Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) encountered a failure when it started a worker process to serve the application pool

Question

IIS 7 Application Pool stops when browsing to http://localhost/

In Event Viewer -> System Log I see:

Application pool ASP.NET v4.0 has been disabled. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) encountered a failure when it started a worker process to serve the application pool.

Are there other troubleshooting steps I can take to see a more detailed messages of why this is happening?

probably you crash the pool, see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3044752/how-do-i-crash-the-app-pool/3045137#3045137 — Aristos, May 07 '12 at 15:48
This happens when I just browse to http://localhost/ which point to a default site in 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot' which only has iisstart.htm So it shouldn't be running any code. — dev.e.loper, May 07 '12 at 16:05
May I request you to mark one of the answers as accepted. janjonas's answer has helped lot of users including me :) — RBT, May 15 '17 at 06:35

score 134 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 14 '12 at 17:17

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If your application pool is running under a specific identity, an expired password could be the cause for your problem.

I had similar problems, see http://blog.janjonas.net/2012-07-14/iis_75-fix-application-pool-disabled-windows-process-activation-service-failure-worker-process-event-id-5059

answered Jul 14 '12 at 17:17

janjonas

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that was exactly what was going on. Thanks so much for this answer. I could see me burning hours before figuring this out... – gymbrall Aug 17 '12 at 03:10
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Another +1. I played around with processor affinity settings which causes the app pool to restart. Little did I know the person who set it up initially had changed the pool account's password a few day earlier. – callisto Jul 28 '14 at 10:17
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I love it when 1st search results yields answer that works! +100! – happyfirst Aug 22 '16 at 18:12
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/facepalm Thank you so much. – Daniel Szabo Nov 01 '18 at 21:07
Exactly what happened to me. Thanks. – Mustafa Jan 31 '20 at 05:55

score 34 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 15 '14 at 15:10

In IIS, go to Application Pools, and check the Identity of your Application Pool.

Is the App Pool using a custom account? Does it need to be?

Try changing the Identify to a Built-in account like ApplicationPoolIndentity. To do this, go to Advanced Settings, Process Model, Identity. Remember to restart the App Pool after making your changes.

IIS Custom App Pool Identity

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score 19 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 09 '13 at 19:55

Check that the account or group has the "Log on as Batch Job" permission checked. To change this policy on a domain controller perform the following steps:

Start>Run gpmc.msc - edit
Select Forest>Domains>Domain Name> Domain Controller
- Right click on "Default Domain Policy" and choose edit
Next edit:
- Computer Configuration>Policies>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Local Policies>User Rights assignment
Add user or group to "Log on as Batch Job"
- Check group membership of service account (in Active Directory) if a particular group is being used for this purpose.
From the command prompt run "gpupdate /force"

Note: This is a resolution for the problem with SharePoint 2010.

This turned out to be my issue and I have NO idea how since this app has been running for years and the service is hardly touched :/ — rainabba, Jun 04 '18 at 20:40
@rainabba Glad it helped! I recall this taking me a little while to figure out. Thanks for the upvote! — Shrout1, Jun 04 '18 at 20:55

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered May 07 '18 at 07:12

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I did the below steps.

Windows+R open Run and type services.msc
search for Windows Process Activation Service and start the service for me it was stopped.
Windows+R type inetmgr.
restart all the App pool.
Try to start the website under Sites, if it gives an error saying cant start the service because of The World Wide Web Publishing service is stopped.
repeat step 1.
search for World Wide Web Publishing service, and restart the service.

answered May 07 '18 at 07:12

Jaydeep Shil

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In my case, those restarts are exactly how I found the error that the op lists. – rainabba Jun 04 '18 at 20:41

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 10 '19 at 14:16

In my case: I already see the application pool running with right Identity, but I still see the "WAS encountered a failure...". So, I set the same Identity again by re-adding the user in Advance Settings --> Identity --> Custom Account, restarted IIS and it worked!

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 17 '14 at 15:32

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adding to janjonas in my dev machine i changed PW to the account, and i didnt know that i had to re-set the user to every pool that runs under that user

answered Feb 17 '14 at 15:32

bresleveloper

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Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) encountered a failure when it started a worker process to serve the application pool

6 Answers6