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Can't see path to another server in ASP.NET MVC

I have an internal ASP.NET MVC site that needs to read an Excel file. The file is on a different server from the one that ASP.NET MVC is running on and in order to prevent access problems I'm trying to copy it to the ASP.NET MVC server.
It works OK on my dev machine but when it is deployed to the server it can't see the path.
This is the chopped down code from the model (C#):
string fPath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(#"/virtualdir");
string fName = fPath + "test.xlsm";
if (System.IO.File.Exists(fName))
{
// Copy the file and do what's necessary
}
else
{
if (!Directory.Exists(fPath))
throw new Exception($"Directory not found: {fPath} ");
else
throw new Exception($"File not found: {fName } ");
}
The error I'm getting is
Directory not found:
followed by the path.
The path in the error is correct - I've copied and pasted it into explorer and it resolves OK.
I've tried using the full UNC path, a mapped network drive and a virtual directory (as in the code above). Where required these were given network admin rights (to test only!) but still nothing has worked.
The internal website is using pass through authentication but I've used specific credentials with full admin rights for the virtual directory, and the virtual dir in IIS expands OK to the required folder.
I've also tried giving the application pool (which runs in Integrated mode) full network admin rights.
I'm kind of hoping I've just overlooked something simple and this isn't a 'security feature'.
I found this question copy files between servers asp.net mvc but the answer was to use FTP and I don't want to go down that route if I can avoid it.
Any assistance will be much appreciated.

First, To be on the safe side that your directory is building correctly, I would use the Path.Combine.
string fName = Path.Combine(fPath, "test.xlsm")
Second, I would check the following post and try some things there as it seems to be a similar issue.
Directory.Exists not working for a network path
If you are still not able to see the directory, there is a good chance the user does not have access to that network path. Likely what happened is the app pool running your application has access to the directory on the server. The production box likely doesn't have that same access. You would have to get with the network engineer to get that resolved.
Alternatively, you could write a Powershell script to run as a user who has access to both the production and the development server to copy the file over to the production server if that is your ultimate goal and your server administrators could schedule it for you if that is allowed in your environment.

IIS AppPool identity denied access to move file

I have this exact (best as I can see) scenario on a test server and it works as expected.
IIS Application needs to move a file on the D drive from one sub folder to another subfolder
D:\supportfiles\new (file is here)
D:\supportfiles\backup (file needs to be moved here)
I gave the app pool modify access to the top level folder, D:\supportfiles
This works as expected on my test server, but not on a different server that I published to. The app pool has permissions, or at least it appears it does.
I get this error
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path is denied.
File.Move(OldPath + FileName, NewPath + FileName);

Go to advance settings of your application apppool and set it to LocalSystem instead of apppool identity. Or setup a new user specially for using in apppool.
It's usually caused for some os hardening issues on product servers.

it happened to me. console application for sure. start as an administrator and try again?

Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables returns unexpected path in IIS

var filename = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(#"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json");
When I run it in vs I get the path I need which is
C:\Users\User-pc\AppData\Local\Dropbox\info.json
when published to IIS I get
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\info.json

This is because IIS is not running under your user account. It is running under a system account. C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\ is the correct path for the IIS account.
You could set the user account on the IIS app pool to be your user (not great for secuirty, https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771170(v=ws.10).aspx), or you could pass the correct path in another way (web.config maybe)?

%LOCALAPPDATA% is a user specific folder.
IIS doesn't use the same user as you when you run from VS.
In my opinion there are 2 solutions :
- Change the folder of this file to something more usual (Your web site folder, or something like D:\Dropbox\info.json)
- Change the user IIS uses, but that's really not a good option

DirectoryInfo & Path.GetDirectoryName - Exists method returns false while exists

I would like to check whether a folder exists or not if not create. I'm sure this folder exists, but for some reason I get "false" when I check with "Exists" method.
The only reason I think could be because of the W: drive?
I moved this application to production site and even there it returns false.
while I'm type in Windows explorer on my localhost and on the server "W:/Webs/ASPPages/cropper/uploads" it opens this folder. So my localhost and IIS server has W: mapping.
for test I tried to create the folder then it says can't find the path...
userFolderName = #"W:/Webs/ASPPages/cropper/uploads"
//I also tried #"W:\Webs\ASPPages\cropper\uploads\"
//I also tried #"W:\Webs\ASPPages\cropper\uploads"
//I also tried "W:\\Webs\\ASPPages\\cropper\\uploads"
DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(userFolderName);
if (dirInfo.Exists) //returns false
var diPath = new DirectoryInfo(Path.GetDirectoryName(userFolderName));
if(diPath.Exists) //returns false

My opinion/experience is, that uploaded content should neither be part of your website nor should it be in your IIS websites directory. First it messes things up heavily when you have source control. The second problem is because of security, which is very restrictive for those IIS folders and so you end up in situations like the current one.
Now to the possible solution. Create the uploads folder somewhere else, on a separate drive or just another directory but make sure that it's not inside your IIS folders. Then go into IIS, select your website in the left tree control and set up a virtual directory pointing to that folder you just created. Now you probably don't need to do anything else, but if needed set up any additional rights you want to that new uploads folder and DirectoryInfo.Exists() will 99% work as expected now.
Good luck!

try using this in your code behind
userFolderName = Server.MapPath("/uploads");

Drive letters are mounted on a per-user or per-session (as in login session, not ASP.NET session) basis. The account under which the website is running probably doesn't have the drive letter mapped. Either use a UNC or log into the app pool account and mount the w: drive persistently.

