Troubleshooting and Checking Protocol Handler Performance

Microsoft Windows Administrative Tools can be used to track protocol handler performance and troubleshoot problems.

Windows NT Event Logs

If a system error occurs while Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server Search (SharePointPSSearch) is crawling the content source, the error is recorded in the Event logs. To see the Event log entry for the error, open the Event Viewer and select Application Logs view. Sort the listing by source and look for entries for "Microsoft SharePointPS Search Service".

Gatherer Logs

The Gatherer logs contain URL specific information that is logged for each item as the search component processes it. Unless you enable this feature in the Content Index settings, the search component does not log items that are processed successfully. By default, a new log is created daily and only the five most recent logs are kept. You can configure these options in the Logging Options section of the Manage Index Properties page for the Content Index. To access the Gatherer logs, you need to click View the gatherer log in the Status section of the same page. To access the Manage Index Properties page, go to the Configure Search and Indexing section of the portal site's settings.

Common Errors

The following table shows a brief sampling of common protocol handler errors, and provides a brief description and suggested solution for each.

Error	Solution
Gatherer log error "URL is excluded because the URL protocol is not recognized or restricted."	Protocol handler registration may have failed. Run the Registry Editor (regedit) to look at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SPSSearch\ProtocolHandlers or the DllRegisterServer function.
Gatherer log error "Error fetching URL, (80040d1a - The protocol handler cannot be found. Verify that the handler was installed and is not corrupt.)."	Bad protocol handler initialization. Verify that the protocol handler is registered. Also, make sure the Init method of the ISearchProtocol interface returns a successful HRESULT.
Gatherer log error "Retry" and "Error fetching URL, (800700e9 –No process is on the other end of the pipe.)."	Unhandled exception in the protocol handlers, such as an access violation, or protocol handler is using too much memory.
Gatherer log error "Retry" and "Error fetching URL, (80040d7b - Document filtering could not be completed because the document server did not respond within the specified time-out. Try crawling the server later, or increase the time-out values.)."	Change access times for the content source in the MMC. Also make sure to check that protocol handler method calls return in a reasonable amount of time.