Troubleshooting: IIS Integrated Pipeline Mode Resulting in a 500 Internal Error – SecureAuth Support

Version Affected: All

Overview

A SecureAuth realm shows a 500 Internal Error and will not load.

Cause

One cause is that the realm's Internet Information Services (IIS) Application Pool is set to Classic managed pipeline mode instead of Integrated.

The screenshot below shows the friendly error page a browser displays for this issue, reporting an HTTP 500 error.

Browser friendly error page reporting the website cannot display the page, HTTP 500.

Checking Windows Event Viewer shows Event ID 5186 (source WAS), reporting that a worker process serving the affected Application Pool was shut down due to inactivity — confirming the pool is timing out.

Windows Event Viewer showing Event ID 5186 from source WAS, reporting a worker process serving the application pool was shut down due to inactivity.

Resolution

To resolve this:

Open IIS Manager and go to Application Pools.

The screenshot below shows the Application Pools list, with the affected pool's Managed Pipeline Mode column reading Classic.

IIS Application Pools list showing a pool with Managed Pipeline Mode set to Classic.

Right-click the affected Application Pool and select Advanced Settings.

Application Pools list with a pool right-clicked, showing Advanced Settings highlighted in its context menu.

Under (General), set Managed Pipeline Mode to Integrated, then click OK.

Advanced Settings dialog with the Managed Pipeline Mode drop-down open, showing Integrated and Classic options.

SecureAuth Knowledge Base Articles provide information based on specific use cases and may not apply to all appliances or configurations. Be advised that these instructions could cause harm to the environment if not followed correctly or if they do not apply to the current use case.

Customers are responsible for their own due diligence prior to utilizing this information and agree that SecureAuth is not liable for any issues caused by misconfiguration directly or indirectly related to SecureAuth products.