I have SharePoint 2010 installed on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine which is also hosting SQL Sever 2008 R2. I am attempting to deploy a solution that includes web parts in the 2010 environment that is working fine in MOSS 2007.

The Web Part feature has a feature receiver that updates the web.config. When I try to activate the feature through the Site Collection Feature GUI, I receive an access denied message. I am logged on to the server and in SharePoint with the APP Pool account which is also a member of the domain administrator group, local administrator group and SharePoint Farm Admin group. This account is also dbo on SQL Server.

This same feature activates fine using the stsadm command.

I have dug into this issue at length and here is what I have found:

Looking at the Microsoft assemblies in reflector, my error is coming from the SPWebApplication.ApplyWebConfigModifications() method. I can see the trace statements from SPWebConfigFileChanges.RemoveModificationsWebConfigXMLDocument and SPWebConfigFileChanges.ApplyModificationsWebConfigXMLDocument. The next line is a Save(str).

Below is the output from the SharePoint logs that pertain to this error:

Apply web config modifications to web app
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
General 8grn Medium WebConfigModification: Applying web config modifications to web app in server tw-s1-m4400-007
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 88gw Medium WebConfigModification: Applying web config modifications to file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b Medium Removing web config node - Path configuration/system.web/httpModules Node name add[@name='JivePageController']
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b Medium Removing web config node - Path configuration/system.web/httpHandlers Node name add[@path='ScriptResource.axd']
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b Medium Removing web config node - Path configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding" and namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"] Node name [local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions.Design"] 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 887b Medium Removing web config node - Path configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding" and namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"] Node name [local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions"] 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8 Medium WebConfigModification: Adding web config node - Path - configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding" and namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"] Node name - [local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions"] Node value - in web.config file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8 Medium WebConfigModification: Adding web config node - Path - configuration/runtime/*[local-name()="assemblyBinding" and namespace-uri()="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"] Node name - [local-name()="dependentAssembly"][/@name="System.Web.Extensions.Design"] Node value - in web.config file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8 Medium WebConfigModification: Adding web config node - Path - configuration/system.web/httpHandlers Node name - add[@path='ScriptResource.axd'] Node value - in web.config file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8gp8 Medium WebConfigModification: Adding web config node - Path - configuration/system.web/httpModules Node name - add[@name='JivePageController'] Node value - in web.config file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config 5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.09 w3wp.exe (0x15C4)
0x1444 SharePoint Foundation
Topology e5mb Medium WcfReceiveRequest: LocalAddress: 'http://tw-s1-m4400-007.jivedemo.local:32843/15702467ece1408f881abeabac3b5077/MetadataWebService.svc' Channel: 'System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel' Action: xxx MessageId: 'urn:uuid:4e859532-ed7f-4937-8b88-68d3af43d589' 9f403ede-2c94-490b-a05c-e169cc5fe58d

02/24/2010 16:05:41.10 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology f6kh High WebConfigModification: Save of web.config file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config for applying modifications to web app SharePoint - 2008 failed. Error message - Access to the path 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\2008\web.config' is denied.
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

02/24/2010 16:05:41.10 w3wp.exe (0x0F64)
0x1034 SharePoint Foundation
Topology 8j2o High WebConfigModification: Changes not applied to web application SharePoint - 2008 with Url xxx
5a817a37-7bf6-4d26-be51-207369e38f5b

Any help would be appreciated!