Working in VS08/3.5 on project based very closely off EntLib's DataAccess QuickStart.

The sln has 3 projects -

   1. VB Class Library (CMS) to provide db access to the other UI projects
   2. Winform (WinFormUI) - references CMS to show output to conventional WinForm (bascially I just broke the QuickStart's Winform to a seperate project and then referenced CMS)
   3. WebServices app to provide SOAP output of the same db


WinForm works correctly so at least I've gotten that far.

The WebService app is calling the correct function in CommonData breakpoints are set at these 2 lines:
        Dim db As Database = DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase()
        Dim sqlCommand As String = "Select CustomerID, Name From Customers"

Execution hits the first but not the 2nd. The calling method gets an exception of message:
-        ex    {"The value can not be null or an empty string."}    System.Exception
(stack trace pasted at end of msg)

I've used EntLib's GUI to define a connectionstring to match the string used in the other two projects:
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="DataAccessQuickStart" connectionString="server=(local)\SQLEXPRESS;database=EntLibQuickStarts;Integrated Security=true"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>

other two:
<dataConfiguration defaultDatabase="DataAccessQuickStart"/>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add
            name="DataAccessQuickStart"
            providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
            connectionString="server=(local)\SQLEXPRESS;database=EntLibQuickStarts;Integrated Security=true" />
    </connectionStrings>
    <dataConfiguration defaultDatabase="DataAccessQuickStart"/>

The web app's bin dir also includes the same Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.dll as the other 2 projects.

Besides being clueless as to where/why/how to deal with this failure I'm really confused by the fact that the 2 UI projects have to carry the same db references that the dataproject is holding. Seems like UI shouldn't have to be coupled to the backend so tightly.

Event log carries this error:
401.5 Access Denied - Authorization failed by ISAPI/CGI application.

I've seen a post suggesting to set the AppPool's identity to Local Service and now get:

System.InvalidOperationException: Unable to generate a temporary class (result=1).
error CS2001: Source file 'C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\r9nzi4po.0.cs' could not be found
error CS2008: No inputs specified

   at System.Xml.Serialization.Compiler.Compile(Assembly parent, String ns, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters xmlParameters, Evidence evidence)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly.GenerateAssembly(XmlMapping[] xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, Evidence evidence, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters parameters, Assembly assembly, Hashtable assemblies)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly..ctor(XmlMapping[] xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, String location, Evidence evidence)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.FromMappings(XmlMapping[] mappings, Evidence evidence)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.XmlReturn.GetInitializers(LogicalMethodInfo[] methodInfos)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.XmlReturnWriter.GetInitializers(LogicalMethodInfo[] methodInfos)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.MimeFormatter.GetInitializers(Type type, LogicalMethodInfo[] methodInfos)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HttpServerType..ctor(Type type)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HttpServerProtocol.Initialize()
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.ServerProtocolFactory.Create(Type type, HttpContext context, HttpRequest request, HttpResponse response, Boolean& abortProcessing)





        StackTrace    "   at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.DatabaseConfigurationView.ValidateInstanceName(String name)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.DatabaseConfigurationView.GetConnectionStringSettings(String name)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.DatabaseCustomFactory.CreateObject(IBuilderContext context, String name, IConfigurationSource configurationSource, ConfigurationReflectionCache reflectionCache)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.Configuration.ObjectBuilder.ConfiguredObjectStrategy.BuildUp(IBuilderContext context, Type t, Object existing, String id)
 at Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.BuilderStrategy.BuildUp(IBuilderContext context, Type typeToBuild, Object existing, String idToBuild)
 at Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.SingletonStrategy.BuildUp(IBuilderContext context, Type typeToBuild, Object existing, String idToBuild)
 at Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.BuilderStrategy.BuildUp(IBuilderContext context, Type typeToBuild, Object existing, String idToBuild)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.Configuration.ObjectBuilder.ConfigurationNameMappingStrategy.BuildUp(IBuilderContext context, Type t, Object existing, String id)
 at Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.BuilderBase`1.DoBuildUp(IReadWriteLocator locator, Type typeToBuild, String idToBuild, Object existing, PolicyList[] transientPolicies)
 at Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.BuilderBase`1.BuildUp(IReadWriteLocator locator, Type typeToBuild, String idToBuild, Object existing, PolicyList[] transientPolicies)
 at Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.BuilderBase`1.BuildUp[TTypeToBuild](IReadWriteLocator locator, String idToBuild, Object existing, PolicyList[] transientPolicies)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.Configuration.ObjectBuilder.EnterpriseLibraryFactory.BuildUp[T](IReadWriteLocator locator, IConfigurationSource configurationSource)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.Configuration.ObjectBuilder.EnterpriseLibraryFactory.BuildUp[T](IConfigurationSource configurationSource)
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.Configuration.ObjectBuilder.NameTypeFactoryBase`1.CreateDefault()
 at Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase()
 at CMS.CMSData.GetCustomerList() in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\CMS\CMSData.vb:line 32
 at CMSws.GetCustomerList() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\TTSRoot\TTS\App_Code\CMSws.vb:line 29"

