Unavailable Site for SharePoint Search

Even though SharePoint 2007 search engine was not bad, SharePoint 2010 is two steps forward. The two steps are called SharePoint 2010 Search Engine and FAST Search Server 2010. Does it sound fancy enough? Well, with all the glitter and extra capabilities this renewed search engine offers, there are some glitches, or I should call them “Easter Eggs” that Microsoft left out for us to enjoy or endure.

One of these issues starts like a bad written folktale: “The server ‘your-site-name‘ is unavailable and could not be accessed.” – And it continues: ” The server is probably disconnected from the network. Items from this server will be skipped by the crawl for the next 10 minutes“

What that means? One of the main reasons you might get such a message is because you got rid of a site and your fancy SharePoint Search Engine has not been trained to remove the site from the crawling list.

Following these simple steps might make your live a bit easier and you could even be proud of your outstanding SharePoint Search Engine.

Go to Central Administration and click on General Application Settings.

Next click on Farm Search Administration, next click on Search Service Application link.

Next, on the right side column, under Crawling, click on Content Sources link.

Next, click on Local SharePoint sites.

Under Start Addresses heading, remove the site you’ve got rid of and click OK button.

I hope it works for you as it did for me. If you have any questions, complaints or feelings of gratitude make sure you post it in the comment area.