New Web Application not creating correctly

I'm having an odd occurrence happen about 50% of the time right now when creating new web applications during my migration from SP2010 to SP2013.

During creating a web application in Central Admin, I can get through the first setup page, then get to the "This shouldn't take long" page and will sit there for 30+ minutes. I end up closing the window and will see that the Web application is there in Central admin, and sometimes the DB will be created, other times not, not a big issue since I'm mounting a sp2010 database to this web application.

What I do notice is that either a IIS site will either not be created at all, or it will be created, but the Virtual Folder is empty. When trying to delete the Web Application through central admin or PowerShell it will hang for hours until the next day when it's finally deleted. During this time I am not able to create any other web applications. It's usually at this time that I can successfully create a new web applications but even that is unreliable.

Has anyone ran into this issue or can suggest any workarounds to get this working? I'm wondering if copying the contents of another web application's virtual directory to the failed web application's virtual directory will be a workaround. I still need to verify if creating a web application through PowerShell gives me the same headache but at the moment I'm currently waiting for a web application to delete.

December 20th, 2012 8:23pm

Quick Update - It appears that the issue is in fact that the IIS virtual folder it is creating is empty. I copied the contents of a working Web Application folder to a broken Web Application folder, confirmed all the security settings and restarted IIS and it seemed to do the trick.

Hoping someone can shed some light on this..

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December 20th, 2012 9:54pm

Hi Derek,

If you are creating the web application in SharePoint 2013 farm for the first time, it will take time some time almost 1.5 hrs.  This is due to the new provisioning timer job for web application in SharePoint 2013.

Make sure the SharePoint Timer service is running and if you don't want to wait for long time, go to Central Admin -> Monitoring -> Job definitions -> Find the respective Timer job for provisioning the web application based on the port and run it.

execute the 

stsadm -o -execadmsvcjobs

In some time the timer job should run and virtual folder should get created.

December 21st, 2012 7:47am

Thanks for the reply Raghavendra,

I'm not sure if this is the issue or not. This is not the first web application I've created. I created about 4 other web applications before this and those took well under 1.5 hours to complete. Now It's basically stopping at creating the Virtual Folder in IIS.

What I'm noticing are 2 things:

1. No contents are in the Virtual Folder in IIS

2. The Read permission is not granted to "Everyone" for that virtual folder.

Once I manually grant permissions and copy contents from another virtual folder to the virtual folder missing the contents the Web Application is accessible.

I'll look into this timer job but do you know the specific name of the job I'm looking for?

edit: also 'stsadm -o -execadmsvcjobs' give me an error: Missing Operation name or the Operation name is invalid.



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December 21st, 2012 8:26pm

Hi Derek,

The timer job will be clearly indicated with name Provisioning Web Application with the specified port on which you have created web application. You can figure this out from the Job Definitions listing in CA.

If the provisioning web application job is run once it will update the last run time stamp or it will be NA, so make sure the last run time stamp is sucessfully updated.

You shouldnt get the error while running the above command. 

Please stop and restart Microsoft SharePoint Foundation WebApplication on your front end server this will delete and re-create virtual directory in front end servers for all the web application.

trying executing the timer job command on app server and make  sure it runs sucessfully.

December 21st, 2012 11:41pm

I don't know if this opening a whole other can of worms or is related to the same issue

1. there is no timer job with the name "Provisioning Web Application"

2. When stopping the Service "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application" It stays in a stopping state. I'm trying to force it through stsadm right now but am not having much luck

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December 22nd, 2012 12:23am

Hang on.. there should be timer job for proviioning and un provisioning a web application in CA. I dont have my vm's currrently would have sent you a snapshot.

Can you provide some more detail on the farm.?

December 22nd, 2012 7:15am

Is it working fine now?
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December 24th, 2012 12:16pm

Hi Derek,

               Could you please outline your SharePoint 2013 farm environment details (i.e server edition/version, sql data base, farm type etc).

Also, have you run the Farm Configuration Wizard to configure the SharePoint 2013 farm?

Thanks,

Ajeet

December 24th, 2012 12:47pm

1 SharePoint Server 2013 on Windows Server 2012

1 SQL 2012 Server on Windows Server 2012

I was in the process of migrating databases from our SP 2010/SQL2008R2 Farm. All was working until recently when I now have to brute force the web applications to be created.

Also in response to Raghavendra: I tried restarting the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application Service. It is now stuck in a "stopping" state. I tried to force starting it through powershell and it's stuck in a "starting" state for over 72 hours. I've restarted the server, stopped services and still haven't had any luck getting this service back up. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with initial issue

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December 24th, 2012 8:00pm

Hi Derek, 

Did your Try stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype spwebservice  on the web front end servers?

If not try and perform IISRESET

FYI

http://kb4sp.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/restarting-the-sharepoint-foundation-web-services-service-on-the-wfe-to-bring-back-a-missing-iis-url/

http://sp-vinod.blogspot.in/2012/06/sharepoint-foundation-web-application.html. 

Let me know if it starts?

December 24th, 2012 8:19pm

yes that was the command I was referring to. When I ran that command it basically changed the state from "stopping" to "starting" and has been in that state ever since, after numerous times of server and IIS restarts.

I also tried re-running the Software Configuration wizard to see if it would repair the service. Nothing so far has worked. If I can't get this resolved by the end of today I may call Microsoft and see if I can get it resolved.

