It turns out there isn’t a lot of information about this
specific issue available via your search engine of choice. I was able to find
some similar information but that was related purely to the User Provisioning
Service. So I went with the old tried
and true:
- I reset the Index
- I deleted/recreated the Search Service App
Neither of these worked so I went back to the 2 blog
articles I found that were similar the issue I was seeing. Turns out that this happens when “the
contents of the file system cache on the front-end servers is newer than the
contents of the configuration database”.
This could happen if you’ve recently been through a system upgrade or
recovery.
Resolution:
The file system cache on all FE’s (in my case, this was just
one server) on which the timer service is running needs to be cleared.
Below is the step by step provided by Microsoft in this KB
Article for doing this:
- Stop the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service (Found in Windows Services)
- Navigate to the cache folder
In Windows Server 2008, the configuration cache is in the
following location:
Drive:\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config
In Windows Server 2003, the configuration cache is in the
following location:
Drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config
Locate the folder that has the file "Cache.ini"
(Note: The Application Data folder may be hidden. To view
the hidden folder, change the folder options as required)
3. Back up the Cache.ini file.
4. Delete all the XML configuration files in the GUID folder.
Do this so that you can verify that the GUID folder is replaced by new XML
configuration files when the cache is rebuilt.
5. Note When you empty the configuration cache in the GUID
folder, make sure that you do not delete the GUID folder and the Cache.ini file
that is located in the GUID folder.
6. Double-click the Cache.ini file.
7. On the Edit menu, click Select All. On the Edit menu,
click Delete. Type 1, and then click Save on the File menu. On the File menu, click
Exit.
8. Start the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service
9. Note The file system cache is re-created after you perform
this procedure. Make sure that you perform this procedure on all servers in the
server farm.
10. Make sure that the Cache.ini file in the GUID folder now
contains its previous value. For example, make sure that the value of the
Cache.ini file is not 1.
In my case – it worked like a champ. I will freely admit that I made 2 distinct
copies of the cache …
