Skip to main content

Error "403 Forbidden" on Sharepoint Search Settings Page

Ok so I had to struggle with this error for like 48 hours, busy googling for a solution. This error came up at the same time on both our live and test environment after we were hit by the worm Microsoft reported a few days ago.

So here is how I went about sorting it out:

Using STSADMIN commands

1. I first ran stsadm -o osearch -action stop –f
2. Then stsadm -o osearch -action start -role indexquery
3. And stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

So now I tried to access the search site and it told me that I had to assign an index server, of which I did, then I again from the index server had to run stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs.

At this point, I had to provide access to c:\windows\tasks, from the command line, on our index server for the local group WSS_WPG as follows
1. By running attrib -s c:\windows\tasks on the index server so as to be able to change the tasks system folder attributes.
2. Then I added the local group WSS_WPG with read and write access
3. And now take back the attributes of the tasks system folder to the way they were by running attrib +s c:\windows\tasks
4. Then restart the search service on the index server
5. And perform a full crawl

Depending on how big your databases are, will determine how long the crawling and computing ranking will take, ours took about 5 hours and after which, the search site for the live environment came up.

Am still struggling with the test environment search site as the tasks folder keeps on denying access when I try to ran attrib -s c:\windows\tasks

Later mates….will tell you more soon.
Labels:

Comments

Christoph said…
Hello Christopher,
I am getting the same error accessing the Search Administration Page in the Shared Service Provider Settings Page --> 403.

I have 5 Servers in our farm, 3 Web Front Ends, 1 Application Server and 1 Indexing Server. On wich server do I have to execute the stsadm command to fix this problem?

My guess is the Indexing Server. Right?

Thanks,
Chris
February 23, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Christopher said…
Hi Christoph,

Yes please run the stsadm commands on your indexing server (in my case, it was the server that was running central admin).

Regards,
Chris.
February 24, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Anonymous said…
This is great. wishing you all the best in all your daily applications development and hope to learn more from you as I read your site.May the Lord Himself continue to give you the knowledge and strength that you need to accomplish your vision. Mwila (ATS IT)
March 23, 2009 at 12:53 AM
Tripwire said…
Which worm exactly?
June 9, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SharePoint: How to create a custom action to open Word Documents using "Edit in Microsoft Word".

Imagine you have a SharePoint custom search webpart, and on your search results, you return word documents, you will obviously want to at times be able to open them in your MS Word client program for editing. So basically, depending on your office client installed on your local machine, there are 2 different approaches that can be made for Office 2003 and Office 2007/10, using the same function " editDocumentWithProgID2 ". For Office 2003: - If your document libraries versioning settings have got "Require Check out" ticked, then you will first want to check out the document using: onclick ="CheckoutviaXmlhttp(‘{SiteURL}’, ‘{DocumentDownloadURL}’)" - Then to open the document, you use: onclick =" return editDocumentWithProgID2(‘ {DocumentDownloadURL} ’, ”, ‘SharePoint.OpenDocuments’, ’1′,’ {SiteURL} ’, ’0′);" href ="#" - and now combining the above 2 actions into one clickable action: onclick ="CheckoutviaXmlhttp(‘ {SiteURL} ’, ‘ {...
2 comments
Read more

How to document your SharePoint Projects.

Here are the essential documents you need to complete… Initiation Business Case: To justify the financial investment in your SharePoint Project, you need to write a Business Case. It lists the costs and benefits, so everyone knows what the return on investment will be. Feasibility Study: Before you kick-off your SharePoint Project, you need to determine whether your project is feasible, using a Feasibility Study. SharePoint Project Charter: You then need to document the objectives, scope, team, timeframes and deliverables in a SharePoint Project Charter. Planning SharePoint Project Plan: You need to create a Project Plan listing all of the tasks required to undertake your SharePoint Project from start to finish. Every task must be scheduled, so you know what needs to be done and when. Resource Plan: Next, you need to plan your resources by documenting the money, equipment and materials needed for your SharePoint Project. Quality Plan: You then need to set quality targets, so that the S...
4 comments
Read more

Zambia's first Helpdesk System on SharePoint

For my 25th birthday today 3rd March, 2009, allow me to present to you another first of its kind in Zambia. Yes we have done it again, having been Project manager, I present to you Zambia's first Helpdesk System which Masialeti and I have developed on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The system also implements SharePoint designer workflows, Infopath forms, SharePoint document library and sends email notifications to the relevant personnel. When a user logs in a call, the user automatically receives a mail from the system, telling them that their call has been received and is being attended to, IT section will also receive a notification and the helpdesk manager will assign the call to the right IT guy who will also automatically receive a mail notification from the system. When the call is resolved, the user again automatically gets notified by the system with a mail giving them description of the problem they logged and also how it has been resolved. The user also has an ...
7 comments
Read more