Symptoms
A few customers were getting the following message when running CSWorks installation:
Failed while processing WebVirtualDirs. (-2147024894 ) (see screenshot)
Setup log file contains the following entry:
ConfigureIIsExec: Error 0x80070002: Failed to find Web base
Why does this happen?
CSWorks installer installs demo application to IIS (Internet Information Services) website with following properties:
These are the default settings for “Default Web Site” created by IIS installer, and they usually remain unchanged unless system administrator edits them manually. CSWorks installer assumes there is a web site with those properties running on this machine, otherwise it throws the error above.
A similar issue is discussed with WiX installer developers at http://n2.nabble.com/WriteMetabaseChanges-Error-0x80070057-failed-to-create-web-application-td3190173.html, here is an excerpt:>
“Make sure the IP, Port and Header all exactly match the website on the machine. These are the 3 things we use to determine if we've found the right website or not.”
Is it possible to improve CSWorks installer so it can handle more complex scenarios? We probably can do that, but:
We may consider adding support for those complex scenarios, but this is not a top priority at the moment. We are sorry about the inconvenience caused and we appreciate your understanding in this regard.
Workaround
Before installing CSWorks, make sure that “Default Web Site” is configured to run on port 80 for all unassigned IP addresses, and host header name for this configuration is empty, as shown at this screenshot (Windows XP). When done, run CSWorks installer and make sure CSWorks demo applications work properly. All demo applications are configured to run from http://localhost/CSWorksDemo, and they won’t run if you change port or header for the web site that hosts CSWorksDemo virtual folder.