We have IIS 6 running on a W2003 Server. The root web site is running a v1.1 site. Under this site we have a virtual running a v2.0 site (with a separate application pool). The web.config for the root site is using SQL as its state server and has a 1.1 SQL state server database installed. The 2.0 virtual web.config does not need state and its web.config has no reference to a state server. When we attempt to call the virtual we receive this error message. "Unable to use SQL Server because ASP.NET version 2.0 Session State is not installed on the SQL server. Please install ASP.NET Session State SQL Server version 2.0 or above.

This issue is currently only occurring on one web server. The rest are able to run the 2.0 virtual application. I also notice that if we call the 2.0 virtual with the IP address it does not generate the error, however if we call it with the host header name it generates the error (this behavior is only on the 1 web server with the error, all the others can be called with either the ip or host header without error). As an additional note the root and virtual are running with SSL.

My theory is that the virtual 2.0 application is inheriting the 1.1 web.config state server entry from the root and when it looks at the state server it sees it as a 1.1 version and reports the error that it needs a 2.0 state server. I however cannot understand why the other servers are not behaving in this matter. All of the servers are on the same OS service pack as well as the same version of .net framework.

Any ideas? Thanks