“Cannot find an SPSite object” Error From PowerShell

Last week I learned something new about a well known error message. We’ve tried to access a SharePoint site collection / site via the Get-SPSite / Get-SPWeb cmdlets in a test environment, but got the errors:

Get-SPWeb : Cannot find an SPSite object that contains the following Id or Url: http://YourSharePoint

and

Get-SPSite : Cannot find an SPSite object that contains the following Id or Url: http://YourSharePoint

In my practice this means either you mistyped the URL (what the message really suggests), using the wrong protocol (HTTP instead of  HTTPS or the opposite one), or your user has not the required permission (like membership in the the SharePoint_Shell_Access role, you can add via the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet) in the content database. In this case the URL was right, and I have db_owner permissions on the DBs, so I had to look for another reason.

Calling the Get-SPWebApplication cmdlet returned the URL of  every web applications in the farm, however when I tried to list the site collections in any (!) of these web applications, like this:

$wa = Get-SPWebApplication http://YourSharePoint
$wa.Sites

it gave me this error on the screen:

An error occurred while enumerating through a collection: The HTTP service
located at
http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc is
unavailable.  This could be because the service is too busy or because no
endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the
address is correct and try accessing the service again later..

Similarly, by checking the stack trace (via the value of  $StackTrace) after invoking the Get-SPSite / Get-SPWeb cmdlets, I received an other evidence of the problem with the communication with token service:

   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.Http
ChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)

The corresponding details from ULS logs:

Entering BeginProcessing Method of Get-SPSite.
Leaving BeginProcessing Method of Get-SPSite.
Entering ProcessRecord Method of Get-SPSite.
SecurityTokenServiceSendRequest: RemoteAddress: ‘http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc’ Channel: ‘Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.IWSTrustChannelContract’ Action: ‘http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-trust/200512/RST/Issue’ MessageId: ‘urn:uuid:b7dfe754-fdd4-4177-bec6-f8992a097a6b’
SPSecurityContext: Request for security token failed with exception: System.ServiceModel.ServerTooBusyException: The HTTP service located at http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc is unavailable.  This could be because the service is too busy or because no endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the address is correct and try accessing the service again later. —> System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable.     at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)     — End of inner exception stack trace —    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Chann…
…els.HttpChannelUtilities.ProcessGetResponseWebException(WebException webException, HttpWebRequest request, HttpAbortReason abortReason)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.RequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)    Exception rethrown at [0]:      at System.Runtime.Remoting….
…Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)     at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.IWSTrustContract.Issue(Message message)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst, RequestSecurityTokenResponse& rstr)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurityContext.SecurityTokenForContext(Uri context, Boolean bearerToken, SecurityToken onBehalfOf, SecurityToken actAs, SecurityToken delegateTo, SPRequestSecurityTokenProperties properties)
An exception occurred when trying to issue security token: The HTTP service located at http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc is unavailable.  This could be because the service is too busy or because no endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the address is correct and try accessing the service again later..
Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletPipeBindException: Cannot find an SPSite object with Id or Url: http://YourSharePoint. —> System.ServiceModel.ServerTooBusyException: The HTTP service located at http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc is unavailable.  This could be because the service is too busy or because no endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the address is correct and try accessing the service again later. —> System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable.     at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)     — End of inner exception stack…
… trace —    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelUtilities.ProcessGetResponseWebException(WebException webException, HttpWebRequest request, HttpAbortReason abortReason)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.RequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage mess…
…age)    Exception rethrown at [0]:      at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)     at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.IWSTrustContract.Issue(Message message)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst, RequestSecurityTokenResponse& rstr)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurityContext.SecurityTokenForContext(Uri context, Boolean bearerToken, SecurityToken onBehalfOf, SecurityToken actAs, SecurityToken delegateTo, SPRequestSecurityTokenProperties properties)     at Microsoft.SharePoi…
…nt.SPSecurityContext.SecurityTokenForLegacyLoginContext(Uri context)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.InitUserToken(SPRequest request)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.SPSiteConstructor(SPFarm farm, Guid applicationId, Guid contentDatabaseId, Guid siteId, Guid siteSubscriptionId, SPUrlZone zone, Uri requestUri, String serverRelativeUrl, Boolean hostHeaderIsSiteName, SPUserToken userToken, Boolean appWebRequest, String appHostHeaderRedirectDomain, String appSiteDomainPrefix, String subscriptionName, String appSiteDomainId, Uri primaryUri)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, Boolean swapSchemeForPathBasedSites, SPUserToken userToken)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, SPUserToke…
…n userToken)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(String requestUrl)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPSitePipeBind.Read(Boolean exactUrl)     — End of inner exception stack trace —     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPSitePipeBind.Read(Boolean exactUrl)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletGetSite.InternalValidate()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdlet.ProcessRecord()
Error Category: InvalidData    Target Object  Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletGetSite  Details  NULL  RecommendedAction NULL
Leaving ProcessRecord Method of Get-SPSite.
Entering EndProcessing Method of Get-SPSite.
Leaving EndProcessing Method of Get-SPSite.

Checking the web server I found that the application pool “SecurityTokenServiceApplicationPool” was accidentally stopped, causing issues with the authentication. Restarting it solved my problem.

