Sitecore Swamp

Installed a fresh new Sitecore 9 environment, and trying to connection Sitecore via Sitecore Rocks. But, surprisingly, hit a connection error:

Checked the following permission things:

• The app pool identity has permission to website folder
• Visual Studio is running under Administrator

No resolved, until I found this article http://www.rockpapersitecore.com/2017/10/sitecore-rocks-with-sitecore-9/. Due to some security changes with Sitecore 9, Rocks will have a problem connecting to the instance. The solution is quite simple, just add the following config to web.config:

<location path="sitecore/admin">
  <system.web>
    <authorization>
      <deny users="?" />
      <allow users="*" />
    </authorization>
  </system.web>
</location>

Now it works!

Issue

In a recent job, I need to spin up a vm box and install Sitecore 8.1.3 environment with existing deployed code. When everything is done, start the website, an error displays: 

Server Error in '/' Application.

Could not load file or assembly 'ChilkatDotNet45.DLL' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.

Investigation

It turns out that EXM has dependencies on the Chilkat dot assembly, and it requires Visual C++ 2012 (x64) rumtime. As the version is so old, it's not installed.

Resolution

Download and install Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64) fixes the issue. With Sitecore 9, it would be Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64) 

https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/638569