I've got several mxd's that I'm publishing with all their layers off by default and get the below error. The services publish anyway but are stopped. I simply start them and they are good to go. I would be great not to get this error though.
Executing (Publish Service Definition): PublishServiceDefinition ... #
{"buildInitialCache":false}
Start Time: Fri Oct 26 14:42:39 2012
Validating publish options.
Connecting to the server.
Getting basic item metadata for service definition upload.
Getting server information (server folders, data stores, etc.).
Extracting manifiest from uploaded service definition.
Validating service definition.
Determining service's input folder name.
Attempt to find service's input folder.
Creating the service.
ERROR 001170: The reduced study area polygon is too small for analysis.
Failed to execute (UploadServiceDefinition).
Failed at Fri Oct 26 14:42:41 2012 (Elapsed Time: 3.00 seconds)