ASP MVC in IIS 7 results in: HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden

I'm developing an ASP MVC web project. Now I have a requirement which forces me to deploy to an IIS7 inmiddle of development (to check some features). I'm getting the above mentioned error message whenever I try to type the URL of the web site. (Note: development machine: Vista Home Premium, IIS7)

What I have done until now:

Edited the HOSTS file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts).

Put two domains in it (127.0.0.1 domain1.com & 127.0.0.1 domain2.com).

Created a folder c:\websites\dirOfApplication and deployed from within Visual Studio 8 to this folder.

In IIS7 created a new site with host name domain1.com and application folder the above.

Typing the address domain1.com in Web browser results in the above error (HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden - The Web server is configured to not list the contents of this directory.)

I think I'm missing something but don't know what! Tryed to deploy the files System.Web.Mvc, System.Web.Abstraction & System.Web.Routing wit the same outcome. Whenever I try to hit F5 and run the application, it works fine!

Solution 1:

Maybe it's useful to someone: After converting my app to MVC 4 with .NET framework 4.5 and installing the framework on my server with IIS 7.0 I encountered the same 'forbidden' error mentioned in the question. I tried all options described above to no avail, when I noticed the

<system.webServer>
 <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
</system.webServer>

was missing from my web.config. After adding this, everything worked. Simple, but easy to overlook...

EDIT:

Of course the solution above will work, but it is indeed a waste of resources. I think it is better to add the routing module as pointed out by Chris Herring in the comments.

<system.webServer>
  <modules>
    <remove name="UrlRoutingModule-4.0" />
    <add name="UrlRoutingModule-4.0" type="System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingModule" preCondition="" />
  </modules>
</system.webServer>

Solution 2:

Answered on SO here, question: 403 - Forbidden on basic MVC 3 deploy on iis7.5

Run aspnet_regiis -i. Often I've found you need to do that to get 4.0 apps to work. Open a command prompt as an Administrator (right click the command prompt icon and select Run as Administrator):

cd \
cd Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.xxx.xxx
aspnet_regiis -i

Once it has installed and registered, make sure you application is using an application pool that is set to .NET 4.0.

UPDATE: I just found an issue with this command. Using -i updated all application pools to ASP.NET 4.0.

Using aspnet_regiis -ir installs the version of ASP.NET but does not change any web applications to this version. You may also want to review the -iru option.

Solution 3:

I too ran into this error. All the configuration and permissions were correct. But I forgot to copy Global.asax to the server, and that's what gave the 403 error.

Solution 4:

It's because of being too sure about what you (me) are doing!

On my machine there is IIS 7 installed but the required ASP.NET component (Control Panel->Programs->Turn On/Off->ASP.NET) was not.

So installing this solved the problem

Solution 5:

I had the same issue. This Microsoft support article fixed it for me.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2023146/mvc-2-and-asp.net-4-web-forms-applications-that-use-url-routing-might-return-http-404-errors-when-they-attempt-to-process-extensionless-urls-on-iis-7-and-iis-7.5

In the "Turn Windows Features On or Off" dialog box of the Windows Control Panel "Programs and Features" application, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the following node: Internet Information Services --> World Wide Web Services --> Common HTTP Features
2. Make sure that the "HTTP Error Redirection" option is selected.

-or-

1. Navigate to the following node: Internet Information Services --> World Wide Web Services --> Performance Features
2. Make sure that the "Static Content Compression" option is selected. After either option has been selected, click "OK" to save changes.

Re-enabling either the HTTP Error Redirection module or the Static Content Compression module ensures that ASP.NET and IIS correctly synchronize HTTP pipeline events. This enables the URL routing module to process extensionsless URLs.