Queue Service and Event Service will not start in a virtualized environment

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Services

Could not start the Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

The 1053 error message is one that I have come across in many environments where customers have chosen to virtualize Project Server 2007. In short, the Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service and Event Service fail to start in a timely manner.

As a result, one or both of the services may be stopped and refuse to start. Additionally, errors may be appearing in the event viewer, and sometimes jobs in the Queue Service will not show as processing or may fail completely.

While this issue has caused headaches for more than few customers, it is important to note that the issue with the Queue Service and the Event Service not starting in a timely fashion is not related to or caused by Microsoft Project Server. Rather it is due to the nature of virtualization and how the virtualized environments respond.

The good news is there is a fairly straight forward fix.

To date, I have not seen this issue occur on a physical server.

 

Just as the error message states, the error occurs because the virtual servers are unable to restart the Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service and Event Service in a timely manner.

I have used the following steps to successfully resolve the error:

1. Identify the drive on which ProjectServer was installed.

2. Open a command prompt on the front-end servers (where the error is occurring) and navigate to the following path:

C: \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\bin

 

Once you have arrived at the bin directory, type the following command:

Psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b –wait -force

 

Note: Since C: is the default path for the Project Server installation, C: has been used in this example. If a different drive letter has been used, use that drive letter instead.

 

This process will finalize any updates prior to implementing the fix.

3. Once this process has completed, open the registry editor

Start=>Run=>Regedit

 

Once the registry editor has been opened navigate to

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control

 

Here it will be necessary to create a new DWORD key with the following value:

ServicesPipeTimeout DWORD 60000 (decimal)

 

Note: 60000 = 60 Seconds.

 

4. Next, look for the WaitToKillServiceTimeout key – take note of its current value – and then change the value to 120000

 

Note: 120000=120 Seconds.

 

5. Reboot the Server.

Test by going to Start=>Run=>services.msc and examining the Microsoft Office ProjectServer Queue Service and Event Service. These services should now show as started, and assuming nothing else is wrong with the environment, the Queue Service should now be able to process jobs. The error messages in the event viewer should also have stopped.