Access denied to path , when uploading image to folder in server

Am getting error when you are going to upload the file on specified folder in the server. Here I am going to upload P6100083.jpg in storeimg folder. When I am going to upload I am getting the following error:
Access to the path 'C:\inetpub\vhosts\bookmygroups.com\httpdocs\storeimg\P6100083.jpg' is denied.
Can anyone help me... How to use permisiion and were to use...
My code is while uploading image
if (FileUpload1.HasFile)
{
float fileSize = FileUpload1.PostedFile.ContentLength;
float floatConverttoKB = fileSize / 1024;
float floatConverttoMB = floatConverttoKB / 1024;
string DirName = "storeimg";
string savepath = Server.MapPath(DirName + "/");
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(savepath);
// string savepath = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\ssis3\\My Documents\\Visual Studio 2005\\WebSites\\finalbookgroups\\" + DirName + "\\";
if (fileSize < 4194304)
{
string filename = Server.HtmlEncode(FileUpload1.FileName);
string extension = System.IO.Path.GetExtension(filename).ToUpper();
if (extension.Equals(".jpg") || extension.Equals(".JPG") || extension.Equals(".JPEG") || extension.Equals(".GIF"))
{
savepath += filename;
FileUpload1.SaveAs(savepath);
}
}
}
Thanks in advance

I have no success making my upload or any write operation on filesystem work on IIS7.
Still getting the error: Access to the path is denied.
My AppPool is running under Network Service. I have granted all kinds of accounts Full Control (Network Service, Network, IIS_IUSR, Administrator, Users, Everyone), restarted the webservice several times, studied all IIS7 settings, googled for two hours and nothing works.
IIS7 and WS2008 s-u-c-k-s. Sorry for the term. Anybody can help?
I just wanted to add: I noticed that in the upload's destination folder's Properties there's this checkbox named "Read-only (Only applies to files in folder)" and it's checked. It cannot be unchecked, comes back checked after unchecking and clicking the OK button. Is that IIS7 guarding it?
Editing this message to add the SOLUTION: My admin has turned off the silly UAC "the security confirmation feature" on our server, restarted the machine and it works now. No "write" access rights for "Network Service" or any other IIS-used account was needed. When accessing the file system in a ASP.NET web application using the integrated authentication and having the impersonation set to true in its web.confing, the file system seems to be accessed by the authentified end-user's account, not by the Network Service account which the AppPool is running under. (Many people tell you to set Network Service permissions, but that is not true.) So you need to set the "write" permissions for your end-users (usually domain users: "DOMAIN\domain users") on your particular folder.
Oh yea, and the "Read-only (Only applies to files in folder)" checkbox mentioned above does not seem to have any effect. However Microsoft says "some programs might have problems writing to such folder and you should use command line statement "attrib -r -s" to get rid of the Read-Only attribute" -- but it won't work. It will stay there checked-grayed. But don't worry about that. Microsoft becomes more and more silly every day.

Indead, it's a server issue.
You need to verify if the user underlying your application pool has write access to the directory.
If you use IIS7, you have a new feature that helps you give custom write to this user and dun need to change the user.
Look at this link:
http://www.adopenstatic.com/cs/blogs/ken/archive/2008/01/29/15759.aspx
Hope this helps.

This is a server issue. Make sure you have the necessary rights to write files.
Btw, since you call ToUpper() on extension there's no reason to test for ".jpg".

If you are using Plesk Panel, go to file manager of Plesk Panel. List files and folders inside "httpdocs". Each file and folder has a lock icon at the very right. Click that of "storeimg" folder to change permissions. Click advenced button. Give full permission to these:
Plesk IIS WP User (IWPD_214(your_login_name))
Plesk IIS WP User (IWPD_214(your_login_name))
And click OK.

First you check the permission is enable or not if not then go to that folder which folder has to be use for containing files then right click on folder then there will be display folder properties then click on security there will be display multiple number of user which user have to be permit then click allow that all permission will be activated.

First, make sure your code runs fine locally (I assume that something you've already done).
Then deploy to your TEST or UAT environment. If you're having issue there, then this is a configuration issue. Make sure the service account under which your website's app pool is running has access to the folder.
Please make use of C# method Path.Combine() to build up your path and avoid issues with leading or trailing / and \.