authorization works, etc.

As soon as I upload the application to my production server (an Amazon EC instance running Win2008 server), the security features no longer work correctly.  No changes are made to the code before deployment.

And the weird thing is, it does not even report an error - it just doesn't login.

To explain:  I click on the link in the Silverlight application to login; it brings up the dialog box to enter username & password; if I type in the incorrect password, it responds correctly by saying they are invalid credentials (so it is connecting to the database).  If I enter the correct password, it accepts the login, closes the dialog box, but does not update the application, and it remains logged out.  No error messages, no indications that anything is wrong at all.

I can't debug the application, as the problem doesn't happen when it is running on my machine!  There is no debugger on the production server.

Here's my full environment:

 - Silverlight 4

 - DevForce 6.0.7

 - IIS 7 on production server (IISExpress on dev machine)

 - SQL Server Express (on both production server and dev machine)

 - I have integrated the ASP.Net membership tables into my main database using the aspnet_regsql.exe command.  

 - Web.config file has been verified to use Membership provider correctly.

It's hard to fully detail everything in this post, so feel free to ask more questions if you think you might know what it is.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike

http://www.ideablade.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2474&title=deployment-issue - http://www.ideablade.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2474&title=deployment-issue

However, how that was solved was by deleting all project files on the server, and re-uploading.

That did not work for me, unfortunately.

 

Are you using the same connection string locally as well as on the production server?  In other words, hit the production server from your Dev-Machine for the data - it should connect just fine, but you can get more data about what's going on from VS.

 

You can also pull out Fiddler and see what's going back and forth across the wire.

 

Greg

So, I created a blank application using the "Silverlight Business Application" (non-DevForce) template.   I then deployed the app using the standard Web Deploy function.  I did not create the aspnetdb.mdf file, as this should be created for me the first time I run the app, correct?

I run the app, click on login, and try to create a new user. It gives me the error: 

"Invoke operation 'CreateUser' failed.  Access to the path 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\testbizapp\App_Data' is denied."

So, for some reason, it doesn't have permission to create the database in that directory.

So, I tried creating the aspnetdb.mdf database first, and then publish it to the server along with everything else.  That doesn't work either.

I didn't encounter any of these issues with the DevForce app, as the SQL Database was not a User Instance.  It was a SQL Express DB that was  created ahead of time.

So, I am not sure what's going on.  Any ideas?

 

First, verify which application pool is being used by the website.  It probably is using DefaultAppPool. Then go to the Advanced Settings of the AppPool and check which identity is being used.  It should say "ApplicationPoolIdentity"  This in fact means the Identity called "DefaultAppPool" which is created by IIS automatically.

 

You then need to make sure that the "DefaultAppPool" identity has NTFS permissions on your testbizapp directory.  If not, you need to add the permissions.  The only way to do that is through a command line tool called ICACLS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The permissions are fine, and everything works great with the non-devforce app.  It authenticates to the default aspnetdb.mdf, no problem.

So, I tried to apply the same principles to my DevForce app, but with no success.

Even after ensuring that the Application Pool identity has sufficient permissions to the site and database, it still will not authenticate properly.

As I mentioned above, it will accept the username/password, connect to the database to verify, but then it remains logged out, without giving any error messages.

I have also checked the configuration of the Windows 2008 server.  It has all of the Server Roles and Features that it needs to properly operate IIS & ASP.NET & Silverlight applications (as is evidenced by the fact that the non-devforce app works fine).

Any other ideas?

My next step would be to totally scrap the ASP.NET Membership provider, and attempt to build an authentication mechanism from scratch (probably using core WCF), but I would like to avoid re-inventing the wheel if at all possible.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

Mike

 

Greg

I will send you the link and username/password. 

I just don't want to post them on a public forum.

Thanks!

 

Mike

 

The Entity Server is working and connects just fine as the app retrieves data correctly for anonymous user.  It is only when you try to log-in with the ASPNETDB that it hangs. 

 

No errors are produced in the Error Log except the following, but I don't know if this has to do with it.

 

IdeaBladeConfig resolution: File: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\QORSystem\web.config - found but failed to load: Unable to deserialize an object of type 'IdeaBlade.Core.IdeaBladeConfig' from the <{http://schemas.ideablade.com/2010/IdeaBladeConfig}ideablade.configuration> configuration section: Unable to generate a temporary class (result=1). error CS2001: Source file 'C:\Windows\TEMP\40bbrfsu.0.cs' could not be found error CS2008: No inputs specified

 

The config file looks like this:

 

<objectServer>
      <serverSettings useAspNetSecurityServices="true" allowAnonymousLogin="true" loginManagerRequired="true" />   
    </objectServer>

 

If the DevForce project is run from VS on his local machine connecting to the remote server, it does connect and log in just fine.

 

I am not sure what else to try.

 

Greg

That error message with the web.config is interesting, and some googling on it proved enlightening. Since the ideablade.configuration isn't being loaded, the ASP.NET support within DevForce isn't kicking in.

Check the permissions on the c:\windows\temp folder. The IIS_USERS group should have "read" and "list folder contents" permissions. After changing the folder permissions bounce IIS. Doing this should allow the ideablade.configuration information to load successfully.

I granted the IIS_USERS group "read" and "list folder contents" permissions to the C:\Windows\Temp folder.