Thursday, April 9, 2009

On MOSS server Contents Site & SSP are using same web application & search is broken

Issue:
In case we use single web application for Content & SSP in MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) & search breaks at some point.
We create a new SSP by creating another web application.
Now if we try to change associations to use the newly created SSP,
We are not able to do that because the content site is also a Shared Services "Administration Host"

Resolution:
Last good full farm backup when search was working, if we don't have it

Workaround:
1. As usual start with all possible backups (A full farm backup may fail due to this bad ssp)
2. Backup content databse attached to content site
3. Detach it from existing web application & attach to new web application
(stsadm -o restore may not work)
4. From Central admin>Application Management>Delete Site Collection
5. Delete /ssp/admin site collection
6. IISReset
7. Go to Shared Services Administration & change associations
8. Make new ssp Default
9. Delete old ssp without removing databases
(if we keep old ssp search on new ssp may not work)
10. Run full crawl of content sources & check search after it completes

Note:
We lose old ssp configurations for example Audiences
In case of major issues revert back to last good backup
NOT recommended on Production Servers

Total Pageviews