PRB: Unable to Build Full-Text Catalog After You Modify MSSQLServer Logon Account Through Control Panel (277549)

SYMPTOMS

If you change the logon account for the SQL Server service (MSSQLServer) through Control Panel, errors may occur in the Microsoft Windows NT Application Event Log when you attempt to rebuild an existing full-text catalog. The full-text catalog fails to build and subsequent searches on the catalog retrieves no rows. The Windows NT Application Event Log may display one of the following error messages in this situation:

10/17/2000 5:34:35 PM Microsoft Search Warning Gatherer 3036 N/A SERVER1 Unable to access crawl seed MSSQL://LOCALHOST/5.117575457 in project SQLServer SQL0000500005. Error: 80070522 - A required privilege is not held by the client. .

SQL Server 7.0:

Unable to access crawl seed <MSSQL://LOCALHOST/7.1333579789> in project <SQLServer SQL0000700006>. Error: 8007052e - Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password. .

SQL Server 2000:

The crawl seed <MSSQL75://SQLServer/2d12a970> in project <SQLServer SQL0000800007> cannot be accessed. Error: 8007052e - Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password. .

The error message may be accompanied with some or all of the following error messages:

10/17/2000 5:34:35 PM Microsoft Search Warning Gatherer 3024 N/A SERVER1 Unable to start crawl for project SQLServer SQL0000500005. No crawl seeds could be accessed.

10/17/2000 5:34:35 PM Microsoft Search Information Gatherer 3018 N/A SERVER1 Detected end of crawl for project SQLServer SQL0000500005. Successfully processed 0 documents, 0K. Failed to filter 1 documents.

10/17/2000 5:34:35 PM Microsoft Search Information Indexer 7045 N/A SERVER1 No new files were detected for project SQLServer SQL0000500005. The catalog has not been propagated.

CAUSE

SQL Server adds itself as an Administrator to the Microsoft Search service (MSSearch). When the service logon account for the MSSQLServer service is changed through Control Panel, the service logon account no longer has administrative privileges over the MSSearch service, thus causing the error messages shown in the "Symptoms" section.

WORKAROUND

Open the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. From the Action menu point to Properties, and then click Security.
Change the Startup service account to System Account.
Stop and then restart the MSSQLServer service.
Change the Startup service account back to the domain account you want. (Make sure that you perform this task through the SQL Server Enterprise Manager and not Control Panel.)
Stop and then restart both the MSSQLServer and MSSearch services. SQL Server should now have administrative control over the Microsoft Search service.

MORE INFORMATION

According to the Troubleshooting Full-Text Search topic in SQL Server Books Online:

The MSSearch service starts under the security context of the local system account.
If you change the service logon account for the MSSQLServer service after the installation of SQL Server, you must use the SQL Server Enterprise Manager to make the change. This is required because SQL Server adds itself to the MSSearch service as an Administrator.

If you change the startup account for the MSSQLServer service by using the Services Applet in Control Panel, SQL Server is not added as an Administrator to the MSSearch service. However, if you make the change through the SQL Server Enterprise Manager, SQL Server is added as an Administrator to the MSSearch service, thus retaining the Full-text search functionality that you expect.