MSSearch.exe error window: "Tracer"

My company has a client using SQLServer 2000 SP3a.
Every so often (approx. once a week), the full-text indexing will fail on
one of our database tables. We are unsure why, but have noticed some rather
bizarre behavior associated with this failure. (Normally, we restart the
MSSearch service and everything works again.)
Just today, the client called to tell us it didn't work. So, using
LogMeIn.com, I controlled their server computer to see what was going on.
Immediately I noticed a messagebox window with a title of "Tracer" and text
of "Release products should NOT call tracer!". The only button was "OK".
I didn't know for sure where this message was coming from, so I used
SysInternals' Process Explorer to list the processes and their window titles.
Lo and behold, MSSearch.exe was the process tied to "Tracer".
Obviously, this is a SQL Server bug, but I've not found reference to it in
any online searches. Has anyone seen this? Is it fixable by upgrading to
SP4 (this client is still using NT4, though).
Thanks for any information.
John,
Basic troubleshooting of SQL Server 2000 and MSSearch is somewhat of a black
art (as I can attest to), but the first place you should look for
information on what is causing the full-text indexing failure is the
server's Application event log as this is the only place where errors,
warning and information events are recorded for the MSSearch service. Look
for all related "Microsoft Search" or MssCi source events (errors, warning
and information) near the time of the failure. This will be the best source
of info as to what is causing the problem.
While I've never have used LogMeIn.com, I have known Microsoft to attach
debuggers to both SQL Server and the MSSearch.exe to identify bugs. If you
believe this to be a bug, then I'd highly recommend that you open a support
case with Microsoft PSS SQL Server support and get this resolved for your
client.
Regards,
John
SQL Full Text Search Blog
http://spaces.msn.com/members/jtkane/
"John" <John@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FAE1B226-FF90-41EC-9465-575285E412FF@.microsoft.com...
> My company has a client using SQLServer 2000 SP3a.
> Every so often (approx. once a week), the full-text indexing will fail on
> one of our database tables. We are unsure why, but have noticed some
> rather
> bizarre behavior associated with this failure. (Normally, we restart the
> MSSearch service and everything works again.)
> Just today, the client called to tell us it didn't work. So, using
> LogMeIn.com, I controlled their server computer to see what was going on.
> Immediately I noticed a messagebox window with a title of "Tracer" and
> text
> of "Release products should NOT call tracer!". The only button was "OK".
> I didn't know for sure where this message was coming from, so I used
> SysInternals' Process Explorer to list the processes and their window
> titles.
> Lo and behold, MSSearch.exe was the process tied to "Tracer".
> Obviously, this is a SQL Server bug, but I've not found reference to it in
> any online searches. Has anyone seen this? Is it fixable by upgrading to
> SP4 (this client is still using NT4, though).
> Thanks for any information.
|||We have the same thing happening sparodically at one of clients as well, The Tracer message pops up, the fulltext search quits working, if we restart mssearch it starts working again.
Only real difference I see, is that our client is running Small Bussiness Server, (Windows 2000, SP4) and I was blaming it on that, since they have all kinds of strange limitations they try to put in it.
I am switching it to update at 4AM each day instead of the continuas background update, and see if that makes a difference.
It only causes trouble when indexing 1 of the two tables we are indexing. The table has 550,000 items and a 5303 MB catalog, with a key count 6 million.
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