All of sudden my SP 2007 production farm starting experiencing an issue where changing only particular settings in the Central admin gives an error: C:>stsadm -o setlogginglevel -tracelevel verbose -windowslogginglevel warning Updating DiagnosticsService 'Boolean' is an unexpected token. Expecting white space. Line 1, position 429. (I can do other functions in CA such as creating a site collection, installing solutions and updating them). I cannot however change setting for Diagnoistic logging and client integration. There might be more that i can do and not do in CA but haven't tested everything. ________________________________________________________ I have tried clearing the SP cache and restarting TimerJob services ( intrestingly, i can see XML generated but the cache.ini file value didn't get updated and stay with value 1 which was what I put in before clearing the cache.) Running PSConfig without disconnecting server from the farm gives me the same error of 'Boolean' is an unexpected token. Expecting white space. Line 1, position 429 here is an extract from PSConfig diagnostic: 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Leaving function RegistryHelper.GetValue 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Leaving function RegistryHelper.GetStringValue 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF No ServiceInstanceName for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\WSS\Services\Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService\Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance in the registry 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Entering function TaskCommon.ReflectionHelperInvokeConstructor 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Trying to get the type for assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Type for assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C is Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance. Now, calling the constructor... 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Successfully invoked the constructor for assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C. Object returned is SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance Parent=SPServer Name=WEBSWX28P 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Leaving function TaskCommon.ReflectionHelperInvokeConstructor 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Successfully called the constructor for Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Leaving function ServicesTask.InvokeServiceConstructor 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 ERR Task services has failed with an unknown exception 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 ERR Exception: System.Xml.XmlException: 'Boolean' is an unexpected token. Expecting white space. Line 1, position 429. at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent() at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id, Guid parentId, Guid type, String name, SPObjectStatus status, Byte[] versionBuffer, String xml) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.FetchObject(Guid id) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id, Boolean checkInMemoryCache) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObjectCollection`1.get_BackingList() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObjectCollection`1.GetEnumerator() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService.get_TypeName() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPServiceInstance.get_TypeName() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.InstallServiceInstanceInConfigDB(Boolean provisionTheServiceInstanceToo, String serviceInstanceRegistryKeyName, Object sharepointServiceObject) at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.InstallServiceInstances(Boolean provisionTheServiceInstancesToo, String serviceRegistryKeyName, Object sharepointServiceObject) at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.InstallServices(Boolean provisionTheServicesToo) at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.Run() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask() 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Entering function Common.BuildExceptionMessage 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Entering function StringResourceManager.GetResourceString 01/12/2012 11:00:02 9 INF Resource id to be retrieved is ExceptionInfo for language English (United States) Please suggest if anyone have seen such an error. I have opened up a case with Microsoft with no luck so far. Thanks, Jay

Hi Jazz, Thanks for your post. According to the error message, the error seems to be thrown in the Search Service. Please try to restart the Search Service, and then check whether the issue is existed in the server. I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. Thanks, Wayne Fan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.com. Wayne Fan TechNet Community Support

Hi, Stop Windows sharepoint services help search and office sharepoint search services and then try disconnecting from the farm. Have you done any modification in search in your farm?Thanks, Rahul Rashu

Hello, I more or less agree with Rahul; from the stack trace, it appears like there seems to be some issue with SPSEARCH service (Windows SharePoint Services Help Search), I do not think there is a need to unprovision OSEARCH (Office SharePoint Server Search) as that will wipe out your index or even disconnect the server from the farm. Please note if you are using OSEARCH then SPSEARCH is just used for help search and it actually doesnt really index content. So, if you're certain that you are using OSEARCH for Index/Query purposes, you could try stopping the SPSEARCH service and then try the command again.Please remember to click 'Mark as Answer' on the post that helps you or click 'Unmark as Answer' if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Nishant Shah Microsoft Online Community Support

Guys, tried what mentioned but no luck. Still looking at this.

