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Q273639: HOW TO: Start IISAdmin and Dependent Services Under a Debugger

Article: Q273639
Product(s): Internet Information Server
Version(s): 3.0,4.0,5.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbHOWTOmaster
Last Modified: 22-JUL-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Internet Information Services version 5.0 
- Microsoft Internet Information Server versions 3.0, 4.0 
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IN THIS TASK
------------

- SUMMARY

   - Set Service Options

- REFERENCES

SUMMARY
=======

This step-by-step article describes how to start a service (specifically
IISAdmin and its dependent services) under a debugger.

Occasionally, issues occur when you start the IISAdmin service or one of its
dependent services, such as the World Wide Web Publishing service or the FTP
Publishing service. These services may stop responding (hang) or quit (crash) in
a way that is not caught by the default system debugger. Also, if a service
experiences a problem when it starts, the Service Control Manager (SCM)
gracefully stops the service and reports to the Event Log that there was a
problem starting the service. If this information is not enough, you must
determine where the issue lies during startup. If you are debugging an
executable file, you can start the debugger of your choice, and then run the
executable file under the debugger. This becomes more difficult when the
executable file in question is running as a Microsoft Windows NT service.
Although the environment is a little different, the approach is very similar.

This article describes how to start a service (specifically IISAdmin and its
dependent services) under a debugger. The debugger that is used in the example
is WinDBG. To download and install the debugging tools, visit the following
Microsoft Web site:

  Microsoft Debugging Tools
  http://www.microsoft.com/ddk/debugging/

Set Service Options
-------------------

1. Set the Image File Execution options so that when the service (or the
  executable file) starts, it starts under the debugger. Because you are
  dealing directly with a Windows NT service, make sure that you turn on the
  Interact With the Desktop option in the Log On As section of the Service
  Properties dialog box. Otherwise, when the service starts, it loads in the
  debugger, and you will not see it.

  REGEDIT4

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\inetinfo.exe]
  "Debugger"="C:\\Debuggers\\windbg -g"

NOTE: The path that points to the debugger (WinDbg in the examples) cannot
contain any spaces, nor can you use extensions in the debugger path; for
example, it must be windbg, and not windbg.exe.

2. To debug IIS, including the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Mail
  Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), Web, and
  other services that run under the Inetinfo.exe process, set the IISAdmin
  service to Interact with the Desktop.

3. At a command prompt, issue a net stop iisadmin /y command to stop IISAdmin
  and all the dependent services, and then issue a net start w3svc command to
  start the World Wide Web Publishing service and the IISAdmin service.

4. Start any other related services. This last step may be omitted or changed
  based on the situation. For example, if you are debugging an FTP (MSFTPSVC)
  service startup issue, instead of starting the World Wide Web Publishing
  service, you only have to start the FTP Publishing service (net start
  msftpsvc).

5. When the debugger is running, you can set up various options, such as symbol
  path. From this point, you can debug the service as any other executable
  process.

REFERENCES
==========

For additional information about debugging, click the article numbers below to
view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q286350 HOWTO: Use Autodump+ to Troubleshoot Hangs and Crashes

  Q261871 INFO: COM+ and MTS Debugging Resources

  Q183480 HOW TO: Debug ISAPI DLLs Under IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0

  Q238788 How to Debug CGI Applications Running Under IIS


For additional information about debugging a Windows NT service, click the
article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q170738 Debugging a Windows NT Service


Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbHOWTOmaster 
Technology        : kbiisSearch kbiis500 kbiis400 kbiis300
Version           : :3.0,4.0,5.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

=============================================================================

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