Question

Currently I’m trying to run this powershell script:

Param (
    $websiteName,
    $physicalPath
)

import-module WebAdministration
$website = get-website | where-object { $_.name -eq "$websiteName" }
if($website -eq $null){
    New-webapppool -Name "$websiteName"
    Set-WebConfiguration -filter "/system.applicationHost/applicationPools/add[@name='$websiteName']" -PSPath IIS:\ -value (@{managedRuntimeVersion="v4.0"})
    New-website -Name "$websiteName" -PhysicalPath "$physicalPath" -ApplicationPool "$websiteName"
    start-website "$websiteName"
}

I use the following command to run the script:

& .\InstallWebsite.ps1 -websiteName "MyWebsite" -physicalPath "C:\TEST\MyWebsite"

Everything works fine, except for the last command inside of the if statement:

start-website "$websiteName"

When that command runs, I receive the following error, which I haven’t been able to successfully troubleshoot:

Start-Website : Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700B7)
At line:1 char:14
+ start-website <<<<  "MyWebsite"
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Website], COMException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.IIs.PowerShell.Provider.StartWebsiteCommand

I also have the following script to remove the website if it matters:

Param (
    $websiteName,
    $appPoolName
)

import-module WebAdministration
$website = get-website | where-object { $_.name -eq "$websiteName" }
if($website -ne $null){
    remove-website -Name "$websiteName"
    remove-webapppool -Name "$websiteName"
}

I run it with the following command:

& .\UninstallWebsite.ps1 -websiteName "MyWebsite" -appPoolname "MyWebsite"

Answer 1

The error message:

Start-Website : Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

…usually means that you have a bindings conflict where there is already a site running on the same IP address, port and if you’re using them, host header.

I’d check your new site bindings in IIS MMC then find out if something else is using exactly the same bindings.