IIS error - this program cannot display the webpage.

Question

Here are the details:

We have a dynamic data website using Telerik Open access, hosted through IIS 6. This application has been running fine with no issues in production. Recently, we added two new tables to the SQL database. These were added to the Telerik Open Access model and when tested in Visual Studio 2012 there was never any issues and ran brilliantly.

Then we published to production and when I browse to the application directly through IIS 6 to ensure it runs we get the error - "this program cannot display the webpage".

So we removed those two tables from the Telerik Open Access model and re-published and the Application runs great. So we re added the tables again and the same error comes from IIS.

This makes no sense as IIS normally gives an intelligible error. Why would IIS have an issue with two additional entities added to the Model but Visual Studio does not?

Answer 1

We had a metadata file associated with the model, and it was not configured correctly. When we fixed it and re-deployed, it worked great. The strange thing is that Visual Studio ignored the error and it took publishing it to error on us. Strange.

Answer 2

It looks like the model is somehow cached. You could try restarting the IIS in order to avoid the issue with the new entities in your model.