Plesk and websites shows 503 Service Unavailable: The process exit code was 0xc0000022

Symptoms

• Plesk and websites show the following error:

  503 Service Unavailable.

• The following can be found in Event Viewer > System :

  Application pool 'AppPoolName' is being automatically disabled due to a series of failures in the process(es) serving that application pool.

  And the message with the following error code:

  AppPool(name) terminated unexpectedly. (process ID). The process exit code was 0xc0000022

• Application pools for these websites crashes only if Enable 32-Bit Applications in Advanced Settings is set as True

Cause

Incorrect system permissions.

Resolution

Check permissions for C:Windows or C:Program Files (x86)IIS directory:

1. Open Windows Explorer

2. Go to C:Windows or C:Program Files (x86)IIS.

3. Right click on Windows folder and go to Properties > Security

4. Check that Users (domainUsers) group exists with correct permissions like on the screenshot:

   

5. Also, check that there are no Deny rules for psaadm , psacln , psaserv users.

6. If the issue persists, Use Process Monitor utility with filter by Access Denied.

Permissions can be given to psaadm, psaacln and psaaserv to the entire C:Windows directory with the following commands:

C:> cacls C:Windows*.* /E /T /C /R “psacln”
cacls C:Windows*.* /E /T /C /R “psaadm”
cacls C:Windows*.* /E /T /C /R “psaserv”

Replace drive C: with drive name in question.

Contact Plesk technical support if it did not help.