You receive an "An error has occurred on the server" error message when you click Alert Me to add an alert in a child portal site of a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 server farm that uses shared services

In a server farm deployment of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 that is configured to use shared services, you cannot add an alert to an area of a child portal site. You locate the Web page of the child portal site that displays the area, type your user name and your password to access the child portal site, and then click Alert Me. After you type your user name and your password to access the parent portal site, you receive an error message that is similar to the following:

This problem may occur if certain data in the request that is redirected from the child portal site to the parent portal site is not retained. This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

• The virtual server of the parent portal site and the virtual server of the child portal site are configured to use Basic authentication.
• You access the child portal site before you access the parent portal site.

This problem was first fixed in a hotfix that is now contained in a service pack. If you installed the latest SharePoint Portal Server 2003 service pack, you do not have to install the hotfix.

Service pack information

This problem is corrected in Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for SharePoint Portal Server 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: After you install the service pack, follow the steps that are listed in the "Enable the hotfix" section to set the NoAlertCreationRedirectToMaster registry entry and to enable the hotfix.

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Hotfix Package November 1, 2004. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Enable the hotfix

To enable this hotfix after you install it, you must do both of the following:

• Add the NoAlertCreationRedirectToMaster registry entry to the following registry subkey, and then set the registry entry to 1:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\SharePoint Portal Server
• Grant the administrator of the child server farm access to search and to index resources on the parent server farm.

To do this, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Add the NoAlertCreationRedirectToMaster registry entry, and then set the registry entry to 1. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
   2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\SharePoint Portal Server
   3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   4. Type NoAlertCreationRedirectToMaster, and then press ENTER.
   5. Right-click NoAlertCreationRedirectToMaster, and then click Modify.
   6. Type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
   7. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
2. Add the account that is configured as the portal site application pool identity of the child server farm to the SPS_WPG local group of the server that is configured as the job server for the parent server farm. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the job server for the parent server farm, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
   2. Under System Tools, expand Local Users and Groups.
   3. Click Groups.
   4. Double-click SPS_WPG, and then click Add.
   5. Type the name of the account that is the portal site application pool identity of the child server farm, click Check Names if you want to examine the name, and then click OK two times.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2.

For more information about alerts, see the "Managing alerts" topic in the "Administration" section of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administration Guide. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administration Guide (Administrator's Help.chm) is located in the Docs folder in the root of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 CD.