trying to give permissions to specific app pool identity in IIS 7.5 - "object cannot be found"

Question

Usually, I give access rights to folder based on the app pool identity, in the format of:

IIS AppPool\[app_pool_name]

On this particular new server, when I try to edit the security settings of a folder, and add that particular user entry, I am getting a

"object IIS AppPool\XXXXXX cannot be found"

Any idea why is this? I verified that the application pool is set to ApplicationPoolIdentity.

I am using IIS 7.5 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Answer 1

By default whenever you try to add a new account on a machine that joined a domain the accounts are only searched on the domain controller for your domain.

This said, if you want to add the IIS AppPool account, you need to click on "Locations..." and scroll up to the top where you'll find the name of your local machine.

Choose this as your location and you'll be able to add your AppPool account.