GeoServer – HTTP ERROR: 503

By David Crowther

• Question:

When I try to access the GeoServer Web Admin Homepage I get an HTTP ERROR: 503. What is causing this?

Answer:

The problem is that the webpage, in this case GeoServer’s Web Admin Page, is not available.

A possible cause of this could be that the GeoServer Web Service is not actually running. However, if you have explored that option, the ERROR: 503 issue can often happen when you first install GeoServer and can relate to the version of JAVA (JRE) that you have installed.

In this case try downloading a 32Bit version of JAVA (JRE). Then, within the GeoServer installation steps, when asked for a Valid JRE now choose the 32 bit install

Having chosen a 32Bit JAVA install, you may now find that the GeoServer Web Admin Page opens as expected: