PRB: ASP Running CDONTS Applications Out of Process Fails

ID: Q184270

The information in this article applies to:

Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) for NTS, version 1.2

SYMPTOMS

When running an Active Server Pages (ASP) page that uses CDONTS Out of Process, you may get one of the following errors:

    Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0046'
    Permission denied

    -or-

    Error 800900d key does not exist

CAUSE

The problem with running CDONTS out of process is that the process does not have access to the metabase. The metabase is a structure for storing Internet Information Server configuration settings; the metabase performs some of the same functions as the system registry, but uses less disk space.

RESOLUTION

The following note from the "Using IIS Admin Objects" topic of the "Microsoft Internet Information Server" online documentation gives the following warning and workaround:

   NOTE: For security purposes, out-of-process applications cannot access
   the metabase. It is recommended that you retain this default behavior
   unless special circumstances require otherwise. There are two ways you
   can modify this behavior, but each introduces some security risk. One
   approach is to give the IWAM_machinename account access to the metabase,
   which will allow access to the metabase for all out-process-applications
   created with this default identity. Another approach is to change the
   identity of the specific out-of-process-package to some other account
   identity and give that account access to the metabase. This introduces
   some risk but less than that introduced by giving metabase access to the
   IWAM_machinename account.

This workaround is not recommended as it does introduce a security risk.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

In order to give access to the metabase follow the steps below:

1. Open the Microsoft Management Console.

2. Double-click the "SMTP Default Server" (or right-click and select

   Properties).

3. Click the Operators tab.

4. Click Add and add either the "IWAM_MachineName" account or whatever

   account you have designated in accordance with the note in the
   RESOLUTION section.

Keywords          : kberrmsg kbASP kbMsg kbVBScript kbCDONTS kbGrpMsg 
Version           : WINDOWS:1.2
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: April 8, 1999