Access denied for all users except Farm Account after a SharePoint 2010 content database restore

What?

I successfully did a restore of a SharePoint 2010 site from production into a dev farm which is in a different domain. I am able to access the site normally using the farm account. All other accounts got access denied including the Setup Account.

I verified that the correct application pool is being used, tried to grant access to the setup account as well as the search account at web application level as well but no use.

Why?

The super reader and writer accounts are required to be configured in order for permissions to work normally.


How?

The whole process is detailed here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff758656.aspx

Create 2 new managed service accounts for super reader and writer accounts if you don't have them already.

Grant full control access at web application level for the super writer account
Grant full read access at web application level for the super reader account

Then run the below powershell script.

$wa = Get-SPWebApplication -Identity "<WebApplication>"

$wa.Properties["portalsuperuseraccount"] = "<SuperUser>"

$wa.Properties["portalsuperreaderaccount"] = "<SuperReader>"

$wa.Update()

The deadly access denied error disappeared :)