Hi

EPi CMS 6

Configuring VirtualPath providers for "Page Files, Global Files and Documents" in episerver.config and pointing physical path to a file server like "\\fileserver\somefolder\GlobalFiles", and so on. If the file server isn't available at startup then EPi won't start, an exception is thrown:

at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandle& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache)
   at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)
   at System.Web.HttpApplicationFactory.GetSpecialApplicationInstance(IntPtr appContext, HttpContext context)
   at System.Web.Hosting.PipelineRuntime.InitializeApplication(IntPtr appContext)

Our web application has to be available 24/7. Let's say we have some problems in the IT-infrastructure that disabled the file server and we are forced to reboot the web server, then the web application can't be started. This is not acceptable for our application. We are using a network resource for the file storage due to a clustered environment.

It's critical to be able to start the application, whether some images from Page Files are accessable or not.

1. EPi server should be able to start whether the file server is available or not at the point of start up.
2. There need to be some better error handling, the thrown exception doesn't point to the actual problem.
3. What are your recommendations for setting up a shared file area in a clustered server environment?

Regards Magnus Pettersson