Troubleshooting ArcGIS Server post installation

The following troubleshooting tips can help resolve some common ArcGIS Server post installation issues. For additional help, see the ESRI Knowledge Base at http://support.esri.com.

At the GIS Server Post Install Summary, I receive the error "The password does not meet the password policy requirements..."

Determine the complexity needed to satisfy your organization's password policy requirements. If necessary, contact your network administrator. After determining the level of complexity required, run the post installation again and enter passwords that meet your organization's password policy requirements.

I can't connect to the GIS Server from ArcCatalog.

Make sure that you are logged on to your machine as (and are running ArcCatalog as) a user account that has been added to the agsusers or agsadmin group on the GIS Server. Note: You can use the run as command to start ArcCatalog as a different user than the user you are logged onto your machine as.

I added my account to the appropriate group, but I still can't connect to the GIS Server.

After adding your account to the agsusers and agsadmin user group, you may need to log out of your machine, then log back in again before the new group membership takes effect.

In ArcCatalog, I added my ArcGIS Server, but I don't have the option to Add New Service.

If the option to Add New Service is unavailable, make sure the user you are logged on to your machine as (and are therefore opening ArcCatalog as) is a user that has been added to the agsadmin group.

I am a member of the agsadmin user group, but I still don't have the option to Add New Service.

After adding your user account to the agsadmin group, you may need to log out of your machine, then log back in again before the new group membership takes effect.

I have added a Map Service, but when I preview it using ArcCatalog, the preview is blank.

This may be a data access error or an output error. Check the log file to verify that there are no errors indicating that the layers in the map are invalid. If the layers in the map are invalid, then verify that the container account has access to the data that the layers are referencing.

If there are no invalid layers in the log file, this may indicate that the output directory you specified for your Map Service has an invalid virtual directory. To verify that this is the case, change the output directory to None and preview the Map Service again.

For more information on accessing and reading log files, consult the ArcGIS Server Help.

When trying to start the Server Object Manager service, it fails with a login error.

Using your operating system tools, check the Server Object Manager (SOM) and Server Object Container (SOC) accounts to verify that their passwords have not expired. If the passwords have expired, or it's indicated that their passwords need to be changed, check the password never expires option.

The GIS Server post installation won't let me enter my entire Web server machine name.

ArcGIS Server names cannot exceed 15 characters or you will encounter errors during the post installation and when trying to connect to the server. This is a known limit related to a Microsoft specification for Active Directory names.

Does the GIS Server post installation create a log?

Yes, ArcGISServerPostInstallLog.txt can be found in the TEMP folder. The TEMP folder can be accessed by opening Windows Explorer and entering %TEMP% for the address.