IIS services down - "Error parsing XML file. Reason: An invalid character was found in text content" - 4275 Event from IIS Config in the System event log - Rakki Muthukumar - Site Home

Problem

IIS Services are not starting

Symptoms

You may see the following events in the System Event log:

Event 7024 from Service Control Manager - The IIS Admin Service service terminated with service-specific error
2149648394 (0x8021080A)

Event 4275 from source IIS Config - Error parsing XML file. Reason: An invalid character was found in text
content.

Resolution

This may be due to some process editted the Metabase.xml. To start the services back, try the following steps:

First, try to verify you have a backup of your Metabase. To know open the Metaback folder under C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv. Try to pick the most recent backup and copy the .SC1 file to Metabase.XML under inetsrv folder
If you didn't see any recent backups, you can also open the History folder under C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv. Try to pick the recent Metabase_0000xxxx.XML file and the MBSchema_0000xxxx.XML file and copy them as Metabase.XML and MBSchema.XML under inetsrv folder

But, before doing any of the above steps, make sure that you have copied the old Metabase.XML and MBSchema.XML somewhere in your file system.

Happy Troubleshooting!