Symptoms

POA cannot create SharePoint site for a customer, the background task 'Create SharePoint site' fails with the following error message:

0x80131600 Cannot write configuration file.

More detailed diagnostics is provided in the example below:

Provisioning request failed. Unknown error 0x80131600 [<response><errorContext description="IIS7Provider method 'SetSectionInformation' failed.

Arguments:
site = SWsoft.PEM.Providers.IIS.IIS7.IIS7SiteKey
host = spf2010.provider.com
section = section(apphost, modulesSection)
section_information = SWsoft.PEM.Providers.IIS.IIS7.SectionInformation

Exception:
System.IO.FileLoadException: Filename: \\?\C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config

Error: Cannot write configuration file**

at SWsoft.PEM.Providers.IIS.IIS7.IIS7API.SetSectionInformation(IDictionary`2arguments)" code="0x80131600" executeSeqNo="124">
<errorSource namespace="IIS7Provider" procedure="SetSectionInformation"/></errorContext></response>]

Cause

The error message means that IIS cannot update its configuration file mentioned in the error message - C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config.

The file may be locked by IIS for its own needs, e.g. in the default installation IIS reads the applicationHost.config file every 2 minutes to check for changes and create snapshots (the IIS Configuration History feature).

Also, the problem may be caused by lack of diskspace on the SharePoint server or its high load due to many provisioned customers' SharePoint sites.

Resolution

First of all make sure that SharePoint server in question has enough free diskspace and try to re-run the failed task in the POA Task Manager. If it does not go through follow the steps below.

  1. Try to restart IIS on the problem SharePoint server using the iisreset utility and then re-run the failed POA task.

    The IP address or hostname of the problem SharePoint server are provided in the error message.

  2. Consider to tweak IIS Configuration History settings - change period from the default 2 minutes to e.g. 10 or 15 minutes. Use the instructions available by the link - http://www.iis.net/learn/manage/managing-your-configuration-settings/using-configuration-history-with-iis-7-and-iis-8.

  3. If the host is overloaded by currently provisioned SharePoint sites and there are another SharePoint servers registered in POA then consider to do the following:

    • Mark the overloaded server as 'Not ready to provide' in the POA Provider CP to exclude it from provisioning of new sites.

    • Cancel the failed task to create SharePoint site with all dependent tasks (it is safe because this is brand new site which was not yet created).

    • Remove site in the POA Customer Control Panel and re-create it from scratch.

If there is no other SharePoint servers in POA, then consider to deploy one and follow the procedure in the step 3.

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