ASP.NET 1.1, FormsAuthentication, and IIS7 (Windows Server 2008 R2 x64)

Question

Moving some old sites off an old server to a newer one running Windows Server 2008 x64. Some of the sites are running ASP.NET 1.1. I've gotten them all to work with minimal hiccups (other than making sure to remap each ASP.NET version via aspnet_regiis and copying over the 1.1 machine.config to the Framework64 location) except for FormsAuthentication doesn't appear to be supported for ASP.NET 1.1/IIS7/7.5. Meaning, FormsAuthentication is not an option in IIS Admin, and FormsAuthentication settings in config files merely causes 403 Not Authorized page to render instead of redirecting to a login page etc.

Has anyone gotten it to work? I really just want it quick and dirty as it's only affecting three sites and this is the only remaining issue. I'd prefer not to have to keep a Win2003 server around (virtual or otherwise).

Thanks.

Answer 1

OK First of all I think there is a difference between IIS7.0 and IIS7.5 in that 7.0 seems to be more compatible with ASP.NET 1.1.

You should be able to install IIS7.0 on Windows 2008 server but I don't think it is available on Windows 7. Please not that .NET 1.1 should be running under the WoW64 configuration since I don't think it supports 64bit natively. Look at this article for installing ASP.NET 1.1 on Windows 2008 with IIS 7.0 - http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/472/how-to-install-aspnet-11-with-iis7-on-vista-and-windows-2008/

I came across this article for upgrading ASP.NET 1.1 to IIS7.0 - http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/270/upgrading-aspnet-11-to-iis7-on-windows-vista--windows-server-2008/ which might be helpful. Especially look at the section on "Differences between Integrated Mode and Classic Mode" where forms authentication behavior differences are discussed.