What determines the environment variables used by a process???

[Guest DJ-Jeff]

Ok, I am running an asp.net web application on three different sets of servers.

 

The w3wp worker process runs under the 'Network Service' user on all three

sets of servers.

 

However, the TMP and TEMP environment variables are set to different values

for the ww3wp process on each server set. I am checking the environment

variable values using the Process Explorer tool from SysInternals. The

values are as follows:

- Server set #1: TMP and TEMP are set to "D:\TEMP"

- Server set #2: TMP and TEMP are set to "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP"

 

- Server set #3: This is a special case and is the cause of the

problems. If I power cycle the server(s), and let the worker process start

on its own, TMP and TEMP are set to "C:\DOCUME~1\NETWOR~1\LOCALS~1\Temp".

However, if I recycle the app pool or issue an iisreset, the w3wp process

comes back up with the TMP and TEMP variables set to

"C:\DOCUME~1\LOCALS~1\LOCALS~1\Temp".

 

When server set #3 starts using the "C:\DOCUME~1\LOCALS~1\LOCALS~1\Temp"

value for the variables, the web application starts issuing 'Access Denied'

errors because the application does not have write access into the Temp

directory, which is understandable.

 

We have this temporarily fixed by allowing 'Network Service' full access to

the Local Service temp space, but that is not a solution.

 

Does anyone know what would cause the scenario on server set #3??? Because

set #1 has a value of "D:\Temp" in use, it leads me to believe that these

servers got set up incorrectly. But I don't know enough about all this to

know what is incorrect about it.

 

Thanks for taking a look.

Jeff

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: What determines the environment variables used by a process???

 

 

"DJ-Jeff" <DJ-Jeff@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:C769A255-EBE4-4282-AD08-6C0AEA9CF68C@microsoft.com...

> Ok, I am running an asp.net web application on three different sets of

> servers.

>

> The w3wp worker process runs under the 'Network Service' user on all three

> sets of servers.

>

> However, the TMP and TEMP environment variables are set to different

> values

> for the ww3wp process on each server set. I am checking the environment

> variable values using the Process Explorer tool from SysInternals. The

> values are as follows:

> - Server set #1: TMP and TEMP are set to "D:\TEMP"

> - Server set #2: TMP and TEMP are set to "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP"

>

> - Server set #3: This is a special case and is the cause of the

> problems. If I power cycle the server(s), and let the worker process

> start

> on its own, TMP and TEMP are set to "C:\DOCUME~1\NETWOR~1\LOCALS~1\Temp".

> However, if I recycle the app pool or issue an iisreset, the w3wp process

> comes back up with the TMP and TEMP variables set to

> "C:\DOCUME~1\LOCALS~1\LOCALS~1\Temp".

>

> When server set #3 starts using the "C:\DOCUME~1\LOCALS~1\LOCALS~1\Temp"

> value for the variables, the web application starts issuing 'Access

> Denied'

> errors because the application does not have write access into the Temp

> directory, which is understandable.

>

> We have this temporarily fixed by allowing 'Network Service' full access

> to

> the Local Service temp space, but that is not a solution.

>

> Does anyone know what would cause the scenario on server set #3???

> Because

> set #1 has a value of "D:\Temp" in use, it leads me to believe that these

> servers got set up incorrectly. But I don't know enough about all this to

> know what is incorrect about it.

>

> Thanks for taking a look.

> Jeff

 

Here are the default values for %temp%:

- User: c:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\..\..\temp

- System: c:\Windows\temp

 

Note this:

- Anyone can change these variables.

- Programs can change them too.

- The User variable takes precedence over the System variable

in a Command Prompt, and perhaps elsewhere too.

- AFAIR, applications can issue specific system calls

for either the User variable or the System variable.