Service Application Unavailable

I was trying to extend a IIS virtual server as a Window SharePoint Services site. After successfully extending the virtual server, the browser was displaying above error message when I was trying to pick a template for the site.

None of the pages from _layouts\1033 directory was working. To test wether the DNS entry is correct, I added a hello.htm file that contains hello world text and the page was rendering fine.

I did stop and start the virtual server few times and couldn’t get it working. Unfortunately I couldn’t restart the IIS that given time, due to it was a production environment.

After I manage to restart the IIS, it was working fine. So the thing I learn from this was, don’t just depend on stoping and starting the virtual server. Restart IIS if you get the same error message.