Exchange (OWA) CAS crashes with 503 error - again

18 September 2011 · 2 min read

This just started happening again, with these errors appearing in the event viewer:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date: 9/18/2011 11:16:33 AM
Event ID: 5011
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: exch2010fe1
Description:
A process serving application pool 'MSExchangeOWAAppPool' suffered a
fatal communication error with the Windows Process Activation Service.
The process id was '3760'. The data field contains the error number.

Log Name: System Source: Microsoft-Windows-WAS Date: 9/17/2011 6:47:07 AM Event ID: 5009 Task Category: None Level: Warning Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: exch2010fe1 Description: A process serving application pool ‘MSExchangeOWAAppPool’ terminated unexpectedly. The process id was ‘3108’. The process exit code was ‘0x800703e9’.

Log Name: Application Source: Application Error Date: 9/17/2011 6:46:30 AM Event ID: 1000 Task Category: (100) Level: Error Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: exch2010fe1 Description: Faulting application name: w3wp.exe, version: 7.5.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bd0eb Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bdfe0 Exception code: 0xe053534f Fault offset: 0x000000000000aa7d Faulting process id: 0x%9 Faulting application start time: 0x%10 Faulting application path: %11 Faulting module path: %12 Report Id: %13

After reviewing the IIS logs and the event logs, I think it has to do with the WebReady document viewer - the thing in OWA that renders and lets you view .doc attachments within the browser rather than forcing you to open Word or Excel. I think users were attempting to open corrupted files and that was causing it to crash. I’ve disabled Webready in EMC (Server Config -> CAS) and I’ll see what happens.