SharePoint 2013: Unable to reach Excel Calculation Services

Problem

You review a SharePoint 2013 web front end server's Application log and see the following:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Server
Date:          [date/time]
Event ID:      2159
Task Category: Unified Logging Service
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          [app service acct]
Computer:      WFE
Description:
Event 5239 (Excel Services Application) of severity 'Error' occurred 13 more 
time(s) and was suppressed in the event log
Event Xml:
...

and

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-SharePoint Products-Excel Services Application
Date:          [date/time]
Event ID:      5231
Task Category: Web Front End
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          [app service acct]
Computer:      WFE
Description:
Unable to reach Excel Calculation Services 
http:/WFE:32843/92240077fe924bf7b5f2b90f344db871/ExcelService*.asmx.
Event Xml:

You then click the URL presented in the error message and see a Server Unavailable 503 error page:

Solution

1. Launch IIS Manager
2. In the Connections panel, expand the tree under the server.
3. Select Applications Pools.
4. Look through the list of application pools to find one that has stopped.
5. Select it.
6. In the Actions panel at right, click View Applications.
7. Look in the Physical path column for an application having ExcelCalculationServer in its path.
8. If you find this, start this application pool; otherwise, repeat this for the next stopped application pool until you find it.
9. After the application is started, click on the URL again: this time you will see a server error, potentially dangerous request.  This is OK.

References

• Unable to reach Excel Calculation Services
• Configure Excel Services in SharePoint Server 2013
• Excel Web Access: No Excel Calculation Services is available in the farm, Unable to reach Excel Calculation Services, There was an error in communicating with Excel Calculation Services

Notes

• None