Help and Support
 

powered byLive Search

PRB: "Unable to Start Debugging on the Web Server" Error Message While You Debug ASP.NET Applications

View products that this article applies to.
Article ID:817034
Last Review:April 29, 2007
Revision:1.3
On This Page

SYMPTOMS

You create an ASP.NET Web application and then specify that the authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS) is set to Basic authentication. When you try to start to debug the ASP.NET Web application project in Visual Studio .NET, you may receive the following error message:

Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the Web server. You do not have permissions to debug the server.
Verify that you are a member of the Debugger Users group on the server. Would you like to disable future attempts to debug ASP.NET pages for this project?

Back to the top

CAUSE

When you set authentication to Basic, the HTTP debug request cannot establish the username and the password for the debugger. Therefore, the request does not reach the ASP.NET source code to debug, and then the auto-attach debugging of processes fails.

Back to the top

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, manually attach a debugger process. You can debug an ASP.NET Web application even if you set the authentication to Basic. Follow these steps to attach an Aspnet_wp.exe process to debug an ASP.NET Web application.

Create an ASP.NET Web Application Project

1.In Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, use Microsoft Visual Basic .NET or Microsoft Visual C# .NET to create a new ASP.NET Web application project. Name the project DebugTest. By default, WebForm1.aspx is created.
2.Right-click WebForm1.aspx, and then click View Code.
3.Change the Page_Load event as follows :

Visual C# .NET Code

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
 Response.Write("Hi");
}

Visual Basic .NET Code


Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 Response.Write("Hi")
End Sub
4. On the Build menu, click Build Solution.

Set Authentication to Basic

1.Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2.In Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools.
3. Double-click Internet Information Services.
4.Expand Internet Information Services, and then locate the DebugTest virtual directory.
5. Right-click DebugTest, and then click Properties.
6.Click the Directory Security tab. Under Anonymous access and authentication control, click Edit.
7. In the Authentication Methods dialog box, click to select the Basic authentication check box.
8.Click to clear the Anonymous access check box. Click to clear the Integrated Windows authentication check box.
9.Click OK.

Attach aspnet_wp process to Debug

1.Set a breakpoint on the code in the Page_Load event.
2.On the Debug menu, click Start Without Debugging.
Note You must use the Start Without Debugging option to see the ASP.NET worker process start.
3. On the Debug menu, click Processes.
4. In the Processes dialog box, select the Aspnet_wp.exe process under Available Processes, and then click Attach.
5. In the Attach to Process dialog box, click to select the Native and the Common Language Runtime check boxes.
6. Click OK, and then click Close.
Note When you click OK, Visual Studio .NET may take 2 to 5 minutes to attach the process.
7.Type the following URL in the browser:
http://localhost/DebugTest/WebForm1.aspx (http://localhost/DebugTest/WebForm1.aspx)
8. Type your User Name and Password in the dialog box, and then click OK.
9.Verify that you hit the breakpoint as you expect.

Back to the top

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior


Create an ASP.NET Web Application Project

1.In Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, use Visual Basic .NET or Visual C# .NET to create a new ASP.NET Web application. Name the Project DebugTest. By default, WebForm1.aspx is created.
2.Right-click WebForm1.aspx, and then click View Code .
3.Change the Page_Load event as follows :

Visual C# .NET Code

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
 Response.Write("Hi");
}

Visual Basic .NET Code


Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 Response.Write("Hi")
End Sub
4. On Build menu, click Build Solution.

Set Authentication to Basic

1.Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2.In Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools.
3. Double-click Internet Information Services.
4.Expand Internet Information Services, and then locate the DebugTest virtual directory.
5. Right-click DebugTest, and then click Properties.
6.Click the Directory Security tab. Under Anonymous access and authentication control, click Edit.
7. In the Authentication Methods dialog box, click to select the Basic authentication check box.
8.Click to clear the Anonymous access check box. Click to clear the Integrated Windows authentication check box.
9.Click OK, and then click OK again.

Debug the Project

1.Set the breakpoint on the code in the Page_Load event.
2.On the Debug menu, click Start.
3.You receive the error message that is described in the "Symptoms" section.

Back to the top

REFERENCES


For more information about how to debug ASP.NET, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network Web site:

Debugging ASP.NET Web Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w2faa92k(vs.71).aspx (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w2faa92k(vs.71).aspx)

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
306172 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306172/EN-US/) INFO: Common Errors When You Debug ASP.NET Applications in Visual Studio .NET
318041 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318041/EN-US/) HOW TO: Set Up and Use Remote Debugging in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

306169 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306169/EN-US/) PRB: Visual Studio .NET Debugger Does Not Stop on Breakpoints When You Debug ASP.NET Pages

Back to the top

APPLIES TO
•Microsoft ASP.NET 1.0
•Microsoft ASP.NET 1.1

Back to the top

Keywords: 
kbdebug kbauthentication kberrmsg kbwebforms kbprb KB817034

Back to the top

Article Translations

 

Other Support Options

  • Need More Help?
    Contact a Support professional by Email, Online or Phone.
  • Customer Service
    For non-technical assistance with product purchases, subscriptions, online services, events, training courses, corporate sales, piracy issues, and more.
  • Newsgroups
    Pose a question to other users. Discussion groups and Forums about specific Microsoft products, technologies, and services.