SharePoint Search Service 2013 Error

  • Article

There are some common SharePoint Search Service Application errors which you might encounter when you are working with the service.

Administrative status     Paused for: Index reset
Administrative status     Paused for: External request, Index reset
Administrative status     Paused for: External request

You may find these errors when you navigate to:
Central Administration and Manage service applications
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Then to Search Service Application

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You can find service error details in the Search Service Application: Search Administration page
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Common Resolution for These problems

If you see those errors, first you can do a quick workaround and see whether it's resolved.

  • Most of the time restating these services will resolve the problem but if its an index problem it is better to delete the corrupted index.
  • Go to each node and locate the following path:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\Search\Nodes\<HEX ID>\IndexComponent**<N>**\storage\data\

Delete all files and folders inside the data folder. Restart the all services (SharePoint Timer Service,SharePoint Search Host Controller) again.

  • Check the problem of the search service by using following the PowerShell scripts:

REF : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn745901(v=office.15).aspx

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication –Identity <ID>
using the following command you can check whether search service is paused.
$ssa.IsPaused() -ne 0
If it is returning true try to restart the the search service using following powershell script.

$ssa.ForceResume(True) If it is returning false try to execute following scripts to find out the actual reason for not running.

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x01) -ne 0  Cause: A change in the number of crawl components or crawl databases is in progress.  Action: Wait until the topology change completes. 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x02) -ne 0  Cause: A backup or restore procedure is in progress.  Action: Wait until the backup or restore completes.  After the procedure completes, run the command $ssa.ForceResume(0x02) to verify. For more information 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x04) -ne 0  Cause: A backup of the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is in progress.  Action: Wait until the backup completes.  After the VSS backup completes, run the command $ssa.ForceResume(0x02) to verify.  ---------------   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x08) -ne 0  Cause: One or more servers in the search topology that host query components are offline.  Action: Wait until the servers are available again. 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x20) -ne 0  Cause: One or more crawl databases in the search topology are being rebalanced.  Action: Wait until the operation completes. 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x40) -ne 0  Cause: One or more link databases in the search topology are being rebalanced.  Action: Wait until the operation completes. 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x80) -ne 0  Cause: An administrator has manually paused the Search service application.  Action: If you know the reason, you can resume the Search service application. Run the command $ssa.resume() to resume the Search service application.  If you don’t know the reason, find out why someone has manually paused the Search service application. 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x100) -ne 0  Cause: The search index is being deleted.  Action: Wait until the search index is deleted. 

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x200) -ne 0 
The search index is being repartitioned. 
Wait until the operation completes.