Change passwords for the Search service accounts (Search Server 2008)

  • Article

Applies To: Microsoft Search Server 2008

 

Topic Last Modified: 2009-05-21

Note

The information in this article applies to both Microsoft Search Server 2008 and Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express.

This article explains how to establish or change account credentials (the domain user account and password) for each of the Search services used by Search Server 2008:

  • The Office SharePoint Server Search service. Search Server 2008 uses this service for crawling and indexing enterprise content.

  • The Windows SharePoint Services Search service. Search Server 2008 uses this service for crawling and indexing the product Help content.

Account credentials are used to authenticate the Search services when they connect to SQL Server databases. Each service stores the credential information and continues to function even after a password has expired. However, if there is an attempt to restart the service, the stored credential information is lost, and the service cannot restart until the credential information is updated. If the Office SharePoint Server Search service cannot start, the content indexes cannot be updated and search results are not synchronized.

Note

  • The credentials for a Search service account must match the credentials on the domain controller for the corresponding account.

  • You can change account credentials for the Search services only from a farm server that is hosting the Central Administration Web site. It is not necessary to change the credentials on any other server in the farm.

  • Memberships in the Search Server Farm Administrators group and the Administrators group on the local computer are required to complete each procedure in this article.

In this article:

  • How you establish credentials for the Search service accounts during deployment

  • To change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service by using the user interface

  • To change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service at a command prompt

  • To change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by using the user interface

  • To change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service at a command prompt

How you establish credentials for the Search service accounts during deployment

After you install Search Server on the first computer in a deployment by using the Advanced installation option, the Search Server Configuration page appears. On this page, in the Required section, in the Default Account for Services section, you must specify a domain user account. Search Server uses this account for the Search services and several other services. In the Optional section on the same page, in the Search Service Account section and the Help Search Service Account section, you can specify separate accounts for the Search services if you want to use accounts that differ from the default account for services.

After you complete the fields on the Search Server Configuration page and click OK to accept the settings, you cannot return to that page. However, you can use the following procedures at any time after that to change credentials for the Search service accounts.

To change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service by using the user interface

Note

These procedures can be performed only after the password has been changed on the domain controller. The credentials entered are checked against those on the domain controller. If you enter the new password before the password has been changed on the domain controller, an error will result and the settings will not be changed. To save the changes, you must restart the Search service. This will cause the functionality that it provides to be momentarily unavailable while the Search service restarts.

Use this procedure to change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service by using the user interface.

Change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service by using the user interface

  1. In Central Administration, on the Operations tab, in the Topology and Services section, click Services on server.

    On the Services on Server page, a server name appears. For this procedure, any server can be selected in this location, because the Office SharePoint Server Search service account is a setting that applies to the whole farm.

  2. On the Services on Server page, in the Start services in the table below section, click Office SharePoint Server Search.

  3. On the Configure Office SharePoint Server Search Service Settings page, in the Farm Search Service Account section, type the domain user account and password.

    The Office SharePoint Server Search service account cannot be a built-in account, such as Local Service or Network Service.

  4. Click OK.

To change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service by using the Stsadm command-line tool

Use this procedure to change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service at a command prompt.

Change credentials for the Office SharePoint Server Search service by using the Stsadm command-line tool

  1. On a computer that is hosting the Central Administration Web site, open a command prompt and change to the following directory:

    %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin

  2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    stsadm -o osearch -farmserviceaccount domain\username -farmservicepassword password

    Note

    The farmserviceaccount parameter is the Office SharePoint Server Search service account.

    For more information, see Osearch: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server).

To change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by using the user interface

Use this procedure to change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by using the user interface.

Change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by using the user interface

  1. In Central Administration, on the Operations tab, in the Topology and Services section, click Services on server.

    On the Services on Server page, a server name appears. For this procedure, any server can be selected in this location, because the Windows SharePoint Services search service account is a setting that applies to the whole farm.

  2. On the Services on Server page, in the Start services in the table below section, click Windows SharePoint Services Help Search.

  3. On the Configure Windows SharePoint Services Search Settings page, in the Service Account section, type the domain user account and password.

    The Windows SharePoint Services Search service account cannot be a built-in account, such as Local Service or Network Service.

  4. Click OK.

To change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by using the Stsadm command-line tool

Use this procedure to change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service at a command prompt.

Change credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service by using the Stsadm command-line tool

  1. On a computer that is hosting the Central Administration Web site, open a command prompt and change to the following directory:

    %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin

  2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    stsadm -o spsearch -farmserviceaccount domain\username farmservicepassword password

    Note

    The farmserviceaccount parameter is the Windows SharePoint Services Search service account.

    For more information, see Spsearch: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).

See Also

Concepts

Security and protection for Search Server 2008
Change passwords for SQL Server services (Search Server 2008)
Change passwords for Central Administration and the Timer service (Search Server 2008)
Change the password for the Shared Services Provider (Search Server 2008)
Change the password for an application pool identity (Search Server 2008)

Other Resources

Index for Stsadm operations and properties (Windows SharePoint Services)
Index for Stsadm operations and properties (Office SharePoint Server)