Post-install ASP.NET exception on HTTPS bindings during upgrade

Products

• IT Analytics

Issue/Introduction

While upgrading IT Analytics (ITA), the installer may return an error post-install ('IT Analytics Server installation completed successfully') that prevents the user from navigating to the end of the installation process. The error message is 'The IT Analytics Server may not be functional' and the possible causes listed include:

• ASP.NET component is not installed or not registered in IIS
• The Application Server role is missing some required features (HTTP Activation?)
• The Web Server (IIS) role is missing some required features

Environment

Release : 2.9.x

Component : Installer

Cause

In addition to the possible causes listed in the warning message, this error can be caused by a site binding configuration that points to a URL other than the server's hostname.

For example, IT Analytics was previously installed on a server having the hostname 'itahost'. No port is bound to HTTP on this server, but HTTPS is bound to port 443 and has a valid SSL certificate installed. Because the certificate is for the site itaserver.example.test, the site binding has been configured to specify this URL for its host name. When the ITA installer finishes upgrading the existing installation, it checks against the hostname http://itahost/ITAnalytics instead of the host name configured in the site binding (https://itaserver.example.test/ITAnalytics). This check fails, and returns the ASP.NET error described in the Introduction section of this article.

Resolution

For errors caused by the configuration described in the Cause section of this article, temporarily change the site binding in Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager to use the server's hostname. Once the full installation process and post-install checks have completed, restore the original site binding host name.