KB199099 - UNC not supported in Site Foundation Wizard

Article ID: 199099

Article Last Modified on 3/22/2007

Microsoft Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition

This article was previously published under Q199099

SYMPTOMS

In the Site Foundation Wizard, if a UNC directory location is specified rather than a local or mapped directory to create a new site, the site foundation is not created correctly.

CAUSE

There is a problem in pre-Service Pack 2 (SP2) versions of Microsoft Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition in support for the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) and in the ability to configure additional Web servers (IIS metabase entries).

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Site Server 3.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

219292 How to obtain the latest Site Server 3.0 service pack

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Site Server 3.0. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Microsoft Site Server 3.0.

MORE INFORMATION

A new feature has been added to the Site Foundation Wizard in SP2 that allows you to create configurations that contain multiple Web servers and a single file server. This change allows you to place the physical files that comprise a site on a file server separate from the server where the Web metadata is stored.

You now have the option to enter the UNC path for the directory on the Administrator Directory screen. When a UNC path is supplied for the directory, password and password confirm fields appear on the Administrator Windows NT Account screen. The data that you type must match; it is checked for consistency. If the password needs to be changed, do the following:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, point to Microsoft Internet Information Server, and then click Internet Service Manager.
Right-click the site, and then click Properties.
Click Connect As.
Type a new password.

This new feature will also administer a site correctly in an n- computer cluster. The IIS metabase for computers 2 through n in an n-computer cluster will be populated with information about a site. Because the site has already been created on computer 1, the steps followed by the user are identical in every case. The software detects whether the site has already been created on computer 1, allowing only the IIS metadata to be created.

Note The following are known issues associated with the release of this feature.

To delete a site created in this manner, you must also delete the site from the n-computer cluster using the IIS MMC before you delete the site from computer 1 using the Site Foundation Wizard.
There is currently a limitation on renaming a site across the n-computer cluster. There is no procedure to handle the limitation at this time.
A DSN string must be present on all computers that point to the site data source, and it must have the same name on all computers.
The sites must have the same short name (the one used to name the virtual root).

Additional query words: Workbench(CMRC), HostAdmin(CMRC- W), UNC

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbsiteserver300sp2fix KB199099