SharePoint 2007: Security Exception

Gonna try and post some more troubleshooting articles, just like my colleague Michaël. This time an article about a problem in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The problem
A customer came across a security exception error. But it didn’t always show up. Turned out it only showed when she was routed to a certain Web Front End, WFE02. You can see the error below in a screenshot.

The cause
The application wanted to write an event in the event log of WFE02 but wasn’t able to because the event source doens’t exist. It also doesn’t have rights to create the event source. That is why it is throwing an exception.

The solution
Temporarely give the application pool account that is used as identity of the web application local administrator rights on the WFE02.

1. Find out what the application pool identity is from your SharePoint web application. Go to IIS manager in administrative tools or type the command inetmgr in the run box.

2. Go to Server Manager in administrative tools. Open the Configuration tab and go to Local Users and Groups and go to the Administrators Group.

3. IISreset the web front end by typing the command iisreset in the run box.

4. Remove the application pool identity from the administrators group.

Now the event source can be created and the items will be posted in the event log. The customer will see the .aspx page again.

In this case it turned out to be that the application wanted to write information events in the event log. Can be really annoying if your application won’t run right because of some information logs.