How system administrators can optimize IIS 4.0 or IIS 5.0 to prevent an "HTTP Error 500-13 Server too busy" error message

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This article was previously published under Q248037

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2008. IIS 7.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx)

For more information about IIS 7.0, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1 (http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1)

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SYMPTOMS

When you connect to a computer running Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 or Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0, you may receive the following error message:

HTTP Error 500-13 - Server too busy

The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site's configured capacity.

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CAUSE

The server cannot satisfy the request due to the internet traffic or processor utilization that the server is experiencing.

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WORKAROUND

Several steps can be taken to optimize server performance. Please see the list of references in the "More Information" section for additional information.

You may want to consider multiple servers to service the volume of traffic and use Windows Load Balancing to distribute the load.

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MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about performance tuning, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

235461 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235461/ ) Enhancing performance in Internet Information Server 4.0

Tuning Internet Information Server Performance

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/IIS3/tuning.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/IIS3/tuning.mspx)

For tuning tips on IIS 4.0 (many of which are still valid), download the self-extracting document "Tuning Parameters for High-Volume Sites" from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767908.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767908.aspx)

For ASP tips and tricks for high-volume servers, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web sites::

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727078.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727078.aspx)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms951773.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms951773.aspx)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa141406(office.10).aspx (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa141406(office.10).aspx)

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