Guys, I am trying to setup the DR Server where Production SQL DB is log shipped to the DR SQL server hence content DB is in read-only mode, on the DR MOSS Server I have attached the content DB using STSADM - AddContentDB command, I also got the warning message saying "Content DB cannot be updated because it's in read only mode" I repeated the same process for the 4 Content DB [Read Only], each hold single site collection in same web application. In my testing three of them are working correctly [with trimmed UI] but one root site collection is simply giving me the Access Denied error. Even the ULS Logs and Even Viewer was not helpful. I saw many errors related to the SiteMapProvider but could not get much on google for that error. I have same service pack [SP2], port, solution packages, custom assemblies on DR to replicate the production but still it's not working as expected. Can somebody please shade some light on this? Thanks Ajay Sawant

FYI.. I also got the following article which says if site collection is in read-only mode then you will get Access Denied message because of some BUG in Sharepoint http://ddkonline.blogspot.com/2009/03/sharepoint-2007-backup-and-restore-via.html but if that's the case then why is it working for other 3 ? Can you someone suggest better way to debug this issue? Thanks Ajay sawant

Thanks Neville, I did tried this but got "unknown exception" when tried from Central Admin and "Failed to update database "WSS_Content_Root" because the database is read-only" when tried from STSADM using addcontentDB command. but I would treat this as a warning because content database on recovery SQL server is in read only mode because of log shipping. Further on my investigation I also found many entries related to PortalSiteMapProvider in trace logs with following error PortalSiteMapProvider was unable to fetch parent for node at: /Training, message: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)), stack trace: at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.HandleAccessDenied(Exception ex) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPGlobal.HandleUnauthorizedAccessException(UnauthorizedAccessException ex) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.DeleteNavigationNode(String bstrUrl, Int32 lNodeId, DateTime dateParented) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode.Delete() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalWebSiteMapNode.<>c__DisplayClass2.<PopulateNavigationChildren>b__0() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.CmsSecurityUtilities.RunWithAllowUnsafeUpdates(SPWeb web, CodeToRun secureCode) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalWebSiteMapNode.PopulateNavigationChildren(NodeTypes includedTypes, Boolean force) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalWebSiteMapNode.PopulateNavigationChildren(NodeTypes includedTypes) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalWebSiteMapNode.get_ProxyNode() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalWebSiteMapNode.GetNavigationParent() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalSiteMapProvider.GetParentNode(SiteMapNode node) I am even unable to access _layouts/viewlsts.aspx page [or any _layouts folder page], hence I have gone ahead and created some test pages to trap the issue and I found that TopNavBar.ascx control is actually responsible to raise the Access Denied issue. I can access /_layouts/sitemanager.aspx page without any issue because I believe this page is not inherited from application.master page and it does not have any Navigation control on it. All above observations lead me to the fact that Navigation is an issue on my site collection. Can somebody please shade some light on this, anybody experienced this earlier? Thanks, Ajay Sawant

Hi Ajay, First, I can reproduce your issue. In my opinion, this is an expected behavior when DataBase is put in Read-only mode. Such kind of issue will only trigger when you reference some draft items (whose owner is not “System Account”) in some global elements like Navigation etc with a site owner account or any account with edit permission. Such issue will not happen if you change DataBase to Read-write mode. Hope this helps. Rock WangRock Wang MSFT

Guys, Any insight on this would really help, which pages needs to be published properly to resolve this issue? I have already looked at the draft pages but non of them refers to the Global Navigation item. Thanks in advance, Ajay Sawant

Hi Ajay I was wondering whether you had ever figured this problem out. I have the exact same issue. Previously we had been using MOSS 2007 with the infrastructure update installed. I had successfully implemented log shipping to our DR farm and we could open the DR location even though the Database was only in Read only/stand by mode (as outlined in the Technet article on configuring disaster recovery using log shipping). Users could view the content but not being service pack 2 the UI wasn't trimmed but they could still see the content and browse the sites. However, since installing service pack 2 using the instructions in the technet article above we receive an "Access Denied" message on the root site collection. Like yourself I have set up the site collections to be in their own databases. I can open any other site collection in the web app and see the security trimmed UI and also like you I can see the site content and structure page of the root site collection. So far the only thing I have not tried is deleteing the web application in the DR farm and starting over again. However, this seems overkill as by looking through the Site Content and Structure page I can see all the content is there. On out WFE we also see 4971 Errors anytime someone tries to access these sites. Essentially this Error says that the site collection database cannot be updated as it is read only. Initially I thought this was to do with some timer jobs still running but no. Googling that error code takes you to many pages telling you to change the database to read/write :-) Obviously not possible when you are trying to do log shipping. Hopefully you may have a solution otherwise take solace that you are not the only person out there been driven nuts by this. Thanks Simon

Hi Ajay You are a genius. That worked a treat. The DR site is now displaying as expected. Thank you very much for your help and response. Cheers Simon