Event ID 5091 — IIS Application Pool Availability

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Web sites and Web applications depend on the availability of Internet Information Services (IIS) application pools. IIS application pools in turn depend on the Windows Process Activation Service (WAS). If WAS is not running or errors occur during the startup or shutdown of an application pool, Web sites and Web applications may not be available.

Event Details

Resolve

Check the automatic shutdown executable

A user-specified executable file can be configured to run automatically when an application pool is being shut down by the World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC). The executable file can, for example, redirect traffic for the application pool to another server. The file can be specified in IIS Manager and is represented by the autoShutdownExe attribute of the system.applicationHost/applicationPools/failure section in the ApplicationHost.config file.

If the autoShutdownExe process fails to run, possible resolutions include the following:

• Check that the path and filename of the autoShutdownExe program are correctly specified.
• Make sure that system account has permissions to access and run the file.
• Make sure the program can execute independently from an application pool shutdown.

To perform these procedures, you must have membership in Administrators, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

Check that the path and filename are correctly specified

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Administrative Tools.
2. Right-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and select Run as administrator.
3. In the Connections pane, expand the server name.
4. Click Application Pools. A list of the application pools on the server appears in the middle pane.
5. In the middle pane, single-click the application pool whose shutdown executable you want to check.
6. In the Actions pane, click Advanced Settings… The Advanced Settings window appears.
7. Scroll down to the Rapid-Fail Protection section.
8. Find the Shutdown Executable entry and examine the path and filename on the right. Make sure the path and file name are correct.
9. Click OK.

Check the Access Control List for the shutdown executable

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt window. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
2. Type start explorer.
3. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the shutdown executable file.
4. Right-click the file and select Properties. The executable file Properties dialog box appears.
5. Click the Security tab.
6. In the Group or user names: window, make sure that SYSTEM appears. If it does not appear, click Edit…  to add the system account.
7. In the Permissions for SYSTEM window, make sure that the system account has at least Read & execute permissions for the shutdown executable.

Make sure the program can execute independently

Test run the executable program separately from an application pool shutdown event. If the process can run independently of an application pool shutdown, it should run properly when the application pool is automatically disabled by WAS.

Verify

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Administrators, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To verify that an application pool has started:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Administrative Tools.
2. Right-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and select Run as administrator.
3. In the Connections pane, expand the server node and select Application Pools.
4. In Features View, the Status column for the application pool will indicate Started if the application pool has started.

Related Management Information

IIS Application Pool Availability

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0