Publishing error...looking for thoughts/suggestions

[StevenJohnson]

We recently installed 10.1 for Server.  I was able to publish a service containing simple points (in SHP format) to the server.  I later tried to publish another, slightly more complicated service containing basemap layers (administrative boundaries, water, etc.) but got an error that stated:

"Packing succeeded, but publishing failed.
Expected to find comma, colon or start of array; state: Empty; buffer:
Please consult the GP Results Window for enhanced error description"

I did some comparisons between the MXDs to determine what the error may have been caused by.  I tried changing the label engine, the scale/label dependencies, the layer format (from GDB fcs to SHPs), etc. all resulting in the same error. 

Would appreciate any suggestions/feedback from anyone who may have experienced the same error.

thanks in advance!

[BubbaHey]

I've had that error before and can't remember what I did to resolve, but look at this thread: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/43607-Running-GP-Task-of-Local-GP-Package

[BubbaHey]

Also look at this thread: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/62936-Server-s-publishing-job-did-not-succed

He found it to be disk space issue

[WilliamKaptein]

StevenJohnson, did u find a solution ? I'm having the same problem here and getting nowhere 😞

[StevenJohnson]

StevenJohnson, did u find a solution ? I'm having the same problem here and getting nowhere 😞

What I recently tried was removing individual layers from the .mxd and then trying to republish.  I thought about which ones I could live without and those I should try removing first. 

I removed one layer that was a fairly complex polygon layer (which is quite well represented in the ESRI basemap layers anyway), which may have had too many vertices or something.  Technically, I could have simplified the polygon or tried other tests to see if it would help, if I really needed that layer.  I'm not exactly sure what the cause was but once the layer was removed from the mxd, the map service published completely fine!  It may not have been THE answer, but it was MY answer.  I hope it works for others as well!

Thanks again everyone!

[StevenJohnson · Accepted solution]

Another update! 

I recently had the same problem I originally posted about but this time, when attempting to publish a MXD that contained many complex layers that could not be removed and needed to be represented in the map service.  This meant my previous work-around would not apply for this situation. 

I found that when I published directly from ArcMap (Share As > Service > Publish a service) I would get the mentioned errors (discussed before).  However, when I split the process into two different stages - Share As > Service > Save a service definition file, THEN published the saved service definition file (*.sd) using the server manager application - it worked without any errors!  I'm not sure why this work-around worked, but it may have something to do with the single packaging/publishing process used within ArcMap.

Hope this helps others as well!

[TerryGiles]

I had the issue where I could not publish directly from ArcMap to my Server too.  Turns out it's related to how ArcMap tries to connect to the Server - always through SSL.  I did not have my server set up to accept both http & https traffic so publishing would always fail.  It also prevented users from adding services to ArcMap

Description of error & workaround from tech support in another thread here-

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/75010-cannot-add-Map-Services-to-ArcMap?p=269184#post269184