ERROR

Unable to Start service. Error (Server Object instance creation failed on all SOC machines. Server Object instance creation failed on machine

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Error Message

After upgrading to ArcGIS Server 9.3, using Data Appliance version 1.x, some map services cannot be started, whereas other map services can be started properly.

All of these map services used to work properly with ArcGIS Server 9.2

When starting a map service in Server Manager, the following error message is returned:

"Unable to Start service. Error (Server Object instance creation failed on all SOC machines. Server Object instance creation failed on machine <server_name>)."

When creating a new map service in ArcCatalog, a dialog window with the following error message is returned:

"Server Object instance creation failed on all SOC machines. Server Object instance creation failed on machine <server_name>."

Cause

When ArcGIS Server 9.2 was released, the only image format supported for map caches was PNG24.

In ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 1, support for other image formats was added including JPG, PNG8 and PNG32. When these new image formats are supported, the XML configuration file (conf.xml) for map caches was modified to add new optional tags indicating the image format (TileImageInfo, CacheTileFormat, CompressionQuality). Some of the services on the data appliance were PNG24 and did not require an update to the configuration file, as ArcGIS Server 9.2 does not require these new tags in the conf.xml files.

When ArcGIS 9.3 was released, the new tags were required. Consequently, map services with the original 9.2 release config files no longer work correctly.

Solution or Workaround

New conf.xml files for these services have been updated. These files need to be downloaded and used to replace their existing conf.xml files.

Depending on data collections, please download the new configuration files, un-compress and copy those files to the corresponding locations.

  1. Stop all related map services.
  2. Backup all existing conf.xml files.

    For example: Rename the following file

    \\<Appliance_HostName>\cache\ESRI_StreetMap_World_2D\Layers\conf.xml

    to the following file name

    \\<Appliance_HostName>\cache\ESRI_StreetMap_World_2D\Layers\original_conf.xml


  3. Download the compressed files, save them locally, uncompress them, rename the xml files to conf.xml, and copy the new conf.xml to the corresponding cache folders.

    World Collection

    USA Imagery Collection

    USA Prime Imagery Collection

    USA StreetMap Collection

    For example:
    1. Uncompress the USA_StreetMap_Collection.zip file
    2 Rename the ESRI_BoundariesPlaces_World_2Dconf.xml file to conf.xml
    3. Copy it under \\<Appliance_HostName>\cache\ESRI_StreetMap_World_2D\Layers folder

  4. Start the map services.

Article ID: 000010239

Software:
  • ArcGIS Server

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