IIS, Website Maintenence=True, Service is Not Available

This was discussed in a old post, there were no solutions.
This is about a year later, wonder if anyone has a clue.
I generated a reply to the old post but did not receive a response.

I have 1.3.8a installed.
We host the store internally on a windows server - IIS7.
The store has functioned well for almost a year.
When I set Configuration-Website-Maintenance=true and filename=down_for_maintenance, the result is "Service is unavailable."
I have a local version using WAMP.
The down for maintenance page comes up fine.
The code is exactly the same except of course my configs which point to a different directory and base URL.
I was hoping that this would fail on my local version because I have a debugger, but it doesn't.
I experimented by changing the Website-Maintenance filename to Privacy and the privacy page comes up fine on my problem IIS7 server.

So once again, here is the situation.
Same code, both environments except of course include\configure.php and admin\configure.php
Configuration-Website-Maintenance=true and filename=down_for_maintenance
WAMP environment -- Down for Maintenance Page - Yea!!!!!
IIS7 environment -- White Page - 'Service is unavailable.' Boo!!!

Anyone got a clue?
Since the server is the responsibility of our IT group, solutions like don't use IIS 7 won't help.
I'm hoping that someone had a similar problem and solved it on IIS7.

pjbonarrigo:

the server is the responsibility of our IT group,Excellent. So, you have a team of people who are experts in IIS7. Thus, they should be able to tell you exactly what's throwing that error message from within IIS. And then, armed with that information, we can work on a solution to the problem.

The "Service is Not Available" message is akin to the "500 Internal Server Error" message one normally sees with Apache Webservers. And in the case of Apache servers, the cause of that error is clearly documented in the server's error logs. It usually points to something wrong with the server's own internal configuration and/or security rules imposed by the server administrator without looking at the bigger picture. In most cases the problem is solved by having a competent webserver admin fix the problem with the server configuration.

Thanks Dr. Byte.
Your description of our IT department is quite flattering.
I was hoping someone in the Zen Cart community who experienced this problem and solved it would point out the solution.
I do realize that it is not your responsibility to support IIS or Apache.
You always respond quickly and provide direction.
Thanks for being there.

pjbonarrigo:

I was hoping someone in the Zen Cart community who experienced this problem and solved it would point out the solution.
It's possible that they might solve, or might have solved, the solution for themselves, and then also possible that they might share.
However, judging from your own observations it seems there is limited feedback on that topic here.

I'm with you in terms of being hopeful that someone will post a solution for you.

I'll take your advice...sort of.
I'll work with our IT person.
We are a small organization.
I already have my IIS log file and IIS manual open regarding HTTP Error 503.
I think most people don't care regarding the IIS error.
If it says, Service Unavailable, that may be good enough.
I would prefer the intended page....better information.

Oh ... so you're saying that it's halting on the 503 status (which is intentionally sent, because that's what's happening), and not properly showing the down-for-maintenance message?

Yes, 503, that's as far as I have gotten so far.
I have looked through the associated PHP code.
Any suggestions? I'm a php programmer.
Unfortunately I'm only set up to debug in my local WAMP environment which doesn't have this problem.