PRB: Unable to debug remote ASP.NET applications (317290)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft ASP.NET (included with the .NET Framework)
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2002), Professional Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2002), Enterprise Architect Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2002), Enterprise Developer Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2002), Academic Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2003), Professional Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2003), Enterprise Architect Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2003), Enterprise Developer Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (2003), Academic Edition
This article was previously published under Q317290
Note If you are debugging on a computer that is running Windows XP SP2, see the following article before you continuing in this article:

833977 How to turn on remote debugging in Windows XP with Service Pack 2

SYMPTOMS

When you use Visual Studio .NET to debug an application that is located on a remote Web server, you may receive the following error messages:
"Unable to automatically attach to http://... Access is denied. Check the DCOM configuration setting for the Machine debug manager"

-or-

"Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the web server. Access is denied.

Would you like to disable future attempts to debug ASP.NET pages for this project?"

CAUSE

This behavior occurs if the remote user does not have permissions to debug the aspnet_wp process.

RESOLUTION

To debug from a remote location, the user must be a member of the Debugger Users group and be must have Debug Programs permissions on the Web server. If you do not want to change the local policy, you can add users to Debugger Users group and Administrators group instead.

To add users to Debugger Users group and Administrators group, follow these steps:
  1. Right-click My Computer on the Windows desktop.
  2. Click Manage.
  3. Expand Local Users and Groups.
  4. Add the user name to the Administrators group.
  5. Add the user name to the Debugger Users group.
To give the user Debug Programs permissions, follow these steps.

Note If you added the user name to the Administrators group, you do not have to grant the user Debug Programs permissions because the Administrators group already have these permissions.
  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. Type MMC, and click OK.
  3. Add Local Computer Policy in MMC
  4. Expand Local Computer Policy, expand Windows Settings, expand Local Policies, and then expand User Rights Assignment.
  5. Find Debug Programs, and then add the appropriate users.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about other debugging issues, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

306172 Common errors when you debug ASP.NET applications

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/2/2004
Keywords:kbDebug kbIDEProject kbprb KB317290 kbAudDeveloper
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.