Error communicating with Excel Services Application - Event ids 5231 5239 5240

SharePoint monitoring is very necessary and should be done on regular basis as it will give complete idea about any exceptions/errors/if any services are not running/if any servers are not responding etc. so while monitoring the servers, I came these following errors in the event viewer-

Event 5239 (Excel Services Application) of severity 'Error' occurred 10 more time(s) and was suppressed in the event log

Event 5231 (Excel Services Application) of severity 'Error' occurred 10 more time(s) and was suppressed in the event log

To verify this, I tried opening excel dashboards on each servers (WFE’s) to find out which server is the culprit. Before doing this, make sure that excel service application is in started mode as well as app pool is running.

Coming back to dashboard point, you will find the culprit server. Just restart that specific server and check the results. In my case, it fixed the issue and reference is as below:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513104(v=office.14).aspx

The above article will be indeed helpful in many scenarios as-

1.   Delayed load times for workbooks.

2.   Workbooks fail to load.

3.   This event appears in the event log: Event ID: 5231 Description: Unable to reach Excel Calculation Server <URL of machine> [Session: <session ID> User: <username>]

Possible resolutions-

1)   Restart excel calculations services

2)   Recycle app pool

3)   Make sure that the account you are using for excel calculation service is working properly i.e. not locked!

4)   Reboot the server

I hope the above info is helpful and will give some directions to resolve the issue.

If you have any queries/issues regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you.

Workbooks fail to load + Event 5231 + Event 5239 + Event 5240 + Error communicating with Excel Services Application + Unable to process the request = SharePoint 2010

Checking event logs as well as health analyzer reports on a daily basis or you can call it as SP check outs on a routine basis is a good practice to make your farm free from errors and take timely action on the reported errors.

I am maintaining this habit from a long time and with respect to this, I found some string of problems with respect to excel services. Let me explain here step by step so that all points will be covered and your issue will be resolved as soon as possible.

Farm topology:

5 front ends + 2 application servers + 2 SQL in cluster mode (SQL SERVER 2008 R2)  

SP VERSION: SharePoint Server 2010 with SP2

What I noticed in event logs?

Event ID: 2159: Event 5240 (Excel Services Application) of severity 'Error' occurred 11 more time(s) and was suppressed in the event log

Event Id: 2159: Event 5586 (SharePoint Foundation) of severity 'Error'

Occurred 22 more time(s) and was suppressed in the event log

ULS LOGS:

09/24/2013 22:40:15.02     w3wp.exe (0x2A2C) 0x28CC    Excel Services Application Web Front End 5240    Critical   

There was an error in communicating with Excel Calculation Services http://:SP2010/0a8875975aed471cb086cd8411bfde97/ExcelService*.asmx exception: An error has occurred. [Session: User:]

If I tried opening any excel file which has been set as browser enabled then getting the following error message:

Excel Services: Unable to process the request. Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again.

Followed MS best practices article but of no use:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513104(v=office.14).aspx

What i tried:

1)   Server reboot resulted in no change in the results

2)   Restarting excel services results in no change in the results

3)   IISRESET – no change.

Imp note:

1)   Make sure the account that we are using to host excel service application does not locked.

2)   Make sure the corresponding service account and an application pool account has sufficient permissions in SQL as well as for excel service application.

Resolution:

In my case, recycling the specific application pool which has been used for excel service application resolves the issue.

I you are not sure as how to identify the specific application pool as it will be a long guid of numbers. Don’t worry, it very simple- Three cheers to Eric Harlan for this article: http://www.ericharlan.com/Moss_SharePoint_2007_Blog/which-sharepoint-2010-web-application-pool-controls-which-service-account-a177.html

Multiple resolutions for this issue:-

1)   Stopped the application pool, wait for error to appear in ULS and start the app pool again.

2)   Disable the ASP.NET Impersonation again.

1.   How to check this-

2.   Open IIS manager (Run-inetmgr)

3.   Websites section

4.   SharePoint web services root

5.   Authentication section- double click on it

6.   Make sure the asp.net impersonation should not be enabled.

3)   Verify that Identity property of this application pool is setting to the SharePoint farm account like this (It should be domain\account.)

How to check this- Open IIS then go to “SharePoint Web Services Root” application pool

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.

Happy SharePoint to all of you!

Product applies to:

1)   SharePoint Server 2010

2)   SharePoint Foundation 2010

3)   SharePoint Server 2013

References:-

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513104(v=office.14).aspx

Excel Services Application not available - Event 5234

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513094(v=office.14).aspx

Excel Services Application save failed - Event 3348

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513095(v=office.14).aspx

Excel Services Application configuration database access failed - Event 5244

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513113(v=office.14).aspx

Excel Services Application memory allocation failed - Event 5256

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513109(v=office.14).aspx

Max memory configured for Excel Services Application exceeded - Event 5255

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513075(v=office.14).aspx