Plesk websites show Error 503 after Plesk upgrade: The Module DLL C:Windowssystem32inetsrvrewrite.dll failed to load

Symptoms

• Websites are not available after upgrading Plesk. The following error is shown:

    HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable

• Events with ID 2280 can be found at Windows > Start > Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application:

  The Module DLL C:Windowssystem32inetsrvrewrite.dll failed to load. The data is the error.

  

  ---

  Could not load type '%SystemRoot%system32inetsrvrewrite.dll'.

Cause


%SytemRoot%system32inetsrvrewrite.dll
does not exist on the filesystem or it’s corrupted. 

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via RDP;

2. Make sure that the rewrite.dll file exists in the folder %SystemRoot%System32inetsrv:

   • If the rewrite.dll doesn’t exist, download the correct URL Rewrite Module version and install it at www.iis.net/urlrewrite 
   • If it exists, rename or remove %SystemRoot%System32inetsrvrewrite.dll file and reinstall the package, which can be downloaded from www.iis.net/urlrewrite 

3. Open CMD as administrator;

4. Continue Plesk upgrade:

   C:> plesk installer update