The stage 5 smoke test failure was a locked config section, but not one of the
two the installer unlocks. A diagnostic collected from the server returned:
HTTP 500.52 - URL Rewrite Module Error
Module RewriteModule, Handler httpplatformhandler
Error Code 0x80070021
Config Error: This configuration section cannot be used at this path.
Config File: \\?\C:\shopdb-flask\web.config
handlers and httpPlatform were both overrideMode Allow and locked false, so
the unlock had worked. The section at fault was a third one,
system.webServer/rewrite/allowedServerVariables, which ships
overrideModeDefault="Deny". web.config declared <allowedServerVariables>
locally for the X-Forwarded-For rule, and IIS rejects that declaration
outright, failing the entire configuration before httpPlatformHandler ran.
python was therefore never launched and C:\shopdb-flask\logs stayed empty,
which reads as a dead application or a permissions fault and is neither.
Unlocking the section would let every site on the machine declare arbitrary
server variables. The installer now adds the single variable to the
server-level allow list, checking first because a duplicate add is an error,
and web.config no longer declares it. The rewrite rule is unchanged.
Verified by applying the installer's own uncommenting to the template and
parsing the result: one rewrite element, no allowedServerVariables, the rule
still setting HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR from REMOTE_ADDR.
shopdb-diagnose.py checked only the two sections the installer unlocks, so it
could not have named this one; the IIS error page did. It now reports the
lock state of the rewrite sections as well.
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