How to Fix 'Runspace Pool Not in Open State' Error in WAC

Windows Admin Center is a locally deployed, browser-based app for managing Windows servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, as well as Windows 10 PCs. In this guide, you will learn how to fix Failed to create a scheduled task: Cannot perform the operation because the runspace pool is not in the open state. Please see how to install Winglet and how to install applications with Winglet CLI.

Windows Admin Center is a free product and is ready to use in production. When prompted with an error when trying to access WAC from other browsers saying the site is not secure.

See the following links for “How to setup Windows Admin Center, “How to install Chocolatey” and “How to install, upgrade and uninstall software with Chocolatey“.

Reason for the error “Cannot perform the operation because the runspace pool is not in the open state”

This problem occurs because there is no firewall rule that will allow Windows Admin Center access on the remote server.

Screenshot of Windows Admin Center displaying error notification for failed scheduled task creation with details of the error message.

To fix this issue, temporarily turn off the firewall on your device.

Note: This act is very UNSAFE

Windows Security interface displaying 'Firewall & network protection' settings with alerts indicating that Windows Defender Firewall is using potentially unsafe settings and that firewalls are turned off for both 'Domain network' and 'Private network'.

Then try to create your scheduled task. When the scheduled task is created successfully, then you have two methods to set up the firewall.

Please see “Failed to create a scheduled task: There is no disconnected command associated with the runspace“. Also, see the fix for “The following servers in this deployment are not part of the deployment Pool: Create an RDS Session Host and Collection“.

Method 1 to fix the Runspace Pool Issue

Create an Inbound Firewall rule via PowerShell.

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName „SmeInbounOpenException“ -Description „Windows Admin Center inbound port exception“ -Localport 6516 -Protocol TCP

Ensure to run PowerShell with Admin privilege, else it will FAIL 🙂

Screenshot of Windows PowerShell showing a command to create a new firewall rule named 'SmeInboundOpenException' for TCP protocol on port 6516, along with details of the rule configuration.

Here is the fix for “Application pool has been disabled or Changing identity user for IIS Application Pool (Event ID 5059)“, and the “Fix Error 183: The specified image is currently being serviced by another DISM operation“.

Method 2 to fix

You can also create this rule via the Windows Firewall (Windows Defender Firewall and Advanced Security. The firewall windows can be accessed via the following path

Control Panel
System and Security
Windows Defender Firewall

Windows Defender Firewall settings page showing options to update and configure firewall protection on a Windows PC.

This will open the Windows Firewall “Advanced Settings and Advanced Security” as shown below. In this method, you have got two options

You can choose to exclude WAC from the firewall or create a firewall rule with for the TCP/IP

Screenshot of Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security showing the New Inbound Rule Wizard. The 'Rule Type' options for 'Program' and 'Port' are highlighted.

I will opt to go with the option to exclude the program option and select the the

%ProgramFiles%\Windows Admin Center\sme.exe

Screenshot of the New Inbound Rule Wizard in Windows, showing options for selecting a program path and executable name.

Click to allow connections to the program as shown below

Screenshot of the 'New Inbound Rule Wizard' in a network security configuration, highlighting the option 'Allow the connection' with a description of its implications, alongside options to allow secure connections or block connections.

Select the profile it should apply to. Since this is a test environment. I will select all the profiles as shown below.

Enter the firewall name and description of the rule and click on Finish

Screenshot of the 'New Inbound Rule Wizard' in a Windows application, showing a form to specify the rule name and an optional description field.

Either of the options you chose, you will and the same end result.

I hope you found this blog post helpful on how to fix Failed to create a scheduled task: Cannot perform the operation because the runspace pool is not in the open state. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.