There are days that I loathe software. For the record, the config this relates to is Windows Server 2008, IIS 7, SugarCRM 5.2.0c, separate MS-SQL 2005 database server. PHP 5.2.6,

HTTP Error 500.0 – Internal Server Error
C:inetpubphpphp-cgi.exe – The FastCGI process exceeded configured activity timeout

Two ‘supposedly’ identical servers. SugarCRM 5.2.0c installed on production and working a treat. The dev system just just been setup for a new instance of Sugar to provide for testing of the upgrade path to 5.5.1 and probably 6.1 but first the cloned 5.2.0c had to work.

A freshly installed 5.5.1 on dev was working and apparently so was the copied 5.2.0c from production. Except that the Upgrade Wizard in the cloned copy gave the time out error shown above. The 5.5.1 however worked fine which left me thinking it was a Sugar issue, or specific to the site or app pool.

To cut a full 8 hour day down to the stuff we need to know, the issue was that while I looked at all the settings, site level, app pool, and server, for whatever obscure reason the Fast-CGI icon was not showing in the dev server configuration panel.

http://www.iis.net/download/AdministrationPack
The admin pack for IIS7 is required for that interface and provided access to the time out setting which I raised from 30 to 300 and the Upgrade Wizard could then function.

There is a marked difference in performance between 5.2.0c and 5.5.1 in the Upgrade Wizard and this is the bit that threw me at first, because the 5.5.1 clean install would run with the default timeout set at 30 while 5.2.0c would not.