SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

Working with a client recently, they wanted to have a look at some of the BI options offered by SharePoint, so we created a site from the BI template and looked at Excel Services and the Performance Point sample pages, Excel Services worked fine but Performance Point gave the error below that is mentioned elsewhere on this fine blog 

https://spandps.com/2010/11/01/performancepoint-2010-error-resolved-code-blocks-are-not-allowed-in-this-file-in-sp2010/ 

So a quick change to the web.config files was in order for the 2 web servers in the farm.

I went to the 1st server, backed up the web.config file, the made the change and all was good.

Went to the 2nd server, backed up the web.config file, the made the change and BANG internal error

I backed out the change, same error, put back the previous web.config, same error..hmm not good…. did a few IIS Resets, same error…hmm not good at all..

Finally looked at the servers event log and spotted the following text in the event

It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition=’MachineToApplication’ beyond application level.  This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS. (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\<Portal Site\app_globalresources\web.config line 355)

The path looked a bit odd so I checked in the app_globalresources folder and I had indeed somehow managed to copy a version the web.config file in to it. Deleted the file and SharePoint sprang back into life.. so the moral of the story is always read the error..

Happy SharePointing.