Event log errors: 6481 and 6398

Constant errors of this nature (1400+ per day):

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server Shared Services
Event ID: 6481
Date: 4/13/2009
Time: 1:46:43 PM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
Application Server job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (8c711cc4-5b7f-4b74-aaec-c6d268a36cd3).

Reason: Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B

Techinal Support Details:
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040D1B): Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.SynchronizeDefaultContentSource(IDictionary applications)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.Synchronize()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerJob.ProvisionLocalSharedServiceInstances(Boolean isAdministrationServiceJob)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category: Timer
Event ID: 6398
Date: 4/13/2009
Time: 1:59:03 PM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.IndexingScheduleJobDefinition (ID ff276992-79c2-4aea-9aee-c1c6663ba9da) threw an exception. More information is included below.

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


These instructions worked for me:

1. stsadm -o osearch -action stop
   1. Warning: The Office SharePoint Server Search service that was enabled on this server will uninstall and all index files for all SSPs will be deleted. Are you sure you want to permanently delete all data in the index for all SSPs? [y/n]
2. NOTE: Only do this if you have not crawled / indexed content that cannot be re-indexed. If this is the case, then you open a support ticket with MSFT and work through it. Otherwise, hit Y
3. Now issue: stsadm -o osearch -action start -role index
   1. You may receive the errror 'start' action failed. Additional information: the handle is invalid. Wait 30-60 secs and re-issue the command. It should go through fine.
4. Open Central Admin - select your SSP
5. Check / validate your search service configuration.

Full article here.

That stopped the annoying event log errors, but I noticed of course that Search now no longer worked. I got a few different error messages, one was:
Your search cannot be completed because of a service error. Try your search again or contact your administrator for more information.

To resolve, I did:
1. Opened Central Admin
2. In the Application Tab went to Create or Configure this farm's shared services
3. Clicked the drop down for my SSP, and clicked edit
4. Re-specified the Index server.

The index server pointer apparently got whacked. After I re-entered the Index Server, searches worked fine again - were even speedy. I did not need to force a full crawl, although that may be a good idea.

M

Update:
Noticed today that the next day my MOSS started throwing more errors of the same ilk:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server Shared Services
Event ID: 6481
Date: 4/15/2009
Time: 4:10:11 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SMARTCENTER
Description:
Application Server job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (8c711cc4-5b7f-4b74-aaec-c6d268a36cd3).

Reason: Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B

Techinal Support Details:
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040D1B): Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.SynchronizeDefaultContentSource(IDictionary applications)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.Synchronize()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerJob.ProvisionLocalSharedServiceInstances(Boolean isAdministrationServiceJob)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Looked all over and couldnt find a solution related to MOSS 2007. So, I re-ran the stsadm commands that I had as above. Once that completed I logged into Central Admin. Had all kinds of Search related errors. Event log had this:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office Server Search
Event Category: Gatherer
Event ID: 10032
Date: 4/15/2009
Time: 4:31:22 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SMARTCENTER
Description:
Could not create a database session.

Context: Application 'd28dc583-1602-4488-8f5e-8f7c28900afe'

Details:
The database connection string is not available. (0xc0041228)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I then went to Central Admin > Operations > Services on Server > Office Sharepoint Server Search and checked the "Use this server for serving Search Queries." (I have single server farm.)

Once I did that, all seems back to normal and event log is clean.

Im going to reboot tonite to make sure all remains well.