Clearing Cache from FE

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:

1. Stop the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service (Found in Windows Services)
2. 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 …