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December 24th, 2012 8:25pm

strange.. i have the same setup as yours for 2010 to 2013 migration and its working fine even after trying to repro the steps you said.
December 24th, 2012 8:28pm

Are you up to date with all your windows 2012 patches out of curiosity?
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December 24th, 2012 8:31pm

Nope, after installing prerequisites and sharepoint i didn't install any patches. Web Application creation was an issues for me and after restarting the timer services as described above web application started creating with virtual folders correctly.

I have also performed Migration POC from 2010 to 2013, but got stuck with reporting services issues so working

December 24th, 2012 8:49pm

Finally got this resolved after an 8 hour call with Microsoft. After finally getting the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service to restart (took 4 hours) We found that changing the Shutdown time in the Web Application Pool for the Central Admin pool to 400 allowed for the Web Application to complete successfully.

I'm still confused to why everything is taking so long now to complete so i'll have to look into that next.

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December 27th, 2012 3:47am

Good to hear that..
December 27th, 2012 4:14am

HI Derek 

Am facing the same issue what you have faced ,Am able to create web application but am not able to create site collection 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointitpropreview/thread/d6a9b9a0-6809-4e34-931b-19b26f6997a8

the above link shows you the exact issue what am facing but it is not having any resolution .

Please help me to resolve this issue 

My mail id is post2habeeb@outlook.com (or ) mails2habeeb@gmail.com

Regards

HAbeebullah

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April 2nd, 2013 11:45pm

HI Derek 

Am facing the same issue what you have faced ,Am able to create web application but am not able to create site collection 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointitpropreview/thread/d6a9b9a0-6809-4e34-931b-19b26f6997a8

the above link shows you the exact issue what am facing but it is not having any resolution .

Please help me to resolve this issue 

My mail id is post2habeeb@outlook.com (or ) mails2habeeb@gmail.com

Regards

HAbeebullah

April 2nd, 2013 11:55pm

were your farms provisioned with powershell or manually configured?
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April 2nd, 2013 11:56pm

Did you try changing Shutdown time in the Web Application Pool for the Central Admin pool to 400 in IIS?

I also found that another work around after the failure would be to copy the contents from another virtual folder to the failed site's virtual folder, specifically the web.config file.

April 3rd, 2013 1:31am

Finally got this resolved after an 8 hour call with Microsoft. After finally getting the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service to restart (took 4 hours) We found that changing the Shutdown time in the Web Application Pool for the Central Admin pool to 400 allowed for the Web Application to complete successfully.

I'm still confused to why everything is taking so long now to complete so i'll have to look into that next.

Folks, this is a minor problem that seems to be creeping up more and more. I personally have performed over 8 installs in various environments. I have seen this issue in 6 out of the 8 environments I have created. All servers I have tried a variation of software. In MOST of my tests, this seems to be a problem. Not sure why they decide to recycle the App Pool just before they perform an "Virtual Directory Copy." Here are the results of my tests. I was very methodical in my testing and made sure these were clean downloads every time. As you will see, I tried variations of hardware increases, physical to virtual, database versions and patch levels...etc.

Test # Hardware Software Server Type Install Type Problems Creating Web Apps Work Around Resolution
1 HP   Proliant DL360 G6, 16gb memory, 146gb - C, 146gb D (Pagefile), 146gb E, 2   Quad Procs Windows   2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2012 w/SP1, SharePoint 2013 Server Physical Clean Install and downloads Yes Copy Contents of Central Admin   Virtual Directory to new Web Application Increase Shutdown time to 400
2 Host Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb   C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 2 Logical Procs, 8gb memory Windows 2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2012,   SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean Install and downloads Yes Copy   Contents of Central Admin Virtual Directory to new Web Application Increase   Shutdown time to 400
3 Host   Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad   Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 2   Logical Procs, 8gb memory Windows   2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2012 w/SP1, SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean   Install and downloads No    
4 Host Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb   C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 2 Logical Procs, 8gb memory Windows 2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2012   w/SP1, SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean Install and downloads Yes Copy   Contents of Central Admin Virtual Directory to new Web Application Increase   Shutdown time to 400
5 Host   Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad   Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 4   Logical Procs, 16gb memory Windows   2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2008 R2 w/SP1, SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean   Install and downloads Yes Copy Contents of Central Admin   Virtual Directory to new Web Application Increase Shutdown time to 400
6 Host Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb   C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 4 Logical Procs, 16gb memory Windows 2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2008 R2   w/SP2, SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean Install and downloads No    
7 Host   Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad   Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 4   Logical Procs, 16gb memory Windows   2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2008 R2 w/SP2, SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean   Install and downloads Yes Copy Contents of Central Admin   Virtual Directory to new Web Application Increase Shutdown time to 400
8 Host   Server = Dell R900 256gb Mem, 146gb C, 300gb D (Pagefile), 2tb E, 4 Quad   Procs; Virtual Guest =  100gb - C, 4   Logical Procs, 32gb memory Windows   2008R2 (All Patches), SQL 2008 R2 w/SP2, SharePoint 2013 Server Virtual Clean   Install and downloads Yes Copy   Contents of Central Admin Virtual Directory to new Web Application Increase   Shutdown time to 400
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July 3rd, 2013 7:27pm

I wouldn't recommend just copying content from one IIS to another... That shouldn't solve anything.. 
July 6th, 2013 1:34pm

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