Easiest solution here is to create a single user that is used for a new application pool to which the virtual directory of your web application is assigned. And give that user necessary permissions to your database. The inbuilt services have an interesting mix of access and permissions for historical reasons and you gain nothing much in using them.

If the database is on a different machine make create the account in the domain (or, in a workgroup) ensure both machines have accounts with the same name and the same password. 

Any more details to pay attention trying this route? I've taken an existing account that's a member of admin group - logged in via RDC just to be sure i had the pw correct - but get:

The identity of application pool 'ASP.NET V2.0' is invalid, so the World Wide Web Publishing Service can not create a worker process to serve the application pool.  Therefore, the application pool has been disabled.

Any other things to set or otherwise pay attention to while trying this operation? There's lots about user configuration, App Pools, & IIS that i don't know squat about.

But at the bigger picture level....

More and more i wonder about my overlying framework where 2 different UI projects (one Winform and one WS) access a 3rd project responsible for accessing the database. It just seems plain wrong to me that these UI projects need to know anything at all about the db.

These UI projects are _not connecting to the database - they are calling a method from a different project that in turn connects to the database.

Perhaps I need to work harder to separate database dependencies away from the UI projects. Break them out to separate VS solutions?

juststeve:

The identity of application pool 'ASP.NET V2.0' is invalid, so the World Wide Web Publishing Service can not create a worker process to serve the application pool.  Therefore, the application pool has been disabled.

That indicates either the account is disabled, or the password is wrong (I've seen this when the application pool's account's password had expired).

As to the rest, it should be OK, but sometimes niggely little details can be hard to all get right.

E.g. common layer needs to have an identity that can access the database, front end (which ever) has to have an identity that can access the common layer. Tools like Process Monitor and enabling login/logoff auditting plus the security event log can help to start to sort things out. 

I've triple checked the password. I can login via RDC, start SQL's Management Studio and browse the db in question.

Somewhere while goggling this errormsg i saw it suggested that the Identity be set to local system long enough to see if the error resovles...then to work backward from there. I get the same behavior at local system, local service, network service - no results from the db but no error to the event log. Setting identity to the a local user will not log anything to Security but I don't know that I'm trapping the right events. ProcMon shows a couple 'NAME_NOT_FOUNDs on winlogon.exe but no failures....but again...I don't know what to look for/filter on.

I connect remotely but use SQLServer credentials. The box sits at a remote host - a server farm - so there's no way (that I know of) to assume a given Window accounts identity before hitting SQL.

Use runas to locally run something as a different user. 

Am able to execute the 'RunAs' from that box via my RDC session...not from my local workstation.

 Made a bit of progress here... I've found a blog entry describing the same error i'm tossing. The relevent bit is:

To cut to the chase, the problem is that Windows Server 2003 SP1 has revoked rights/permissions on the ASPNET account, that cannot be restored even by placing it in the Administrators group. The way to fix the problem is:

Go to the .NET Framework Folder (typically c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322)

aspnet_regiis -ua to uninstall the framework

aspnet_regiis -i to reinstall the framework

In IIS Manager:

Enable ASP.NET pages

In User manager (compmgmt.msc)

Set the ASPNET account with the password on the SQL server, and as a member of IIS_WPG

In IIS Manager:

Set the Application pool to run under the account with the password entered from the previous step

At the Run command:

iisreset to reset IIS

gpupdate /force to ensure password synchronization<br>http://adamgetchell.blogspot.com/2005/04/fun-with-aspnet-security-and-windows.html

Set the ASPNET account with the password on the SQL server, and as a member of IIS_WPG

Any idea which account 'on the SQL server' would be referencing?
 

It seems that the problem is that WinForms application runs under credentials of the user who launched the application. Web application is not running under any user account. It is running as a network service under ASPNET account. Therefore you either need to set up ASP.NET to impersonate a user or add ASPNET as a user to the database and specify appropriate credentials in, say, web.config.

Some more information here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xh507fc5(VS.71).aspx

Given that I'm getting the same results when testing with the app pool running as Local System haven't i taken the whole 'runs as/under' question out of the equation?