Ran into a problem with a client today. They installed MOSS 2007 and created a publishing portal, but then decided to erase the Reports Center, since they had no use for it. A few days later, of course, they figured they DID want it after all, and recreated a new site, called Reports, using the Reporting Center template.

However, when trying to access it, they received this error: (click for full-sized image).

We have an error parsing the web.config, complaining that the PartitionResolver cannot be used, since we don't have any session defined as SQLServer or SharedServer. This seems odd, since the very same line that throws the error seems to be defining the session state as SQLServer. It also seemed off since Sharepoint, to the best of my knowledge, didn't even enable session state.

My first hint towards the solution - the file path. Notice that the source file is c:\inetpub\wwwroot\web.config. My portal is homed to the default location, c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80 - so it should be reading the web.config there, not the one at the root. This led me to believe that there was some sort of Managed Path thing going on here.

I verified this by creating a new Report Center site called "ReportCenter", rather than "Reports". Sure enough, it worked just fine.

An even quicker test showed that, as I expected, SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services was installed on the same virtual root, and was hogging the /Reports virtual directory to itself.

Strangely enough, I checked out the Managed Paths screen in the Web Application's Central Administration, but couldn't find Reports listed. Guess it was still a conflict between the explicitly created folder and Sharepoint's HTTP module handling the name.

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