PSA: ArcGIS Server 10.2.2 Service crashes at startup even after re-install-- Network Share

[JasonTipton]

When you delete the config files from an ArcServer, usually it gives you the "Create New Site" Wizard, but if you delete a network share, the service will fail at startup.

You can try uninstalling the software and re-installing it, but it doesn't work. There's a reference left behind to that network share. To remedy this situation, you will need to

1. Re-create the same exact network share. It's fine that it is empty.
2. Re-start the ArcServer Service (on all machines in the site)

• It looks like at this exact moment, you can delete the network share as it has erased the pointer to the config files

   3. Create a new site (doesn't have to use the same network share)

Why am I using a network share to put my config files?

The network share is local to one of the servers and it is a multi-machine site. Multi-machine sties require a network share and you cannot use references like \\server\d$\storage

What should the software do?

At minimum, it should clean up on re-install. It should also either, throw the ArcGIS Setup Wizard OR,

a new page, that says:

"Hey, we noticed that the network share '//server/share' is unavailabe. You may want to make sure that server is running and that the network share is being currently shared. Or, if you would rather, let's create a new site!"

Then, if the server was down, when you boot it back up, it would go on about being ArcServer.

It should definitely not just crash and burn like it does. Just put a check for missing network shares....

What happens if I'm not in a virtual environment and one of my servers crashed and I can't just spawn a new one real quick? How do I get my site back up?!?!

Hopefully ESRI will tell you where that pointer is so that you can delete it.

According to Daniel Urbach​, delete the files, not folders in <installation path>/server/framework/etc. This will delete the references to the config store.

More specifically, from my experience now, you can delete the <installation path>/server/framework/etc/config-store-connection.xml file. This file actually contains the reference to the config store and if it is not present, ArcServer will present you with the "New Site" wizard.

[DanielUrbach]

The reference to the location of the config-store is in the the framework/etc folder in the installation path.

You could move the files (not the folders!) from that location and then access the server manager endpoint, it should allow you to create a new site then.

[JasonTipton]

Thanks Daniel Urbach! We were moving some VMs and had to drop a large drive that was mostly empty except for the config files. I didn't think that it would be that big of a deal as we were going to have to rebuild the site anyway. Now we know. This could definitely happen though in the wild if you had a server failure that was hosting the config files. You might think that you are doing fine by backing up config files and directories, but not necessarily thinking that when it comes to restore, you will have to delete these files as well.

Editing my original post to include the file information.

[JoeFlannery]

Jason and Daniel:

Your thread helped me out tremendously with an ArcGIS Server problem we recently had.

On Sunday, after bouncing our ArcGIS Server for Maintenance Weekend, we noticed that map services were not running.  Our IT guy discovered that the F-drive (a mapped drive to our SAN and where the arcgisserver\config-store and the \arcgisserver\directories folders are located) was not being recognized and he started running the CheckDisk utility.  Monday morning the CheckDisk utility had not finished, but IT bounced the server anyway.  After the server restart, map services started up and worked, but we were then missing the System services, like PublishingTools, and the Utilities services, like Geometry service.

Here’s what I did:

1. Stop ArcGIS Server Service
2. Remove C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Server\framework\etc\config-store-connection.xml
3. Copy "F:\arcgisserver\config-store" to another safe site
4. Delete all the files and folders under "F:\arcgisserver\config-store"
5. Copy 'arcgisjobs''arcgisoutput' and 'arcgissystem' folders from F:\arcgisserver\directories to a safe place
6. Delete 'arcgisjobs' 'arcgisoutput' and 'arcgissystem' folders from F:\arcgisserver\directories
7. Start ArcGIS Server Service - no map services (ArcSOC.exe services) will start
8. Open "ArcGIS Server Manager" (browser)
9. "ArcGIS Server Setup Wizard" will open
10. Click on >Create New Site
    1. UN: |  PW:
    2. Root Server Directory = F:\arcgisserver\directories
    3. Confguration Store = F:\arcgisserver\config-store
11. System and Utilities services are back, now I have to get the map services back
12. Copy project folders from safe backup place to F:\arcgisserver\config-store\services
    1. Don't copy over the "System" and "Utilities" folders from the safe backup place
13. Copy project folders from backup safe place to F:\arcgisserver\directories\arcgisoutput
    1. Don't copy over the ".site" "System" "Utilities" and "Unsecured" folders from the safe backup place
14. Copy project folders from safe backup place to F:\arcgisserver\directories\arcgissystem\arcgisinput
    1. Don't copy over the ".site" "System" and "Utilities" folders from the safe backup place
15. Copy over all the folders and files from safe backup place to F:\arcgisserver\config-store\security
16. Copy the “arcgis-dataspace.xml"  in safe place to F:\arcgisserver\config-store\data
17. Stop/Start ArcGIS Server Service
18. Go through GIS Server Tier security settings
19. Add “GIS Team” in Security Roles as Publisher
20. Add Security to >Services >Site (Root) 
21. Stop/Start ArcGIS Server Service

Thanks again.