Sharepoint Search Server Error The start address <your-server> cannot be crawled. Context: Application 'Search index file on the search server', Catalog 'Search'

SYMPTONS

Your Windows Sharepoint Service 3.0 or Sharepoint Server 2007 search is not working and you get a constant stream of Event Log errors similar to the following:

The start address <your-server:port/contentdbid={unique-uuid}> cannot be crawled.
Context: Application 'Search index file on the search server', Catalog 'Search'

CAUSE

Your WSS installation is setup to use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or a custom host header for your sharepoint site. When your server attempts to locally browse this url it gives an unauthorized http 401.1 error. This is usually related to the web site using a name that is mapped to a local loopback address on the server.

RESOLUTION

Disable the loopback check in the system registry

To do this you need to create the requisite registry key as follows

Start > Run (type regedit and press enter to open regedit)

1. In the registry editor locate the following key
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
2. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
3. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press <ENTER>.
4. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify and in the Value data box type 1 and click OK.
5. Quit the registry editor.

Depending on your setup you may have to restart the server for this to take effect, in our testing we have not had to and it usually takes effect within a few minutes.