Moss 2007 SSP Error "Search application '{0}' is not ready." - sql-server

Question

I'm trying to fix a broken SSP on a MOSS 2007 site. The problem I am running into manifests itself as follows...
In the SSP "Search Settings" page I get this message:
The search service is currently offline. Visit the Services on Server page in SharePoint Central Administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress.
In the SSP "User Profiles and Properties" page I get this in red at the top:
An error has occurred while accessing the SQL Server database or the Office SharePoint Server Search service. If this is the first time you have seen this message, try again later. If this problem persists, contact your administrator.
I have contacted my administrator, but that is currently me and it turns out I don't know any more than I do about the problem.
In the Event Log I get the following message:
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.IndexingScheduleJobDefinition (ID 8714973c-0514-4e1a-be01-e1fe8bc01a18) threw an exception. More information is included below.
Search application '{0}' is not ready.
The Event ID is 6398, which isn't as useful as I had hoped, but I don find the message interesting in that it looks like a String.format call where the substituted value is missing. Unfortunately no interesting in that it tells me how to fix the problem.
Sharepoint's own log offers this:
UserProfileConfigManager.GetImportStatus() failed to obtain crawl status: System.InvalidOperationException: Search application '{0}' is not ready.
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchApi..ctor(WellKnownSearchCatalogs catalog, SearchSharedApplication application)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchSharedApplication.get_SearchApi()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileConfigManager.c__DisplayClass3.b__0()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Diagnostics.FirstChanceHandler.ExceptionFilter(Boolean fRethrowException, TryBlock tryBlock, FilterBlock filter, CatchBlock catchBlock, FinallyBlock finallyBlock)
I have tried stopping and starting the search service, removing and re-adding it from the administration panel, and pretty much every other thing I could find to do with Sharepoint's own administrative tools, which leads me to believe the problem here may be database or permissions related.
There was a second SSP set up on the same server, which I think may have been part of the original cause of the problem, but removing it has made no difference.

Answer 1

Maybe you can make sense of this - I'm new to sharepoint, so it makes little sense to me:
"Service Shared, after looking for the solution much encontre this forum where a person tapeworm the same problem. After reading a infinity of commentaries, which I made to solve the problem was to create a new shared service, later it assigns the other applications to him and later I put it like predetermined, it initiates the import of profiles, and later the hearings, clearly first I did it in a site of tests just in case something happened, later eliminates the First Shared Service and finally the error I am solved. The snapshot of the Registry of the configuration of the application in the data base has been stored correctly. Context: application `SharedServices2 ′"
You didn't mention anything about tapeworms, so maybe you're running a newer version.
Translation of:
http://tecnologiainformaticait.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/error-sharepoint-search-application-0-is-not-ready/
Personally, I'd try the msdn forums.

Answer 2

So it seems that the problem was a corrupted Shared Service Provider ( no idea how it came about, but there you go ) and the only working solution I could find was to delete it and start again.
I suspect there may have been a more elegant fix by changing something in the database somewhere, but I don't know the Sharepoint Database model well enough to find it in the time available.

Answer 3

As an additional warning to this, if you do delete your SSP you may find that it doesn't delete cleanly so that you get a bunch of SQL server tasks that still try to run on an empty database, which can cause problems if you have anything else running on the same database server.

Answer 4

Same problem. My DBA delete correctly the search database and it still doesn't work.
I'll post the solution on my blog when I found something.
For the moment, we open a MS call.
Created a new SSP
2- In central admin, click on shared Services Administration
3- Click on "Change Associations" and move all the web apps to the new SSP
Choose a new search_DB and select the good server that will index if you are in a farm
Problems created by this operation:
We notice that we lose statistics information for our sites.
if you tried this solution, give us your feed back too
Thanks.
http://dejacquelot.blogspot.com/