Classic ASP using COM+ on x64 Windows Server 2008 and IIS7

Question

(Note: I thought about posting this to serverfault, but I figured more developers have banged their heads against these issues than admins)

I'm trying to set up a web page that uses both ASP Classic and ASP.NET 2.0 in the environment mentioned above. After applying many common fixes on the web and a few lucky guesses, the ASP.NET 2.0 pages are finally running fine (Minus COM+). The ASP Classic pages aren't running at all.

So I'm thinking the x64 environment is a the cause of most of my problems. Is there anyone here using old COM+ stuff with ASP Classic and ASP.NET in x64 and IIS7 with some words of wisdom?

Answer 1

You need to set the application pool to 32 bit mode ("Enable 32-bit Applications" in advanced properties). Set anonymous user permissions correctly. More IIS7 ASP material from learn.iis.net.

Answer 2

When working with x86 stuff in one of the fancy new x64 environments, look over your shoulder at every opportunity for configuration settings that need to be applied to both sides(x86/x64) of the operating system.

My problems were being caused by two groups of configuration settings that had to be set in both x64 and x86.

To enter the settings in the x86 side, here are some tips:

1. Copy any needed DLLs into the sysWOW64 folder.
2. Use a 32-bit Console to launch utilities such as the SQL Server Client Network Utility (cliconfg) and Registry Editor (regedt32). Using the 32-bit console will launch these utilities from the 32-bit system folder (%windir%\SysWoW64). I made a shortcut pointed to %windir%\SysWoW64\cmd.exe and launched it as an administrator.