The converter framework returned the following error: CE_BACKENDUNAVAILABLE

Actually the exact error message was the following:

Errors: The attempt to create a page from that document failed with the following error: Converting the document to a page failed. The converter framework returned the following error: CE_BACKENDUNAVAILABLE

Need to publish a word document as web page?  SharePoint 2010 can do this out of the box and has been able to do this since SharePoint 2007.

Before you can do this you have to make sure you’ve configured the following services and made note of their port numbers:

• Document Conversions Launcher Service
• Document Conversions Load Balancer Service (this service must be configured first)

Note:  These services are normally run on application servers, not on the web front-ends

You must make sure you put exclusions (in-bound) for these ports (TCP) on your application server otherwise you will receive the error message I outlined above during an attempt at a conversion.  SharePoint 2010 does not automatically configure the firewall to open the ports for these services and unless you disabled the firewall (which I hope you haven’t) the ports are blocked.

If you don’t have the “Convert Document” menu item then there are a few steps for you to perform so it shows up in the Document Libraries of the Web Application.

• In Central Administration select General Application Settings | External Service Connections | Configure document conversions
• Select the Web Application you wish to configure
• Select Yes to Enable Document Conversions for this site
• Select a Load Balancer Server
• Select a Conversion Schedule to specify the frequency of the timer job
• In the Converter Settings click Customize “From Word Document to Web Page” (docx into html)
• Accept the defaults and click OK
• Click OK on the Configure Document Conversions page

If you convert a document it will end up in the Pages library of your site once the conversion is complete.  You can either wait for it to complete or submit a job.