Question

HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable Exchange 2007 Client Access

Asked by: thelink12

I have an Exchange 2007 Client Access Server that will sometimes throw this error on OWA...
 "HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable"
The mailboxes in question are on a Clustered Exchange 2003 server.  Usually a reboot will take care of it but I need to know why it is happening so I can prevent it from happening again.  The strange this is that there are no errors in the Event Logs on either server that point me in any direction.  It is such a vague error that everything from account permissions to specific service errors are to blame.  

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-02 at 07:02:17ID24863796
Topics

Exchange Email Server

,

Microsoft IIS Web Server

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
10

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. http/1.1 503 service unavailable
    We recently brought up a new exchange 2003 server with sp1 on windows 2003 server within the same admin group. We moved some users from another exchange 2003 to the new one. now users are not able to logon to the OWA 2003 They get the following error http/1.1 503 service un...
  2. HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable
    Hello, I have a Front End Exchange server set up running OWA to service my two back end Exchange Servers. One of the exchange servers(EX1) is located at the same site as the Front End Server(FES). The other server(EX2) is located at a remote site. There is a VPN tunnel be...
  3. im recieving this error with OWA, "HTTP/1.1 503 S…
    im recieving this error with OWA, "HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable"....could it be that my active directory is not synced up with my exchange????
  4. HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable Outlook Web Access
    I have setup an Exchange cluster and am running OWA with SSL enabled. Everything was running fine and I have set up almost 100 users on this new email system. Whenever some users try to connect to OWA via https://server/exchange they are prompted for the certificate and th...
  5. HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable
    I have looked and read what I believe to be every post related to this issue but have not found a resolution. Exchange was installed on a member server. All the defaults were accepted an no error messages were returned or noted This server has a certificate installed so we...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: tedbillyPosted on 2009-11-02 at 21:56:37ID: 25726356

Are you looking at the HTTPERR log files in c:\Windows\System32\LogFiles?

 

by: thelink12Posted on 2009-11-03 at 05:35:38ID: 25728733

I looked through them but I really dont have much of an idea as to how to decipher them.

 

by: tedbillyPosted on 2009-11-03 at 08:32:23ID: 25730680

Well a 500 error is a server error.  The only web component for Exchange is OWA.  I suspect you have OWA running and it's failing to connect to Exchange.

 

by: thelink12Posted on 2009-11-03 at 08:36:52ID: 25730733

That is correct, but I cant figure out what causes it, especially since it is intermittent.

 

by: tedbillyPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:33:52ID: 25733276

So when the error occurs do some services stop function?

Do you have recycling set for your application pool for the OWA web site?

 

by: thelink12Posted on 2009-11-03 at 12:36:23ID: 25733311

Basically, when this issue happens, OWA becomes useless, RPC over HTTP becomes unstable and I need to reboot the server.  What is Recycling?  Should I have it set up?

 

by: tedbillyPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:40:10ID: 25733355

A running web application uses an application pool to execute the server side code.  That application pool may not be releasing old sessions.

In the 'Internet Information Services Manager' located in 'Administration Tools' you can right click on entries in the 'Application Pools' tree to access the pool properties.

The first tab is 'Recycling'  You should set the application pool to recycle at a specific time of day or after a suitable time period.

 

by: thelink12Posted on 2009-11-03 at 13:48:48ID: 25734172

Is there a best practice for recycling?

 

by: tedbillyPosted on 2009-11-03 at 23:05:46ID: 25737054

Well for example our farm is used heavily from midnight to 7pm PST so I recycle about 11pm when usage is low. (Our farm is used in the Europe and North America)

If your farm is mainly used during business hours in North America, set the recycle for Midnight.

 

by: thelink12Posted on 2009-11-04 at 06:06:26ID: 31648860

Thank you.  I was going to set it to Midnight, great minds do think alike.  Only time will tell if this resolves the issue.  Thanks again.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...