Revit Server Troubleshooting

Source Material:
Revit Clinic: Revit Server Troubleshooting
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With the addition of Revit Server in the Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack, you might encounter some instances where you need to do some troubleshooting on the server. For example, if you are getting something like this when you attempt to connect to the Server:

To troubleshoot something like this, I’ve put together a couple of steps to make sure that the Revit Server is setup correctly, where log files are stored and what to do to bring the server down .

The first thing to check is to verify and make sure that all the pre-requisites are properly installed. Check out this video for the steps to setup IIS7.One of the easiest pre-requisites to miss is “Web Server (IIS) Support”. Make sure if you see that as an option to select when adding roles to the Server, that you check it (or it is already). What is possibly confusing here is that there is a difference between the “Web Server (IIS)” role and the “Web Server (IIS) support” role service. Revit server needs the role service, but there is a temptation to choose the role because it is available on the same page as the Application Server role and sounds so similar.
Local and Central Servers need the same pre-requisites for Revit Server. Make sure they both are setup correctly.
Revit Server also stores log files on the Server. The log files are stored typically at C:\logfiles. These log files can be helpful in understanding what is happening and if the server is running correctly and Support may ask you for them if you report a problem.
Along the way, you may need to bring the server down for maintenance, gathering log files or for other troubleshooting. Bringing down the server allows you to delete or archive the existing log files so that new logs are created. Before bringing down the server, if you have already setup a project, make sure to lock the server in the Revit Server Administrator so that no one can access it. Bringing down the server means doing three things (the order is not important) :
- Go to the Start Menu and go to Administrative Tools, open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Select the RevitServerAppPool and in the sidebar select Stop.
- Go to Administrative Tools and select Services. Shut down the AutoSync Service in Service by right clicking on it and choose stop.
- Bring up the Task Manager and switch to the processes tab. Check for any instances of w3wp.exe in the system process list and end those tasks.
When you are ready to start Revit Server back up, go back to number 3 above and reverse the first two items by starting the RevitServerAppPool and starting the Autosync Service.

You can also verify from the Server if the running by attempting to access the Revit Server Administrator tool from the Server host. Navigate to Revit Server Administrator the same way you would from a workstation. This will help check if the Server is running correctly, but perhaps a firewall is in the way from the workstations.

The biggest item in this list is number 1. Making sure you have all the pre-requisites installed correctly is uber critical to getting Revit Server up and running correctly.