The error "absolute physical path xxx is not allowed in 500.19-xxx" appears

This article introduces the description, cause and solution of the error "Absolute physical path xxx is not allowed in 500.19-xxx" when accessing a website deployed using IIS (Internet Information Services) on a Windows instance.

Problem Description

When accessing a website deployed using IIS on a Windows instance, an error message "Absolute physical path xxx is not allowed in 500.19-xxx" is reported. The error example is as follows.

HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error The absolute physical path is not allowed in the system.webServer/httpErrors stanza of the web.config file, use a relative path instead.

An example of an error is shown in the figure below. Problem Description

Problem Causes

This issue may be caused by malformed or unrecognized XML elements in the ApplicationHost.config or Web.config files.

Solution

You need to delete the XML elements that IIS cannot recognize from the ApplicationHost.config or Web.config file. The operation steps are as follows:

Note The operation in this article is based on the Windows Server 2019 Data Center Edition 64-bit Chinese version operating system as an example. The specific operation depends on your actual operating system.

1. Remotely connect to the Windows instance.

2. In the lower left corner of the desktop, select Start > Server Manager.

Go to the Server Manager page.

3. Open the physical directory of the website.

a. On the Server Manager page, choose Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

Go to the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager page. enter IIS

b. Find the target website in the left navigation bar of the Internet Information Services (IIS) manager page, and click Browse in the operation area. select target site

Go to the physical directory of the site. Site Physical Directory

4. After opening the web.config configuration file under the site directory, delete the httpErrors content in the configuration file, then save and close the web.config configuration file.

An example of httpErrors content to be deleted is as follows:



5. Restart IIS.

a. In the lower left corner of the desktop, click the search icon icon, and then enter iisreset in the search box. Restart IIS

b. In the Best Match area, click iisreset.

After the IIS restart program finishes running, it means that IIS restarts successfully. IIS restart program run box

6. Revisit the website.

Normal access, the problem is solved.