Word Automation Services Troubleshooting (SharePoint Server 2010)

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

This article describes how Word Automation Services handles errors that can occur at the conversion item or system level, and provides common troubleshooting steps for resolving these errors.

In this article:

• How Word Automation Services reacts to potential system failures

• How to troubleshoot failed conversions

• How to troubleshoot specific events

• Known failures that do not have Word Automation Services events for SharePoint Server 2010

How Word Automation Services reacts to potential system failures

System administrators are alerted to potential system failures in multiple ways; for example:

• Users communicate perceived failures or events to a system administrator when files are not converted successfully. For example, during a conversion a message directs the user to contact a system administrator.

• Windows Events that list a source of "Word Automation Services" occur on the server where a failure was detected.

• When available, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) indicates that Word Automation Services is unhealthy.

When a conversion job fails, the solution typically provides the string that is displayed in the ConversionItemInfo.ErrorMessage for each failed conversion and directs the user to perform any needed actions on the file. In some cases ConversionItemInfo.ErrorMessage does not contain enough information for an administrator to diagnose and correct a potential system failure. For more information about the details that the ConversionItemInfo.ErrorMessage provides for a conversion job, see ConversionItemInfo Members (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=196477).

In the event of a known system failure, Word Automation Services also generates a Windows Event on the server where the failure was detected. Events are intended to be available to administrators to diagnose and troubleshoot individual system failures. Each event can include much information that requires additional investigation by the administrator. End users do not see events.

An event resides on the server that emitted it. Events can be viewed by accessing the server's Event Viewer. Search for events that have "Word Automation Services" as the event source. You can also use a SCOM Console to aggregate the emitted events of the whole farm in a single view. SCOM presents the health status of Word Automation Services and the servers it is running on.

Consistent interruptions in Word Automation Services can also indicate system failure. See How to troubleshoot failed conversions for more troubleshooting help.

How to troubleshoot failed conversions

This section describes the steps to troubleshoot a failed conversion.

1. Confirm that the file that is being converted meets the following criteria:

   • Is not blocked by file type

   • Is not password protected

   • Does not require IRM to be opened

   • Is of a type that is supported by the version of Word Automation Services for SharePoint Server 2010 that you are using

2. If the ConversionJobItem.ErrorCode is 131182, the file is likely corrupted. If the ErrorCode is not 131182, confirm that the file is not corrupted by comparing the ErrorCode against its corresponding Word Automation Services ConversionItemInfo.ErrorMessage string. Then follow the instructions to resolve the conversion item failures. Also, an administrator can try opening the file in the client version of Microsoft Word and saving the file. This process eliminates corruption or repairs the file if it is corrupted. Then submit the file again for conversion.

3. If the file is valid but the conversion still fails, begin polling the Event logs of individual servers for events that have Word Automation Services as the event source. Windows system events can be viewed by using the Event Viewer. Or, you can use SCOM to view an aggregated view of all events from all servers in the farm. An unusually large number of Word Automation Services events can indicate a failure condition that is detected during multiple file conversions. Follow the troubleshooting steps that are specified in the event message for each type of event and perform the needed action to resolve the issue.

   Note

   Make sure that on the Diagnostic Logging page in Central Administration, the Least critical event to report to the event log setting for the Word Automation Services category is not set or is set to Warning or a less severe level, such as Informational or Verbose. Otherwise, some important events might not be generated by Word Automation Services.

4. If the event message and prescribed actions do not lead to a resolution of the issue, see How to troubleshoot specific events.

5. If the instructions of the event message and the "How to Troubleshoot Specific Events" section are insufficient to resolve the problem, or if there are no events emitted, review the ULS trace logs for the affected servers to learn more about the issue.

   To prepare these logs for troubleshooting, on the Diagnostic Logging page in Central Administration, set the Least critical event to report to the trace log setting for the Word Automation Services category.

   Warning

   Turning on Verbose tracing will affect performance for all application servers. Make sure to set Least critical event to report to the trace log back to Medium after you complete troubleshooting activities.

   With Verbose tracing turned on, test Word Automation Services under load to manifest the detected failures. When the failures occur, open the ULS trace logs in a text editor for servers where the failures occurred. Note that trace files are typically very large (for example, multiple gigabytes in a production environment) and might require significant time to download, open, and review. Filter the tracing log by the Word Automation Services area of the trace.

   The quality and readability of trace log entries, also known as traces, will vary. Traces are not localized and are not necessarily intended for external use. Trace logs may contain a limited amount of Personally Identifiable Information about file conversion items or jobs.

   ULS trace logs can typically be found on each server in the following location: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS

6. If the previous steps do not yield a resolution, visit the Technical Support for Microsoft Products (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=15029) Web site and contact a support representative to help diagnose and resolve the issue.

How to troubleshoot specific events

This section lists the events that are logged for specific failure conditions, describes the causes of the events, and provides resolution steps for each error.

Event 8004 and 8005: The PDF/XPS converter '[file path & name]' failed during file conversion

Word Automation Services includes a default converter for converting files to both XPS and PDF file formats. Word Automation Services also supports third-party converters. Third-party converters could have bugs that cause file conversions to fail in an unpredictable manner. Word Automation Services emits one of these two events when a third-party converter fails:

Word Automation Services also sets the conversion item's failure message as follows:

Resolution

1. If these kinds of failures occur, follow these steps to update the converters:

   1. Acquire the latest DLL for the custom PDF or XPS converter from the vendor of the converter.

   2. Overwrite the old DLL with the new DLL in %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\WebServices\WordServer\Core on each application in the farm.