Hello, So, I understand you successfully stopped SPSEARCH and still unable to set logging level. Do you know if you're seeing the exact same error message or is that changed a bit and points to a different service now? If its a different error, could you post the new error?Please remember to click 'Mark as Answer' on the post that helps you or click 'Unmark as Answer' if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Nishant Shah Microsoft Online Community Support

Tried stopping the service via ( Configure services on this computer in operations tab) got the same error message with Exception: System.Xml.XmlException: 'Boolean' is an unexpected token. I have rebooted the computer and still no luck. Just not sure what file is this looking at or where in config database is this value stored so I can atleast look at. ( ofcourse, I will not edit the config DB and make a copy of config_db to another server and then run queries to find out the corelation)

How many servers do you have in the farm? You have one server that is working? You can compare the information for this registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\WSS\Services\Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService\Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchDataAccessServiceInstance between two servers (ok and nok). Also you can run SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck to check if there are any missing OOB SharePoint DLLs on the serverMCITP|MCTS SharePoint| SharePoint Performance blog

Please clear teh configuration cache and try again. Please follow the link below to clear the configuration cache http://blogs.msdn.com/b/josrod/archive/2007/12/12/clear-the-sharepoint-configuration-cache-for-timer-job-and-psconfig-errors.aspx

Please clear teh configuration cache and try again. Please follow the link below to clear the configuration cache http://blogs.msdn.com/b/josrod/archive/2007/12/12/clear-the-sharepoint-configuration-cache-for-timer-job-and-psconfig-errors.aspx

Guys, Tried everything, nothing worked. Had a case open with Microsoft and had to archive the case about a week ago without any solution. MS suggested to rebuild the Configuration Database. I am now playing with my "TEST" VM enviornment to break it and get a similar error message like what i have and was successful. Now I need to fix it to make sure everything works as expected. I will keep you informed. I did make progress. Thanks, Jay.

Guys, Tried everything, nothing worked. Had a case open with Microsoft and had to archive the case about a week ago without any solution. MS suggested to rebuild the Configuration Database. I am now playing with my "TEST" VM enviornment to break it and get a similar error message like what i have and was successful. Now I need to fix it to make sure everything works as expected. I will keep you informed. I did make progress. Thanks, Jay.

Please let us know how were you able to simulate this on test environmentPlease remember to click 'Mark as Answer' on the post that helps you or click 'Unmark as Answer' if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Nishant Shah Microsoft Online Community Support

Please let us know how were you able to simulate this on test environmentPlease remember to click 'Mark as Answer' on the post that helps you or click 'Unmark as Answer' if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Nishant Shah Microsoft Online Community Support

Our SharePoint corruption has been resolved. It was just a rogue timer job. We were able to identify the rogue XXXXX timer job. Here is how we found the corrupt timer Job as an example: Go into Central Admin to find your jobs and hover over the job name. Then select the shortcut and paste it into Notepad or something. Youll get something like this: 1: http://myserver:25435/_admin/JobEdit.aspx?JobId=bf166029%2D7c99%2D49cc%2D9ade%2D45586487c20c Note the Id after the JobId parameter. The dashes are encoded and show as %2D. Simple change them to a real dash and strip away the rest to get this: 2: bf166029-7c99-49cc-9ade-45586487c20c This is the GUID for the job timer that we want to delete. Usually you can delete the timerjob from Timer Job definitions. In this case if I tried to do it would give me Exception: System.Xml.XmlException: 'Boolean' is an unexpected token. Expecting white space. Line 1, position 429 only for XXXXX Job definition. Now go to a command prompt and enter the deleteconfigurationobject operation using the GUID for your job as the id. 1: stsadm -o deleteconfigurationobject -id 2: Operation completed successfully. Voila! Rogue job timer gone away!. Now we were able to do everything in the farm again. Thanks, Jay. Note: I went through and did ample research on this command and went through blogs, existing MS forums where I found one incident in which MS had suggested the customer to use this command after two months of working with MS escalation engineer which was on SP2010 and had to do with some corrupt ids. If you search MS forums for stsadm -o deleteconfigurationobject id you will see tons of different uses and how people have used this to fix rogue timer jobs or other issues. Reference: http://weblogs.asp.net/bsimser/archive/2009/07/06/the-undocumented-deleteconfigurationobject-parameter.aspx