Oh, I think I see the issue. It isn't that I have the section for databases, it is that I have another sectionGroup defined which is the same.

<section name="databases" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler, 

So I should be able to either add a clear here like this

<configuration>
     <configSections>
          <clear />
          <section name="databases" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler, 

or just remove the definition in the second web config and then add the clear (don't really need to though) within the section to clear any earlier databases like this. The keys don't collide so the clear wouldn't be needed here but not a bad idea.

<databases>
    <clear />
       <add key="MSAMain\Connection" value="server=......" />
       <add key="MSAMain\DataAccessClass" value="DataAccessSql" />

Am I on the right track now?
Thanks
Tim

>< clear / >
>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>I have a website hosted with a web.config file. In the config file there is sections defined for databases and databasesets. Now I am putting another web application behind this one so essentially if you navigate to a subfolder it is a virtual directory and a different web application. I have another web config file there with the same sections defined. I removed the databasesets definition under configSections as I don't need it but the databases section I do need. It is causing an error as it is already defined in the first web.config.
>>
>>How do I clear or remove it before re-defining the section in the second web.config?
>>
>>I suppose I could add my second configuration of databases to the first web.config and just remove it from the second one but that isn't very friendly for having the configurations near the application.
>>Thanks for any help on that.
>>Tim