“Access is Denied ” Error during SharePoint 2010 in-place Upgrade.

This was a disappointment, initially. I built a fully functioning 2 server SharePoint 2007 including full Kerberos configuration, User Profiles, Search and Excel Services all working. I ran an in-place upgrade, but it failed miserably around 25% with a curious "Access is Denied" error. The full log entry from the upgrade log file was :

[OWSTIMER] [SPUpgradeSession] [ERROR] [6/13/2010 9:58:05 PM]: Upgrade [SPWebApplication Name=SharePoint – mysites.gaul.local80] failed.
[OWSTIMER] [SPUpgradeSession] [ERROR] [6/13/2010 9:58:05 PM]: Exception: Access is denied.

[OWSTIMER] [SPUpgradeSession] [ERROR] [6/13/2010 9:58:05 PM]:    at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind(Boolean throwIfFail)
   at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind()
   at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.get_IsContainer()
   at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntries.ChildEnumerator..ctor(DirectoryEntry container)
   at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntries.GetEnumerator()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIisWebSite.LookupByServerComment(String serverComment, Int32& instanceId)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPWebApplicationSequence.AddNextLevelObjects()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPHierarchyManager.Grow(SPTree`1 root, Boolean bRecursing, SPDelegateManager delegateManager)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPHierarchyManager.Grow(SPTree`1 root, SPDelegateManager delegateManager)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeSession.Upgrade(Object o, Boolean bRecurse)
[OWSTIMER] [SPUpgradeSession] [DEBUG] [6/13/2010 9:58:06 PM]: Elapsed time upgrading [SPWebApplication Name=SharePoint – mysites.gaul.local80]: 00:00:21.
[OWSTIMER] [SPManager] [INFO] [6/13/2010 9:58:06 PM]: Resetting the status of PersistedUpgradableObject: SPWebApplication Name=SharePoint – mysites.gaul.local80 to Online.
[OWSTIMER] [SPManager] [INFO] [6/13/2010 9:58:06 PM]: Resetting the status of PersistedUpgradableObject: SPWebService to Online.
[OWSTIMER] [SPManager] [INFO] [6/13/2010 9:58:06 PM]: Resetting the status of PersistedUpgradableObject: SPWebServiceInstance to Online.
[OWSTIMER] [SPManager] [INFO] [6/13/2010 9:58:06 PM]: Resetting the status of PersistedUpgradableObject: SPServer Name=FULLYAUTOMATIX to Online.
[OWSTIMER] [SPUpgradeSession] [ERROR] [6/13/2010 9:58:06 PM]: Upgrade Timer job is exiting due to exception: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80070005): Access is denied.

I had no idea what was causing this, so I left it a few days, as I went on to doing an Excel Services install. The strange thing was that I encountered an "Access is Denied" error when trying to create a Web Application when configuring Excel Services. The trace log looked vaguely familiar, including a call to DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind(). The issue for Excel Services was cured by setting the Default Impersonation Level for the machine in Component Services to ‘Identity’ and not to ‘Delegate’ as is often done when configuring Kerberos Authentication for SharePoint. The forum entry I found is here, and thanks to those guys!

So I went back to my 2-server farm and through the magic of snapshots in Virtual Box I returned to my SharePoint 2007 farm, switched the Default Impersonation Level back to Identity, ran the upgrade again and voila! a perfectly successful upgrade. I kept getting a few "Request Timed Out" errors when I tried to view the web site initially, but they cleared and I was able to view my site just as if it were in SharePoint 2007. Nice job Microsoft!

Hope this helps somebody.

Cheers

Dave Mc

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