Unable to publish workflow from SharePoint Designer 2013

Question

Unable to publish workflow from SharePoint Designer 2013

Frank Martin 501

I have SharePoint 2019 on premise environment consisting of an APP + Web server. I am trying to publish a simple SharePoint 2013 workflow but getting following error:

System.ServiceModel.ServerTooBusyException: The HTTP service located at http://APPServer:32843/a81ee7e967be4165b9ada2b6bc67fc4a/AppMng.svc is unavailable. This could be because the service is too busy or because no endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the address is correct and try accessing the service again later. ---> System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable.
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()

Workflow Manager is installed on Web server and when I go to Workflow Manager proxy in CA then it shows Workflow is connected. It's service is running in services.msc. How do I go about diagnosing and fixing this issue because may be workflow manager is not properly installed? Here's the current setup:

On APP server SharePoint Search Host Controller service is running in services.msc

On Web server SharePoint Search Host Controller is in disabled state. Trying to start it using same account which is being used on App server throws error that Windows cannot start service.

Both App Management and Subscriptions Settings service applications are started. App management service is running on both App and Web server.

How to fix the issue? By the way why the URL in error above even points to App server. Shouldn't it point to Web server because this is where Workflow Manager is installed!?

Emily Du-MSFT 51,846 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2021-12-06T03:04:22.907+00:00

@Frank Martin

Thank you for your question.

We are currently looking into this issue and will give you an update as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding and support.
Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T09:20:31.36+00:00
Found a few issues:

Same account SPFarm is used for both SharePoint and Workflow Manager i.e. both SharePoint Timer Service and Workflow Manager Backend services are running under this account as well as all other service and application pools. Even though this is not best practice but it shouldn't be a problem because on UAT environment, one single account is used for all and workflow is working fine there. Only this production environment has problem.

Running Get-WFFarmStatus command shows following:

Warning: https://webserver.mydomain.com:12290 is not responding. The remote server returned and error: (403) Forbidden
WorkflowServiceBackEnd Running
WorkflowServiceFrontEnd Stopped

Trying to open http://webserver.mydomain.com:12291 also shows (403) Forbidden error even though I am logged in as SPFarm account which is System Account and runs all services and has full permission.

Accepted answer

2 additional answers

Your answer

Emily Du-MSFT 51,846 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2021-12-06T03:04:22.907+00:00

@Frank Martin

Thank you for your question.

We are currently looking into this issue and will give you an update as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding and support.
Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T09:20:31.36+00:00

Found a few issues:

Same account SPFarm is used for both SharePoint and Workflow Manager i.e. both SharePoint Timer Service and Workflow Manager Backend services are running under this account as well as all other service and application pools. Even though this is not best practice but it shouldn't be a problem because on UAT environment, one single account is used for all and workflow is working fine there. Only this production environment has problem.

Running Get-WFFarmStatus command shows following:

Warning: https://webserver.mydomain.com:12290 is not responding. The remote server returned and error: (403) Forbidden
WorkflowServiceBackEnd Running
WorkflowServiceFrontEnd Stopped

Trying to open http://webserver.mydomain.com:12291 also shows (403) Forbidden error even though I am logged in as SPFarm account which is System Account and runs all services and has full permission.

Answer 1

Frank Martin 501

Found and fixed the issue. The account under which AppManagementServicePool was running (in IIS application pools) didn't have proper permission. I changed it to a different account and now I am able to publish workflows.

Because as soon as I published the workflow, this particular application pool would stop. But the name being shown in IIS is not user friendly and it is something like 6d7ef89da........ so to find out I ran following command in SharePoint power shell.

Get-SPServiceApplicationPool | Select Name, ID

This gave me name of the pool which is AppmanagementServicePool so I changed its account in IIS.

Emily Du-MSFT 51,846 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2021-12-08T09:31:09.143+00:00

@Frank Martin @Frank Martin

Congratulations on solving this issue and thanks for sharing your solution.

Please remember to accept your solution as answer.

It will do great help to those who meet the similar question in this forum.

Thanks again for your contribution.

Answer 2

Mohamed El-Qassas 1,401 MVP Volunteer Moderator

In general, the 503 Service Unavailable means the Application Pool was stopped!

So you have first to check the status of the App pool "WorkflowMgmtPool" for Workflow Management Site.

If it was stopped, try to restart it.
Even it was started, I would suggest providing its Identity credential again and restarting it.

Besides that, I would suggest

Checking the health checklist for the workflow manager at Workflow Manager Health Checklist for SharePoint 2019 to ensure all related services are up and running.
Re-register SharePoint Workflow Manager Service.

Also, review the workflow installation and configuration steps as mentioned at Install and Configure Workflow Manager SharePoint 2019 Step by Step

Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T10:09:01.4+00:00

Found a few issues:

Same account SPFarm is used for both SharePoint and Workflow Manager i.e. both SharePoint Timer Service and Workflow Manager Backend services are running under this account as well as all other service and application pools. Even though this is not best practice but it shouldn't be a problem because on UAT environment, one single account is used for all and workflow is working fine there. Only this production environment has problem.

Running Get-WFFarmStatus command shows following:

Warning: https://webserver.mydomain.com:12290 is not responding. The remote server returned and error: (403) Forbidden

WorkflowServiceBackEnd Running
WorkflowServiceFrontEnd Stopped

Trying to open http://webserver.mydomain.com:12291 also shows (403) Forbidden error even though I am logged in as SPFarm account which is System Account and runs all services and has full permission.
Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T10:41:45.847+00:00

I stopped and started WorkflowServiceBackEnd and after that WorkflowServiceFrontEnd is also running but the issue remains as I cannot publish workflow.
Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T11:00:22.44+00:00
If I run IE as administrator and then open Workflow Manager site http://localhost:12291 then I don't see any 403 Forbidden error. So overall everything seems to be working fine but cannot publish workflow.

All required services are running

Current user is part of workflow admin group

All application pools are running

Get-WFFarmStatus shows both backend and frontend are running
Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T15:35:45.533+00:00

I have a small confusion. If you look at the error it is trying to communicate on port 32843. Now is the error coming because client PC where SharePoint Designer is installed is unable to communicate with SharePoint server on port 32843 or this port is only used between web and app servers for their own communication?

Because the following URL says Communication between Web servers and service applications
https://blogit.create.pt/fabiocarvalho/2017/02/14/sharepoint-2016-tcpip-ports/

So if it is used for communication between client PC and server then I can ask Infrastructure guys to open port (because most probably it is blocked)

Answer 3

Emily Du-MSFT 51,846 Microsoft External Staff

@Frank Martin

1.Please restart the SharePoint Search Host Controller in the web server.
2.Make sure that the firewall is turn off, it allows the connections between workflow manager server and SP server.

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Frank Martin 501 Reputation points

2021-12-06T11:31:36.33+00:00

When I try to start service then get following error:

Windows could not start the SharePoint Search Host Controller service on Local Computer. Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.

Even on UAT environment where workflow is working, this service is disabled on web server.

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Unable to publish workflow from SharePoint Designer 2013

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