HTTP Error 503, the service is unavailable

Question

I'm really new to setting up web servers in general. I've got IIS 8 on Windows 8, and I'm trying to set up a little site locally, while doing some development. In IIS I choose Add Site, give a name, points to a location where I have a index.html file (I've tried different locations, latest in a c:\inetpub\wwwroot\test -folder) and otherwise use all default settings. However, when I try to browse to localhost I get

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

I've verified the pool is started, and I've given IIS_IUSRS Full Control on the target folder

I've search around but not found anything that solved my issue, and there's nothing helpfull in the EventLog or in the C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\HTTPERR folder

Could anyone tell me what's wrong?

Answer 1

It could be that the user identity is outdated, especially if you've tried starting a stopped app pool and the next request again fails.

In IIS, go to the Application Pools under the Server, then find the correct Application Pool for your web site, and click on it. On the Advanced Settings menu to the right, select Identity and change it and enter new user and password. Click on your Application Pool again, and select Recycle to restart it.

You can also try looking at the error message in Event Viewer, under Windows Logs, Application, Details tab.