Problem getting search to work

[KoalaBear]

The search service is failing, with the evengt log recording "The update
cannot be started because the content sources cannot be accessed." (Event ID
2424). The search account is different to the SharePoint admin account, and
I have been adding increasing levels of permissions to the search account,
still to no avail - currently it even has system and machine administrator
level permissions and is db_owner of all of the SharePoint databases! Even
with that I keep on getting the same message.

What am I missing? How can I fix this to get search working?

Thanks!

[Sundar Narasiman]

Please make sure that the content access acount has enough privileges for
accessing the content sources

--
Thanks & Regards,
Sundar Narasiman, MCAD
Blog: http://dotnetbuzz.spaces.live.com/

[Daniel Bugday]

Which version of SharePoint?

/Daniel Bugday

"KoalaBear" <Koal...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:27C16A07-2BC3-4FC4...@microsoft.com...

[KoalaBear]

Thanks, Sundar. And what privileges are necessary?

[KoalaBear]

Thanks, Daniel. I'm using SharePoint Services 3.0.

[KoalaBear]

This is still not working. I'm trying to get search to work on SharePoint
Services 3.0. I am using a separate account for the search and site admin. I
tried setting search up with minimal permissions, but it didn't work, and
gradually kept on raising permissions for the search account, even to system
administrator and dbo for the databases involved, and it still doesn't work,
saying "the update cannot be started because the content sources cannot be
accessed." (Event ID 2424).

What are the minimal permissions for the search account needed to get search
working?

Thanks!

[Xiaoan]

Did you ever get an answer for this? I am having the same issue.

[KoalaBear]

No, Im frustrated that I haven't had any answers on this here, or anywhere
else in looking around the web. I can't find a checklist saying "you must
have these permissions on the system and in the DB for this to work" or any
other clues that have been helpful! It's very frustrating because I've spent
so much time on this, and have gotten nowhere.

Sorry, I wish I could help!

When I do find out how to get WSS 3.0 search working I'll post my findings
here!

[mega...@gmail.com]

I have been struggling with this and similar errors for almost a week.

I'm not sure what the exact fix was, but it may have been the last
thing I tried which was:
** Make the search and content accounts on the Search Config page the
same account (search account)
(although I have another server with the accounts different and it
works just fine...)

Here are the other things I have done:
1. setting both search and content services to svcSPSearch (I tried
this first, but it didn't work, so it must be a combination of this
and something below)
see:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sharepoint.setup_and_administration/browse_thread/thread/5e98da1d2b7860b5/1681956bd832c1a3%231681956bd832c1a3
didn't work
2. used Dcom Config to set svc account permissions on all servers
see: http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/steventap/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=21
most accounts were already there - i added the wss_wpg and/or
wss_wpg_admin account in a few places
3. added reghack for msv_0 with multivalue: servername [carriage
return] http://servername
see: http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/comments/3297169.aspx
and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861 (used method 2 - seemed
less harmful to other things)
ran a full crawl
STARTED RECEIVING RESULTS ON ONE SERVER W/ PROBLEMS AT THIS POINT
ONE SERVER STILL HAVING ISSUES (may be I needed to redo step 1 at this
point and would have had joy!)
4. tried adding disableloopbackcheck reghack to hermes
and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861 (used method 1)
still no go
didn't do full crawl (during work hours)
did try restarting search service and iis - no go
5. checked WSS_search sites to make sure svcSPsearch had write access
- looks like it already has dbo access - added datawriter to see if it
made a difference - it didn't
6. tried logging in as svcSPSearch and/or svcSPContent and configuring
IE proxy settings
see:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/19/what-every-sharepoint-administrator-needs-to-know-about-alternate-access-mappings-part-2-of-3.aspx
- mistake #5
still no go
7. tried accessing websites logged in as as svcSPSearch and
svcSPContent
can access just fine
8. at one point, tried restarting search service - wouldn't start
(access denied), set logon as to local service instead of svcSPSearch
and it started - checked central administrator - search still working
under SPSearch account - all is good for now.
9. read somewhere that it takes 2 full crawls to create the index -
ran crawls last night - didn't make a difference
10. rebooted server
11. reviewed and researched error logs found at:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions
\12\LOGS
12. checked virtual directory permissions - compared to working server
- nothing different
13. checked IIS permisisons/security/settings - compared to working
server - nothing different
14. tried setting search service back to svcspsearch instead of local
service in computer management - no go
15. tried setting search and content accounts to both be search under
central admin search config settings - for some reason - this worked -
all the sudden started working - i swear i already tried that, so it
may be a combination of other things above - but it is working - yea!

Things I haven't tried:
1. recreating site - bottom of this url:
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/comments/3297169.aspx
2. followed all of this:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/8208d71e-7c41-4845-bc06-95429de02cf11033.mspx?mfr=true

Good luck!
I hope I saved at least one person some time.
-Megan

[Kuryakin]

OMG Megan, but you are a trooper. I hope someone truly appreciates you for
the work you do :)

Thanks a lot for this. When I get a littl emore energy I will come back
here and try to make sense of all of this.

All I know is that search used to work and now it doesn't. I have not
really done anything that I can think of that would cause it to stop. I have
checked the account permissions in SQL server and they seem fine. I can't
understand why any of them would have changed, as I certainly didn't do
anything.

I did have some DCOM errors, not sure where they came form wither, however I
think I have fixed them ...we'll see.

I hope someone at MS picks up on the fact that this is a serious issue.
Thank God I'm only in development at the moment and it is not a big deal.

