I get this error in the log, see below.

Note: I already added the asp process account to get full permissions on the data folder and all subfolders.

The web site frequently, multiple times per hour, just "freezes" and becomes unresponsive.

Why is this happening?

An unhandled exception occurred and the process was terminated.

Application ID: /LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT

Process ID: 3616

Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException

Message: Access to the path 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\...\Data\Sites\1\index\' is denied.

StackTrace: at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)

at System.IO.Directory.InternalCreateDirectory(String fullPath, String path, DirectorySecurity dirSecurity)

at System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(String path, DirectorySecurity directorySecurity)

at mojoPortal.Business.WebHelpers.IndexWriterTask.ProcessIndexingQueue()

at mojoPortal.Business.WebHelpers.IndexWriterTask.RunTask()

at mojoPortal.Business.WebHelpers.IndexWriterTask.RunTaskOnNewThread(Object oTask)

at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.WaitCallback_Context(Object state)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallbackInternal(_ThreadPoolWaitCallback tpWaitCallBack)

at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback(Object state)

Thank you for helping. Obviously the permission setting on the NTFS file system (e.g. Access Control List) is the issue.

The server is a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2, we have full administrative control over it.

I tried to create the folder manually and granted the following users "Modify" permission:

1. IIS_WPG
2. Internet Guest Account
3. NETWORK SERVICE

I can now see a few files created in the folder with extensions CFS, GEN and a file without extension.
I do no longer see any exceptions raised in the log so far. So I believe the issue is solved.

Note that the folder path from your proposed message is slightly different.
In our case, the path for which permission was denied is c:\inetpub\wwwroot\our_domain_name\Data\Sites\1\Index. ("Path A")
However, there is also a \Data folder directly under \wwwroot, e.g. c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Data\Sites\1\Index. ("Path B")

I granted permissions to "Path B" above before, and it did not work. However, when I granted permission to "Path A", it worked fine.

Is this path difference due to a multi-site configuration?

It would be nice if the MojoPortal system could recommend these permission settings automatically. Permissions can be a tricky issue.

I also would like to know which user(s) that exactly need permissions to reduce the "attack surface area" exposed by granting permissions.

I would also expect there to be one Data folder. There is only one mojoportal in our installation.

However

(1) The exception is raised for subfolder wwroot\mydomain\data\... , not wwwroot\data

(2) The wwwroot\data exists and contains lots of files eg. skins, which are obviously in use

(3) The folder(s) wwwroot\data\ and all subfolders in that path in the exception did not exist. I just had to create this path manually and subsequently set the permissions.

Maybe this is a special case but you may consider to look into wheter the indexing feature would ever attempt to access a mydomain subfolder under wwwroot rather than under wwwroot\data even though wwwroot\data is still used for ither content.

Thank you for the help.

The site is the only IIS Web Site site on the IIS 6.0 server.
Home directory = "A directory located no this computer", c:\inetpub\wwwroot.
It is configured to be an application. No virtual directory is used.

The following settings may be relevant (from user.config and web.config) and are used:

UseRelatedSiteMote: True
RelatedSiteID: 1
UseFolderInsteadOfHostnamesForMultipleSites: True
AllowMultipleSites: True
RunningInMediumTrust: False

No URL forwarding or rewriting plug-in is installed.

It may be difficult to diagnose and reproduce this configuration, so perhaps easier would be, if the indexing folder cannot be created automatically, whatever ther reason, the system could throw a custom exception or log message with configuration recommendations if it does not exist. It could make the error message a bit easier to understand.