   3. If the DLL is working correctly, new conversions should now succeed.

2. If the third-party converters continue to fail after all available updates have been applied, uninstall the third-party converters and use the default converters.

   • Delete the corresponding DLL for the PDF or XPS converter from this folder: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\WebServices\WordServer\Core.

   • New conversions should now succeed.

3. If the file still does not convert, the file is likely corrupted or otherwise invalid. In this case try to open the file in the client version of Word, resave the file, and then resubmit the file for conversion.

Event 8010: A file that was created using a new version of Office client or Word Services has been encountered

Event 8010 is emitted when Word Automation Service encounters a file that was saved by a version of Microsoft Word newer than the currently installed version of the Word Automation Service. This might result in a conversion of decreased quality, depending on the contents of the document. If this event is emitted, upgrade Word Automation Services as soon as possible by following the link in the event message.

Resolution

1. Download(https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=157217) the latest Word Automation Services converter from the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Software Development Kit (SDK).

2. Follow the instructions to install the new converter.

3. Convert the files. The files will be converted with the best possible quality and this event will not be generated unless files are encountered that require an update to the Word Automation Services converter.

Event 8012: One or more localized components could not be loaded for the specified language

When a conversion item fails, a ConversionItemInfo.ErrorCode and corresponding ConversionItemInfo.ErrorMessage are generated. The error message is intended to be presentable to the user who submitted the conversion job. The error message is localized to the browser language of the user who submitted the conversion job. However, if the server farm application servers do not have the language pack that corresponds to the user's browser language, the error messages cannot be presented for the end user's browser language. This event is emitted when this situation occurs for a failing conversion item. Also be aware that the error message itself will instead be presented in the default language of the farm.

Resolution

• Download and deploy the required SharePoint Server 2010 language packs. Download language packs from the Microsoft Download Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=141342).

Event 1001: SQL Database Access Error. Error Code: %1. Error Message: %2. Error Link: %3

System failures for Word Automation Services are typically detected when the service communicates with the document queue. During each file conversion process, multiple communications occur between the service and the document queue. When a failure occurs, SQL Server generates a SQLException error with a large amount of relevant information. Word Automation Services detects any SQLException error generated by SQL Server when the service is communicating with the document queue, and emits this event:

This event message contains a subset of the SQLException properties to help administrators with troubleshooting failures that are detected when the Word Automation Services communicate with the document queue. These parameters are as follows:

The following is an example of the event message that the Word Automation Services generates if the document queue database is removed or renamed:

Sql Database Access Error. Error Code: 0x80131904. Error Message: Invalid object name 'dbo.ConversionItemQueue'. Error Link: None.

Error Code (SqlException.ErrorCode) is a SQL Server code that is not specific to Word Automation Services. You can use the SQL Server code to relate this failure to existing SQL Server troubleshooting information.

Error Message (SqlException.Message) is a SQL Server-specific string that contains human-readable information that describes the error and specifies the affected database. Administrators should investigate the server that maintains the database that is referenced in this string as recommended by SQL Server troubleshooting Help.

Error Link (SqlException.HelpLink) is a SQL Server-specific link to more SQL Server Help information.

Resolution

1. Note the error code, error message, and error link in the event message.

2. Use this information to help troubleshoot the SQL Server errors. For information about how to troubleshoot SQL Server error codes, see SQL Server Solution Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=196474).

Event 1002: Conversion jobs may not execute because the timer job '%1' for service application '%2' does not appear to be active

The timer job for the Word Automation Service processes and distributes queued job items to application servers. If the timer job does not run, queued job items will not start to convert. Event 1002 will be emitted if a new job is submitted at a time when the timer job appears to be inactive. Specifically, this event will be emitted if one or more of the following conditions are true:

1. The timer job is not online. This can occur if the job definition was not provisioned correctly.

2. The timer job is disabled. This can occur if an administrator disabled the timer job on the Edit Timer Job page in Central Administration.

3. The timer job has missed two scheduled runs according to the current settings in Central Administration.

4. The timer job misses scheduled runs because of an external issue, such as the OWSTimer service is turned off. OWSTimer is the SharePoint Timer Service.

This event message contains the name of the timer job that is not running and the name of the service application that is associated with the timer job. The following is an example message for this event:

"Conversion jobs may not execute because the timer job 'e39db2de-1b89-4f74-91da-5da998df0a9c' for service application 'Word Automation Service Application' does not appear to be active."

Resolution

• Enable the Word Automation Services Timer job:

  1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Monitoring.

  2. On the Monitoring page, under Timer Jobs, click Job Definitions.

     Note if the Word Automation Services Timer Job is a scheduled Timer job.

  3. If the schedule type for Word Automation Services Timer Job is disabled, click Word Automation Services Timer Job.

  4. On the Edit Timer Job page, click Enable.

     Queued jobs should start to convert when the Timer job runs.

If the Word Automation Services Timer Job is not a scheduled Timer job, Word Automation Services is not installed or is installed incorrectly.

Known failures that do not have Word Automation Services events for SharePoint Server 2010

Word Automation Services does not generate unique Windows Events for these known failure conditions:

• Any failure that results in an SPException (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=196475) that is generated by SharePoint Server.

• Any failure that results in an UnauthorizedAccessException (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=196476) that is generated by SQL Server or SharePoint Server.

  Example: A user's permissions for accessing a content database have changed.

• Failures that clearly affect the whole server and not only the Word Automation Services service. Such failures are detected and surfaced in Windows and SharePoint Server.

  Example: Insufficient disk space.