Why my MOSS search doesn't work today (Reason #316)

Earlier this week a client called.  Our beautiful MOSS installation had been running beautifully, and then several days after a reboot... their Search completely stopped working.

Naturally, I hopped on the VPN, logged on to the server via RDP, and checked all the usual things.  Windows SharePoint Search Service was running, and the MOSS Crawl Schedule looked right, so I decided to see for myself... except the portal wouldn't authenticate me.

Aha.  Just after a reboot, you say?  If only I'd had the good sense to look at the crawl logs (they were full of 401.1-type "Access Denied" errors).

This is nothing less than the dreaded loopback check.  Apparently, Microsoft feels that it is a security risk for one to access a website from that same server (but only on port 80; all other ports appear to be wide open).  To get around this, they actually recommend a registry hack -- er, tweak -- that is detailed in MS KB article 896861.  I'm including the procedure below on the off chance that the article goes dead someday; my preferred choice is method 2, but you may have other needs.

Method 1: Specify host names

Note We recommend that you use this method.

To specify the host names that are mapped to the loopback address and can connect to Web sites on your computer, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
  2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
  3. Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
  4. Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
  5. Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
  6. In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.
  7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service.

Method 2: Disable the loopback check

Follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
  2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
  3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
  4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
  5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
  6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
  7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

 

2 Comments

  • hey .... the topic of the article gives an impression as if you have 316 reson for search not working... :)

    Aneways thanks it helped...

  • I had this problem as well, except I tried a Microsoft Fix It 50306, it solved it, but I checked the registry after, and it didn't change the same values, so I'm wondering if there's a way to go back in case it's needed.

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