HTTP Error 503 The service is unavailable error on SharePoint Central Admin Site

HTTP Error 503 – The service is unavailable 

on SharePoint Central Admin Site

V: 1.0

Issue:

You launch SharePoint Central Administration website and get HTTP error 503. You are not able to work with the site.

SharePoint Central Admin Site showing HTTP Error 503

Initial Diagnostics:

I went into the IIS Manager to check the Central Admin application pool.

1. On the server, go to Administrative Tools and click IIS Manager
2. In IIS Manager console click on Application Pools
3. I found that the SharePoint Central Administration v3 application pool was showing as stopped. I started that app pool by highlighting it and choosing start

SharePoint Central Administration v3 application pool in IIS Manager

Windows Event Viewer Log Review

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          8/14/2014 1:23:17 PM
Event ID:      5021
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SPWFE01.domain.com
Description:
The identity of application pool SharePoint Central Administration v3 is invalid. The user name or password that is specified for the identity may be incorrect, or the user may not have batch logon rights. 

If the identity is not corrected, the application pool will be disabled when the application pool receives its first request.  If batch logon rights are causing the problem, the identity in the IIS 

configuration store must be changed after rights have been granted before Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) can retry the logon. If the identity remains invalid after the first request for the 

application pool is processed, the application pool will be disabled. The data field contains the error number.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event”>
  <System>
    <Provider Name=”Microsoft-Windows-WAS” Guid=”{524B5D04-133C-4A62-8362-64E8EDB9CE40}” EventSourceName=”WAS” />
    <EventID Qualifiers=”32768″>5021</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime=”2014-08-14T18:23:17.000Z” />
    <EventRecordID>477340</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID=”0″ ThreadID=”0″ />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>SPWFE01.domain.com</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name=”AppPoolID”>SharePoint Central Administration v3</Data>
    <Binary>2E050780</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Event Viewer Error 2
Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          8/14/2014 1:23:17 PM
Event ID:      5057
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SPWFE01.domain.com
Description:
Application pool SharePoint Central Administration v3 has been disabled. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) did not create a worker process to serve the application pool because the application pool 

identity is invalid.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event”>
  <System>
    <Provider Name=”Microsoft-Windows-WAS” Guid=”{524B5D04-133C-4A62-8362-64E8EDB9CE40}” EventSourceName=”WAS” />
    <EventID Qualifiers=”32768″>5057</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime=”2014-08-14T18:23:17.000Z” />
    <EventRecordID>477341</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID=”0″ ThreadID=”0″ />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>SPWFE01.domain.com</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name=”AppPoolID”>SharePoint Central Administration v3</Data>
    <Binary>
    </Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Event Viewer Error 3
Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          8/14/2014 1:23:17 PM
Event ID:      5059
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SPWFE01.domain.com
Description:
Application pool SharePoint Central Administration v3 has been disabled. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) encountered a failure when it started a worker process to serve the application pool.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event”>
  <System>
    <Provider Name=”Microsoft-Windows-WAS” Guid=”{524B5D04-133C-4A62-8362-64E8EDB9CE40}” EventSourceName=”WAS” />
    <EventID Qualifiers=”49152″>5059</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime=”2014-08-14T18:23:17.000Z” />
    <EventRecordID>477342</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID=”0″ ThreadID=”0″ />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>SPWFE01.domain.com</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name=”AppPoolID”>SharePoint Central Administration v3</Data>
    <Binary>
    </Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Resolution

From Event Viewer system errors it was evident that I have to reapply the account / password for the Central Admin App Pool.

Reapply IIS Application Pool account and password
a. In IIS Manager, go to Application Pools
b. Highlight the ‘SharePoint Central Administration v3‘ application pool and click Advanced Settings under Actions section on right. (See IIS Manager screen shot above)

c. Under Process Model section, on Identity and go to advanced properties

IIS Manager > App Pool > Advanced Settings

d. Click on Set button

IIS Manager > App Pool > Advanced Settings > Set Button

e. Enter the user name and password that will run Central Admin app pool

IIS Manager > App Pool > Advanced Settings > Set Button > Set Credentials

f. Click OK twice

At this point, I launched the SharePoint Central Administration website and it worked.