Failed to start the server machine. Premature end of file

[MohammadIshfaq]

Greetings everyone,
I am working with ArcGIS Server 10.1 release on Windows 2008 R2. I suddenly started getting an error regarding 'Failed to start the server machine. Premature end of file' if I try to start the server machine inside ArcGIS Management Panel under Sites tab. I tried searching through the forums but nothing resolved this problem.

I also checked solution given at urls 'http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/44128-ArcGIS-Server-10.1-beta-2-on-Windows-7-64-Site-creation-faile...' and 'http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/65237-Failed-to-start-server-machine.' but nothing worked.

Any help would be appreciated here. In advance I thank you for your time and support.

[BubbaHey]

What operating system is this?

[MohammadIshfaq]

It is Windows 2008 R2 64bit.

What operating system is this?

[BubbaHey]

No clue. Try running Configure ArcGIS Server Account and see if that helps.

[MohammadIshfaq]

I tried even configuring this user but it did not help. Eventually, I ended up in reinstalling it and the problem is fixed now.

Thanks for your time and support.

[ThomasMontefusco]

This error can also occur if the config.xml file is zero bytes.  Copy config.xml.bak (if not 0 bytes) to config.xml.

Location: C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Server\geronimo\var\config

[PF1]

We had a similar/same issue on one of our deployments.  I wrote a discussion topic on the ArcGIS for Server forms here that you may find valuable: https://community.esri.com/message/646889-arcgis-for-server-error-failed-to-start-the-server-machine... 

[ShadyKamel]

Corruption with "server.xml" also cause the same issue so consider it also, you can check at the following path :"C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Server\framework\runtime\tomcat\conf". in case you are in a cluster you can copy it from one of the another cluster machines.

[MatthewDowning2]

Had this same issue - :"C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Server\framework\runtime\tomcat\conf" was corrupted after some Windows Server 2008R2 patches. Copying from another server site solved the issue.