Sharepoint and Full Text Search

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Phandalyon

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Having trouble enabling Full Text Search in Sharepoint for SBS Server 2003.

I have followed these instructions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837367

Everything went smoothly up untill the "Install Service Pack 3a" step. We already are running with SP4 on this server, so of course the upgrade to 3a fails.

The error we are recieving in the Sharepoint administration area is:
"The Database This Server Is Using Does Not Support Search"

The other IT guy and myself have been digging around on an off for a few weeks now on this issue and we can't find a way around it.

This KB article addresses the issues we are having:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823377/

Step 14 talks about service pack upgrades. I have tried rerunning SP4 and the Microsoft Search checkbox does not show up.

Search does seem to be successfully installed as it does show up for other SQL functions, it is only Sharepoint that it is missing from.

Has anyone succesfully enabled Full Text Search in Sharepoint or have any experience with this problem? We are reinstalling full text search right now just to make sure it is installed properly.

I will update here if I think of what else we have done.
 
I've seen something like this before, it was due to search being installed in the default instance of SQL, not the sharepoint instance.

You can check by using the Enterprise Manager
 
Thanks for the info, I will take a look tomorrow and see if that will help out. I appreciate the quick response.
 
OK. It appears you are dead on Pigster. The full text search does seem to be installed in SQL but the sharepoint is not seeing it. We have converted sharepoint over to SQL, but I still can not get it to work.

Is there a trick to getting search installed in the specific sharepoint instance?

Thanks
 
Just follow step 8 carefully:

On the Instance Name page, click to clear the Default check box. In the Instance name list, click SHAREPOINT, and then click Next.
 
Thanks again. I am out of town for the next couple of weeks, but my compatriot is going to be playing around with it, I will send him a link so he can double check this.
 
Are you using the desktop/light version of SQL or the real Standard or Enterprise version? If you are using the free versions of SQL, full text indexing is not available. That is on of their limitations. You need a full version for that. Without indexing, site searching won't work either.
 
We are using whatever comes with SBS2003. We installed SQL 2000 from the premium services disk. I am not the one who actually set it up so I am not 100% certain. I do know that full text search does seem to be enabled for the default database, it is only the sharepoint database that does not have it availalble.
 
Hi!

I'm Phandalyon's "compatriot"!

SBS2003 comes with the full standard version of SQL2000. We did upgrade Sharepoint from its default MSDE to SQL2000.

Pigster describes what we see quite nicely, but the link he sends descibes what I believe we did, just with better detail and pretty pictures than most instructions. Let me give a complete description of where we are so everyone has the right pictures.

The machine is SBS2003 with SQL2000 installed. We upgraded Sharepoint from MSDE to SQL2000, being sure to check the appropriate boxes to add search and the enterprise manager (we think). Then we upgraded to SQL2000 SP4. Now we have two servers showing in teh enterprise manager: the default instance (Local) and the sharepoint instance (Servername\SHAREPOINT). The default instance does have FTS available in the Support Services subgroup, but the Sharepoint one does not. Every other aspect of Sharepoint is working.

I reran the SQL setup being sure to uncheck the default box and select Sharepoint, but it had no effect. Since the default and Sharepoint instances are actually the same machine, do I need to somehow remove search from the default instance before I can add it to the Sharepoint one? I found some instructions on doing just that, but I'm wondering (out loud) if someone has some experience with recovering from this state and if that's what I really need to do.

TIA!
Winer
 
Each instance of a SQL server is like a completely stand alone deployment, especially in SQL 2000. So, making sure to add the index option has to be done when each instance is installed. You may need to uninstall the SharePoint SQL instance and reinstall it with that option.
 
Hi all!

The key to solving the problem (can't say why nothing else worked) was removing this key so that Windows thinks the software isn't installed:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQLServer\Tracking\{E07FDDA7-5A21-11d2-9DAD-00C04F79D434}

This allows an installation like the first time. Apparently a check box wasn't checked or was and shouldn't have been. After removing this key, reinstalled FTS and reinstalling SP$, it started working with no other prodding.

Thanks for everyone's input. We learned a lot! It's not the destination, it's the journey. OK, I'll shut up and go away - for now!

Thanks!
Winer
 
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