Microsoft KB Archive/928028

Knowledge Base

Error message when a user tries to save an item to a list or respond to a survey in a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site: "An unexpected error has occurred"

Article ID: 928028

Article Last Modified on 5/14/2007

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

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SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario. You deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in a server farm environment. The server farm contains multiple load-balanced front-end servers. A user connects to a Windows SharePoint Services Web site. Then, the user tries to save an item to a list or respond to a survey. However, the user intermittently receives the following error message:

An unexpected error has occurred.
System.Web.HttpException: Unable to validate data. at System.Web.Configuration.MachineKeySection.GetDecodedData(Byte[] buf, Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) at System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.Deserialize(String inputString)

CAUSE

This issue occurs if SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not installed on the same drive on each load-balanced front-end server in the server farm. For example, in a scenario in which you have two front-end servers in a server farm, this issue occurs if the following conditions are true:

• SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is installed on drive C on one front-end server.
• SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is installed on drive D on another front-end server.

This issue occurs because layouts and ghosted page files must use the same path on all load-balanced front-end servers in the server farm.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, make sure that you install SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on the same drive on each load-balanced front-end server in the server farm.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about how to deploy SharePoint Server 2007 in a server farm environment, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/3e3b8737-c6a3-4e2c-a35f-f0095d952b781033.mspx?mfr=true

For more information about how to deploy Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in a server farm environment, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/b9490b1a-45de-45fd-9f4c-754dab1383e61033.mspx?mfr=true

Additional query words: moss moss2007 wss wss3.0 sps letter NLB Network Load Balancing

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb kbtshoot kbexpertiseinter KB928028

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