By: MSSQLTips | Comments | Related: > Full Text Search
Problem
Providing Full-Text Search functionality for an application using SQL Server 2000 can be tricky enough even without errors in the population process. There are a number of ways to evaluate and diagnose errors that occur. One way is to look in the Windows Event Logs, but if you've seen information recorded in the logs, you've probably closed Event Viewer with more questions than answers. Although the information in these entries are general, you can find out specific information about what happened by using CScript and the gthrlog.vbs file.
Solution
As you can see, the Gatherer Log files contain specific information on the crawl process, including which records were not found during the crawl process. These files are located in the [SQL DataFile installation location]:\MSSQL\FTData\SQLServer\GatherLogs\ folder. Here is an example of an Event Log entry indicating there was an issue during the crawl process:
The entry in the Event Log indicates which file contains the information for the particular MSSearch crawl in question. The only way of reading the file is by using the gthrlog.vbs file, which is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSSearch\Bin. To investigate the information, open a command prompt, call the CScript function, specify the gthrlog.vbs file, and the location of the file you wish to read (you must include the quotes as shown below):
Next Steps
- Include the GthrLog Utility in your repertoire of evaluating Full-Text Search errors
- Read more about implementing Full-Text search:
- Read more information on Using the GthrLog.vbs Utility
- Get more tips on Full-Text Search on MSSQLTIPS.com
About the author
MSSQLTips.com was started in 2006 to provide SQL Server content about various aspects of SQL Server and other database platforms.This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.
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