Thanks again!

[Kuryakin]

Latest Update: OK, so I tried the following from Megan's long list:

15. tried setting search and content accounts to both be search under
central admin search config settings - for some reason - this worked -
all the sudden started working - i swear i already tried that, so it
may be a combination of other things above - but it is working - yea!

Yes, this did actually work, however it created a nother problem for me. My
site allows both anonymous and authenticated access ( a really cool new
feature of Sharepoint BTW) and now, every time I go to the site I get the
Windows Authentication dialog box - not supposed to happen, as at this point
I am an anonymous user and should only get the dialog box if I click on the
sign in link. I know there are various reasons why this can happen, but I'm
pretty sure I haven't triggered this through any other action, so I'm going
to assume that it is as a result of the above. I will know shortly.

I am now going to try simply stopping and restarting the the search service
(and specifiying the correct accounts for search and content crawling). My
understanding is the SharePoint should rebuild the search database and
permission it appropriately.

One observation I have made through all of this is that pateince is required
when modifying anything search related. ...Little Bo Peep kind of patince :)
...therefore, I suspect when Megan was troubleshooting, she didn't wait long
enough between attempts to figure out what was wrong and assuned that she
hadn't fixed the problem, when in fact she might have, if she had only waited
- 24 hours might be required between changes ?? perhaps a Microsoftie (or
someone else in th know can comment?)

...I will post again when I have anything new to share.

[Bell@discussions.microsoft.com Mark Bell]

I'm having the same problems exactly (event 2424), been trying to fix it for
2 weeks.

[Gja...@gmail.com]

I had the same problem (2424). I removed all farm level search
settings (central admin). That helped.

[Kuryakin]

Update: Sorry to anyone who has kept an eye on this thread, as I did get
search to work and I should have posted this update earlier.

The solution, as it turns out was as listed below from Megan's list:

> 15. tried setting search and content accounts to both be search under
> central admin search config settings - for some reason - this worked -
> all the sudden started working - i swear i already tried that, so it
> may be a combination of other things above - but it is working - yea!

I'm not sure what the authentication problem I was having was, but it was
definately unrelated to the above change, as it was specific to my laptop
....must have been some setting in i.e. or due to password caching. Setting
the search and content accounts to be the same definately resolved the issue
for me.

...C

[mjd...@gmail.com]

Hey everybody, getting to this "late" but my question is this... are
you setting the Service Account and Content Access Account to the same
thing?? I thought the Service Account that search is running under
should be an Administrator and the Content Access Account should be a
normal user.

Are you setting them both the same and as an Administrator or just a
User?

Thanks for the help.

[rebec...@gmail.com]

On Aug 23, 9:07 pm, megans...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have been struggling with this and similar errors for almost a week.
>
> I'm not sure what the exact fix was, but it may have been the last
> thing I tried which was:
> ** Make the search and content accounts on the Search Config page the
> same account (search account)
> (although I have another server with the accounts different and it
> works just fine...)
>
> Here are the other things I have done:
> 1. setting both search and content services to svcSPSearch (I tried
> this first, but it didn't work, so it must be a combination of this
> and something below)

> see:http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sharepoint.setup_and_...

> didn't work
> 2. used Dcom Config to set svc account permissions on all servers

> see:http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/steventap/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.asp...

> most accounts were already there - i added the wss_wpg and/or
> wss_wpg_admin account in a few places
> 3. added reghack for msv_0 with multivalue: servername [carriage
> return] http://servername
> see:http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/comments/3297169.aspx

> andhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861(used method 2 - seemed

> less harmful to other things)
> ran a full crawl
> STARTED RECEIVING RESULTS ON ONE SERVER W/ PROBLEMS AT THIS POINT
> ONE SERVER STILL HAVING ISSUES (may be I needed to redo step 1 at this
> point and would have had joy!)
> 4. tried adding disableloopbackcheck reghack to hermes

> andhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861(used method 1)

> still no go
> didn't do full crawl (during work hours)
> did try restarting search service and iis - no go
> 5. checked WSS_search sites to make sure svcSPsearch had write access
> - looks like it already has dbo access - added datawriter to see if it
> made a difference - it didn't
> 6. tried logging in as svcSPSearch and/or svcSPContent and configuring
> IE proxy settings

> see:http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/19/what-every-sharep...

> 2. followed all of this:http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/8208d71e-7...

>
> Good luck!
> I hope I saved at least one person some time.
> -Megan

Thank you SOOO much Megan! I've been struggling with search not
working for a couple of months now, and it's finally running!!! What
worked for me were the proxy settings - number 6 on your list.

I signed on to the server with my SharePoint user account and switch
that off. Then I asked our Network Administrator not to allow my
server to request the Automatic Detection via the DNS.

I also turned off the following setting:
On my Local Area connection in its TCP/IP settings in the DNS tab, I
turned off "Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS suffix"

I suppose this will only have an effect on Network that have a DNS
records like WPAD.yourdomain pointing to a Auto Detect proxy script.

[AndresH]

Hi guys,
had you try using domail accounts?

[mega...@gmail.com]

Hi guys -
I had this happen on another server today. It started happening after
I enabled Kerberos. Changing both the search and content accounts to
search (yes, they are domain accounts) worked again. I agree, it's not
best practice, but it does work. And it might have something to do
with Kerberos. So if you'd rather use ntlm authentication and a search
and a content account - that may be another option. Good luck.
-Megan