Problem: The context index of an Exchange 2013 Database is in an Unknown status. This may appear for one or all databases on a server. In the event log, you see a number of MSExchangeFastSearch 1010 and 1006 errors.
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Solution:
The obvious may be to restart the Microsoft Exchange Search and Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller services or reboot the server during a maintenance window. You can certainly try that but that will not fix this issue described in this post.
Although there may be many reasons for this issue, all other solutions are well documented on the web, i.e ContentSubmitters Security Group, Stop Search Services, Rename Index Folder and Start Search services. Let me save you countless of hours racking your brain trying to fix this problem.
The only way to really know what is going on, is to check the status of the database and review the event logs.
To get more information on the issue, run [copy]get-mailboxdatabasecopy” | fl content*[/copy]
The output will show you the actual error and if it looks like this,“Could not find registry value of Index Status for Database” you are in luck!
Complete the following to resolve. Make sure you have a backup of your server and proceed at your own risk.
- Browse to the registry key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Search\IndexStatus.
- Check to see if any of the mailbox database keys exist. They will be labeled by GUID.
- Is the time stamp being updated for any of the keys. Keep in mind, the default is GMT time.
If the registry keys do not exist and/or some of them are not updated, you have a HUGE c:\windows\temp folder.
- Open cmd as administrator
- Run [copy]del c:\windows\temp\* /Q /S[/copy]
- Once the delete completes, restart both of the exchange search services.
- Wait 10-15 minutes and run a [copy]get-mailboxdatabasecopystatus[/copy] and the Content Index State should be something other than unknown. If will likely Healthy or Crawling.
This should get your indexing back in order and users happy!
