topic Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

JohnMobley — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:46:32 GMT

Hello,

Our server rebooted last night, apparently due to a power outage. Since then, we can't access any of our services through the web adaptor. When I load the web adaptor page (by clicking Start/All Programs/ArcGIS/ArcGIS 10.1 for Server/Web Adaptor), the page shows this:

Application Error

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Before the reboot everything was working properly. No new updates were installed.

We're running ArcGIS 10.1 for Server on Windows 7 Ultimate, Service Pack 1, 64-bit.

I know that's not much information, but I'm hoping somebody can tell me how to start debugging this.

Thanks.

David

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

RichardWatson — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 12:59:35 GMT

You might try removing and installing the web adaptor. I am thinking that perhaps that might resolve your problem or give you some additional insights into what went wrong.

If you want to debug the problem then you will have to dig into the IIS based web adaptor application and find out what is going wrong. My >guess< is that you have some type of IIS configuration issue. Something clearly changed because you were working and now you are not. I have definitely seen Microsoft updates break products.

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

JohnMobley — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 15:42:02 GMT

The re-install fixed it. Thanks for the help and the quick response!

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

AlexeyTereshenkov — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:19:30 GMT

Don't forget to mark Richard response as the answer please! 🙂

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

AntonioSergio — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:45:28 GMT

Hi,

in a server reboot/shutdown the WebAdaptor.config file may become invalid,

replace by the original WebAdaptor.config file,

Regards,

António Sérgio

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

SteveBratt — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 14:54:44 GMT

Does anyone know of a solution that doesn't involve saving the original WebAdaptor.config and copying it over every time my IT Admin reboots the server for updates?

Surely there must be a more practical solution.

Thanks.

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

SteveBratt — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:34:17 GMT

After talking to Support, we managed to fix this by adding 2 lines to the Hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc

(uncommented)
127.0.0.1 localhost
<type IP of host> <type host name>

The replacing of the WebAdaptor.config file worked after a reboot but would then have to be replaced after the next reboot. And the file itself never changed.

Changing the Hosts file allowed the machine to "find itself" after a reboot and solved the problem.

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an obj

PatrickBrooke — Thu, 08 May 2014 18:44:49 GMT

After talking to Support, we managed to fix this by adding 2 lines to the Hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc

(uncommented)
127.0.0.1 localhost
<type IP of host> <type host name>

So, are you talking about putting the IP address for the web adapter machine, or for the ArcGIS Server machine? Will this keep a reboot from whiping out my webadapter.config file?

The first time this happened to me was this week during IT maintenance, which is weird because I have had web adapter 10.2 running for around a year. My webadapter.config file was blank. What I did to solve this was extract the webadapter.config file from the data1.cad file in the web adapter install folder, copy it to my web adapter folder in wwwroot, and then reconfigured the web adapter again since I did not have a working copy of the config file.

This is a strange problem.

Re: Web Adaptor -Application Error Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Anonymous User — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:38:54 GMT

We recently experienced this issue when a mistake in the server room cut power to a number of machines. But, our Web Adaptor machine has been rebooted many times in its life cycle, and this is the first time we've seen the WebAdaptor.config file empty itself. After re-registering was unsuccessful, we reinstalled the Web Adaptor, and the issue was resolved.

I contacted Esri support for more information, and learned that this is a known Web Adaptor bug:

BIG-000083324 The ArcGIS Web Adaptor unregisters or loses its configuration, and resets to the default or blank configuration.

I was told it is resolved in version 10.3. The issue was described to me as inconsistent--they don't know exactly what circumstances produce this bug, only that it is related to cut power. In our situation, it was an unplanned event and all prior planned reboots were fine. Also worth noting: in our case, this affected a machine on which both ArcGIS Server and the Web Adaptor are installed.

I hope that helps!

And here are the rest of the details Esri gave me:

     Web Adaptor unexpectedly unregisters or loses its configuration and resets
     to the default or blank configuration. A brief glitch in network
     connectivity between the GIS Server and the Web Adaptor can cause the Web
     Adaptor to unregister itself from the GIS Server. This results in a Web
     Adaptor that has no configuration and thus can no longer communicate with
     the GIS Server. This issue has been addressed in the 10.3 release. The
     check between the GIS Server and Web Adaptor now has additional tests to
     overcome these minor glitches in network connectivity and avoid an
     erroneous unregister of the Web Adaptor.