Error message when you try to connect to a site in a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site collection: "HTTP 500 - Internal server error"

Consider the following scenario. You create a site collection in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 that contains several sites. You configure the permissions of a document library in one of the sites to inherit permissions. This operation is successful and the document library inherits its permissions as expected.

However, when you try to connect to a site in the site collection, you receive the following error message:All sites in the site collection are inaccessible.

For example, you experience these symptoms if the following conditions are true:

• You create a site that is named Site A. Site A inherits permissions from the parent site. Then, you configure Site A to stop inheriting permissions.
• Under Site A, you create a subsite that is named Site B. Site B inherits permissions from the parent site. Then, you configure Site B to stop inheriting permissions.
• You configure Site A to inherit permissions from the top-level site.
• You create a document library in Site B, and then you configure the document library to inherit permissions from Site B.

In this scenario, the document library inherits permissions from Site B. However, you receive the error message when you try to access a site in the site collection.

This problem occurs if Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 incorrectly processes the inheritance of certain permissions. This condition causes the content database to contain incorrect information.

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Hotfix Package that is dated May 15, 2007. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Notes

• This hotfix package includes a hotfix that applies to scenarios in which the content database has not yet been created on the server. This hotfix helps prevent the issue. It does not fix sites that are inaccessible.
• This hotfix package includes a hotfix that cleans up the content database to fix sites that are inaccessible. To enable this hotfix, make sure that you run the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard" after you apply the hotfix.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.