After solving the issue I played further with the token service, and stopped the web site for "SharePoint Web Services" in IIS, just to learn how the error messages differ in this case. Here is what I found.

The message for the failure of the the Get-SPSite / Get-SPWeb cmdlets is the same as the original case, however the stack trace ($StackTrace) is an other one:

   at System.Management.Automation.Internal.PipelineProcessor.SynchronousExecut
eEnumerate(Object input, Hashtable errorResults, Boolean enumerate)
   at System.Management.Automation.PipelineOps.InvokePipeline(Object input, Boo
lean ignoreInput, CommandParameterInternal[][] pipeElements, CommandBaseAst[] p
ipeElementAsts, CommandRedirection[][] commandRedirections, FunctionContext fun
cContext)
   at System.Management.Automation.Interpreter.ActionCallInstruction`6.Run(Inte
rpretedFrame frame)
   at System.Management.Automation.Interpreter.EnterTryCatchFinallyInstruction.
Run(InterpretedFrame frame)

Trying to enumerate the site collection in the web application (see above) results in this error:

An error occurred while enumerating through a collection: There was no
endpoint listening at
http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc that
could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP
action. See InnerException, if present, for more details..
At line:1 char:1
+ $wa.Sites
+ ~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Microsoft.Share…rePoint.SPS
   ite]:SPEnumerator`1) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadEnumeration

And finally the ULS trace for this scenario (as you can see this time for Get-SPWeb instead of Get-SPSite) :

Entering BeginProcessing Method of Get-SPWeb.
Leaving BeginProcessing Method of Get-SPWeb.
Entering ProcessRecord Method of Get-SPWeb.
SecurityTokenServiceSendRequest: RemoteAddress: ‘http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc’ Channel: ‘Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.IWSTrustChannelContract’ Action: ‘http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-trust/200512/RST/Issue’ MessageId: ‘urn:uuid:bc713eb8-c1f1-453c-b333-86ef8e4411a5’
SPSecurityContext: Request for security token failed with exception: System.ServiceModel.EndpointNotFoundException: There was no endpoint listening at http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details. —> System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server —> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:32843     at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)     at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address,…
… ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Exception& exception)     — End of inner exception stack trace —     at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream(TransportContext& context)     at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream()     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.WebRequestHttpOutput.GetOutputStream()     — End of inner exception stack trace —    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.WebRequestHttpOutput.GetOutputStream()     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.Send(TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.SendRequest(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.RequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout) …
…    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)    Exception rethrown at [0]:      at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)     at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.IWSTrustContract.Issue(Message message)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst, Re…
…questSecurityTokenResponse& rstr)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurityContext.SecurityTokenForContext(Uri context, Boolean bearerToken, SecurityToken onBehalfOf, SecurityToken actAs, SecurityToken delegateTo, SPRequestSecurityTokenProperties properties)
An exception occurred when trying to issue security token: There was no endpoint listening at http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details..
Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletPipeBindException: Cannot find an SPSite object that contains the following Id or Url: http://YourSharePoint. —> System.ServiceModel.EndpointNotFoundException: There was no endpoint listening at http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details. —> System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server —> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:32843     at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)     at System.Net.ServicePoint.Conne…
…ctSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Exception& exception)     — End of inner exception stack trace —     at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream(TransportContext& context)     at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream()     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.WebRequestHttpOutput.GetOutputStream()     — End of inner exception stack trace —    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.WebRequestHttpOutput.GetOutputStream()     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.Send(TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.SendRequest(Message message, TimeSpan timeo…
…ut)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.RequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)    Exception rethrown at [0]:      at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)     at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.IWSTrustContract.Issue(Message message) …
…    at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst, RequestSecurityTokenResponse& rstr)     at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustChannel.Issue(RequestSecurityToken rst)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurityContext.SecurityTokenForContext(Uri context, Boolean bearerToken, SecurityToken onBehalfOf, SecurityToken actAs, SecurityToken delegateTo, SPRequestSecurityTokenProperties properties)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurityContext.SecurityTokenForLegacyLoginContext(Uri context)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.InitUserToken(SPRequest request)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.SPSiteConstructor(SPFarm farm, Guid applicationId, Guid contentDatabaseId, Guid siteId, Guid siteSubscriptionId, SPUrlZone zone, Uri requestUri, String s…
…erverRelativeUrl, Boolean hostHeaderIsSiteName, SPUserToken userToken, Boolean appWebRequest, String appHostHeaderRedirectDomain, String appSiteDomainPrefix, String subscriptionName, String appSiteDomainId, Uri primaryUri)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, Boolean swapSchemeForPathBasedSites, SPUserToken userToken)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, SPUserToken userToken)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(String requestUrl)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPSitePipeBind.Read(Boolean exactUrl)     — End of inner exception stack trace —     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPSitePipeBind.Read(Boolean exactUrl)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletGetW…
…eb.InternalValidate()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdlet.ProcessRecord()
Error Category: InvalidData    Target Object  Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletGetWeb  Details  NULL  RecommendedAction NULL
Leaving ProcessRecord Method of Get-SPWeb.
Entering EndProcessing Method of Get-SPWeb.
Leaving EndProcessing Method of Get-SPWeb.

Hopefully these details help someone to solve the issue easier and faster when it comes.