Shut-Up and Smile

I just built a new VPC for Team Foundation Server (TFS) Beta 3 Refresh (single machine, Active Directory mode) on Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition, SP1.

Once I had everything installed, I tried to create a new Team Project. However, it failed with an error related to a permissions failure in creating the SharePoint team site. I then fired up a web browser and tried to access http://localhost. Instead of getting the default SharePont site, I instead was greeted with a dialog asking for my user name and password. Not good. Providing a valid name/password pair didn't work. I check a couple of settings, making sure IIS was using NTLM, etc. I then started poking around in my event logs.

I noticed a number of errors in the System Event Log like this:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {BA126AD1-2166-11D1-B1D0-00805FC1270E} to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

I clicked the help link (which actually turned out to be helpful to some degree). Searching for the GUID provided the name Network Connection Manager Class. That seemed a bit odd. It was then that I remembered I'd had seen a similar error on a different VPC that was also was Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition, SP1. The previous day, I had installed Team Suite RTM, but no TFS. Looking in DCOM Config, I didn't see a package for Network Connection Manager Class. But, there was the IIS Admin Service (the problem AppID from the other machine), which has an AppID of {A9E69610-B80D-11D0-B9B9-00A0C922E750}. So, I adjusted the Launch and Activation Permissions for IIS Admin Service to include Network Service. I gave it Local Launch and Local Activation (see figure below).

Once I did this, I bounced IIS with IISRESET and then tired to access http://localhost. Bingo! It worked.

Back in Visual Studio, I tried to create a Team Project and magic, it worked.

I need to spend some time figuring out why NETWORK SERVICE didn't have the correct permissions, but for now, I'm just glad things are working. Hope this helps someone else.

Update: I looked up the AppID that Network Connection Manager Class pointed to--it ended up being listed as netman in DCOM Config. I adjusted its permissions just like above and now am no longer having errors in the Event Log. That said things are not 100% happy. Second update to follow.

End of line.