Recently, I have seen several “issues” after installing SharePoint 2010 SP1. The fix is very easy, but first let me describe the symptoms I have seen.
1. “The search application ‘Search Service Application’ on server MYSERVER did not finish loading. View the event logs on the affected server for more information.”
This error appears on the Search Service Application. Event Log on the server contains tons of errors like this:
Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Server
Date: 7/19/2011 5:01:22 PM
Event ID: 6481
Task Category: Shared Services
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: MYDOMAIN\svcuser
Computer: myserver.mydomain.local
Description:
Application Server job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (898667e4-126e-45d2-bb52-43f613669084).
Reason: The device is not ready.
Technical Support Details:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The device is not ready.
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.Synchronize()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerJob.ProvisionLocalSharedServiceInstances(Boolean isAdministrationServiceJob)
2. On a different server, the SharePoint needed to be upgraded from Standard to Enterprise (after SP1 has just been installed). After entering the license key, we got an “Unsuccessful” error on the User Interface, and this in the Event Log:
The synchronization operation of the search component: d289abde-9641-46d0-8d32-0345f1885704 associated to the search application: Search Service Application on server: BAIQATEST01 has failed. The component version is not compatible with the search database: Search_Service_Application_CrawlStoreDB_a737e7614f034544a8c1da6fe4a24f7b on server: BAIQATEST01. The possible cause for this failure is The database schema version is less than the minimum backwards compatibility schema version that is supported for this component. To resolve this problem upgrade this database.
The reason of these errors were the same in both cases: SharePoint 2010 Config Wizard should have been run after installing SP1. Once you run the Config Wizard, these errors disappear and everything starts to work fine – again!