Sitecore Blog: Sitecore installation tips and tricks

Recently I have done one of the most difficult installation of sitecore I have never done. Not because of sitecore himself but because of IIS, the firewall, the sql server, …

Here is some tips you can use if you have some trouble to install sitecore :

IIS Errors

If you have this error : « This configuration section cannot be used at this path. This happens when the section is locked at a parent level. Locking is either by default (overrideModeDefault='Deny'), or set explicitly by a location tag with overrideMode='Deny' or the legacy allowOverride='false'. »

Execute this command : %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe unlock config -section:system.webServer/security/requestFiltering

If the website return a blank page or an error:

Check if all the required windows component are installed (IIS, Dotnet, …)
Check if the server doesn’t need a reboot to install some components or updates
Execute an aspnet_regiis –i
Check if you don’t have some strange Query strings or http verbs blocked in the IIS request filtering

SQL Errors

If you have an sql error :

Check your connectionstring in connectionstrings.config
Check if the local firewall doesn’t block your query (cf windows eventviewer)
Check if the global firewall doesn’t block the request

from the web server to the sql server
from the sql server to the web server

Check the network route is correct (especially if you have more than one network card on this server) (use the command « route PRINT » to see it) and use the command « route –p add » if needed
Put the server name in the hostfile
If you use the active directory

you will maybe need to use the impersonate (cf. web.config)
The user need to have the access write to the web server and the sql server

Sitecore Errors

If the website return a blank page :

Try to add a page test.htm at the root of your website folder and call it to see if iis work.

If the license is missing :

Check in the web.config if the datafolder and the licensefolder is set correctly
Check if the App Pool user have the read access to the license.xml file
Check if the license file is correct

If the you see some errors in the log about the performance counter :

Unzip and execute this package (as administrator) : http://sdn.sitecore.net/upload/sdn5/faq/administration/sitecorecounters.zip
Check if the user of the App Pool is in the windows user group : « Performance Monitor Users »

Optimisations