Server failed to find place for a new instance. Machine list is empty

Error Message

The following error is displayed in ArcCatalog when attempting to start a server object. When displayed in ArcCatalog, the error message is:

"Server failed to find place for a new instance. Machine list is empty."

This error can be displayed when attempting to start a server object in ArcCatalog, or can appear in either the ArcGIS Server's log file.

The error is written to the log when starting the Server Object Manager service. When written to the log, the error is formatted like other log messages. An example is:

"<Msg time="2004-04-29T10:40:29" level="Error" code="1013" target="SDM.ServerDirectoryManager" thread="2468" elapsed="0">Server failed to find place for a new instance. Machine list is empty.</Msg>"

Cause

This error occurs when the GIS server is not configured with any machines to host the server objects. A host machine, or container machine, is a machine on which the GIS server object container is installed and is licensed to host server objects.

To determine if the server is configured with one or more host machines, use ArcCatalog to connect to the GIS server as an administrator and open the server properties:

Users can also look at the contents of the Server.cfg configuraiton file's ServerMachines section. The file is located in the cfg directory of the ArcGIS Server install location:
<ServerMachines>
<Machine>
<Name>doug</Name>
<Description>server object host machine</Description>
</Machine>
</ServerMachines>

Solution or Workaround

1. Connect to the GIS server as an administrator using ArcCatalog.
2. Right-click the connection and click Server Properties.
3. On the ArcGIS Server Properties dialog, click the Hosts tab.
4. Click Add, and in the Add Machine dialog, either type the name of, or navigate to a computer on the network on which the ArcGIS Server Object Container is installed.