App-V Support Tip: Publishing Server URL is unreachable after upgrade to 5.1

~ John Behneman | Senior Support Escalation Engineer

Hello everyone, John Behneman here again with a quick note on a Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1 issue you may see after doing an upgrade from 5.0.

After upgrading App-V 5.0 Management and Publishing servers to App-V 5.1, you may encounter a problem where publishing no longer function properly and the following issues appear:

- Accessing the Publishing URL in Internet Explorer from directly on the Publishing Server (e.g. https://localhost:82 , where 82 is the port assigned to the Publishing Server Service) generates the following error message:

The website cannot display the page

- The event below is seen in Event Viewer\Applications and Servers logs\App-V\Server-Publishing-Private\Debug:

Failed to pre-load publishing metadata.
Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Details:
Stack Trace:
at Microsoft.AppV.Server.Publishing.PublishingMetadataSerializer.PackageSerializer.Load(XElement pkgElement, PublishingMetadata& data)
at Microsoft.AppV.Server.Publishing.PublishingMetadataSerializer.RootSerializer.Load(XmlReader reader)
at Microsoft.AppV.Server.Publishing.PublishingMetadataSerializer.LoadFromFile(String filePath)
at Microsoft.AppV.Server.Publishing.DataManager.ProcessRawMetadata()
at Microsoft.AppV.Server.Publishing.DataManager.PreLoadPublishingMetadata()
at Microsoft.AppV.Server.Publishing.DataManager..ctor()

Cause

This can occur if the PublishingMetaData.xml file on the App-V Management Server was not regenerated after the App-V 5.1 upgrade. The default location of this file is C:\programdata\microsoft\appv\server\Management\PublishingMetadata.xml.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, rename or deletethe PublishingMetadata.xml file on the App-V Management Server and run an IISREST from an elevated command prompt. An IISRESET may be required on each of the Publishing Servers as well.

John Behneman | Senior Support Escalation Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

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