"There was an error while performing this operation"

Question

I have a website in IIS for which I cannot open any of the settings like Authentication, Handler Mappings, Authorization Rules etc. It just shows the error message "There was an error while performing this operation", with no more details and points to web.config.

Browsing the website results in a 500.19 error.

I tried adding iis_iusrs to the website folder and web.config, changing the app pool identity giving access to same on web.config/website folder security settings, verified target framework, iisreset/app pool recycles to no avail.

Answer 1

It turned out the website was using URL rewrite module which i was missing.

Downloaded web platform installer from MS and installed URL rewrite module.

http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

Wish IIS errors were more informative than just "There was an error..."

Answer 2

I am running IIS 8.5 and I deployed my first Asp.Net Core 2.0 (Razor pages) site to the IIS Server (on Windows Server 2012 R2) that was running several Asp.Net Framework/Classic websites. This worked for me:

Install the .NET Core Windows Server Hosting bundle

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/publishing/iis?tabs=aspnetcore2x#install-the-net-core-windows-server-hosting-bundle