PDM Web2 Authentication
If your SOLIDWORKS PDM Web2 online portal was working, but now throws and error ‘HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable’ or one of these other behaviors. Then this article is for you.
The cause of this error is typically due to a change or mismatch to the windows user account that has authenticated the application pool for the web server. To update or change the account used by the server to resolve this error, perform the following steps:
NOTE: If you aren’t sure which credentials to use or they are not working, skip to the next procedure
Open IIS Manager
Access the Internet Information Servers (IIS) Manager. This is typically located on the server that hosts the SolidWorks PDM Archive Server service.
Under Application Pools select SOLIDWORKS PDM Web2 and then click Advanced Settings
Change Identity
Select the ellipsis for ‘Identity’ under the Process Model Heading.
Choose Identity
Select ‘Custom Account’.
- Click ‘Set’
- Enter credentials for a Windows user account with sufficient permissions, including password
- Click OK on all dialogs to accept all changes
Confirm Access
Reload the SOLIDWORKS PDM Web2 login page, you should now have access to the vault.
If you do not know your credentials or if your credentials are denied, follow the remaining steps to confirm or correct the authenticated user account for Web2.
Computer Management
Launch Computer Management from the Windows Start menu. Right-click to select the option or search for "Computer Management"
Reset Password
From the Computer Management console, expand Local Users and Groups.
- Select the ‘Users’ folder.
- Right click on the account you are using for authentication
- Choose ‘Set Password.’ (Note, the user account shown here is an example using a username of Web2 User Account)
Select New Password
Enter the new or the expected password for this account and click OK.
Expand Groups
Click on the Groups node. We will add your user account to both the IIS_USERS group and the Administrators group or confirm it is already there.
Add to Administrators Group
To add your user account, right click on the group and select ‘Add to Group’
Select the Account
- Click the ‘Add’ button to add your user to the group.
- Add your username
- Click OK
Other possible errors in Web2 due to incorrect user Authentication include.
- Repeatedly show the login page
- Stop responding after entering the login credentials
- Open successfully upon log in, but then fails to navigate between folders or stops responding when viewing file details (such as previewing the file).
- Displays ‘Sorry, no thumbnail preview available for this file’ when previewing SOLIDWORKS files
- Displays ‘Could not open database. This could happen if the network connection is broken or if the database has been removed’
- Displays ‘SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0’
- Displays ‘SyntaxError: Invalid character’
- Displays ‘Error! [object Object]’
Technical Support
If you have any questions or experience unexpected behavior, feel free to reach out to MLC CAD Systems technical support.