We have an Exchange database that seems to always have a Content Index State that is crawling.  Some end users have complained about slow searches and indexing issues (which is expected).  We have stopped the search services and renamed the catalog directory in an effort to rebuild the search catalog, but it just goes right back to crawling.  The database is only about 300GB, so I don't think size is an issue.

Could it be there is some corruption on the database that is causing issues with the index catalog.  We have removed the database from the DAG and tried it as a stand alone database, with the same results.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

did you find anything in the event viewer (app/Sys logs).

You may consider restarting Search Indexer service and then check if that gets healthy or not.

If it still doesn't say healthy then you might have to consider Resetting Search Index for problematic Database or all database if all if it is a problem with all databases.

Refer to the link below to get info about how to reset Search index for a database.

Exchange 2010 Database copy on server has content index catalog files in the following state: Failed

Establishing Exchange Content Index Rebuild Baselines Part 1

How To Troubleshoot Issues With Exchange 2010 Search

Reply back with the outcome!

Stop the search service, delete the index completely start the search service and then run the below command:

update-mailboxdatabasecopy <DB Name> -catalog only>

that command does not work for a stand-alone copy.  I explained I already removed the copy and the server from the DAG.

I have restarted the services, I have deleted and recreated the catalog.  It just goes back to crawling and eventually fails.

I have a Exchange 2013 environment, not a 2010.

In Exchange 2013 follow the below steps

Stop the Microsoft Exchange Search and Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller service. Run Stop-Service MSExchangeFastSearch and Stop-Service HostControllerService if you are into Shell.

Browse to where the database files are located on the disk. Along with the database file, you will see a folder with a long string as the name. It will have three sub-folders as well. Delete the main folder along with the sub-folders. This is the folder where the index is stored.

Restart the Microsoft Exchange Search and Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller service. Run Start-Service MSExchangeFastSearch and Start-Service HostControllerService if you are into Shell.

 Give it a minute and a new folder will be created and a new index will be built.

Hi,

In addition the above suggestion, I would like to clarify the following thing:

When this issue occurs, please check if System Center Operations Manager is running the Toubleshoot-CI.ps1 script. This will cause the Exchange Search service to restart before it completes the indexing process, then "Content index state" remains stuck in "crawling".

Hope my clarification can be helpful to you.

Best regards,

As stated above, I have already tried this....multiple times.

I am not running SCOM, I never said I was.  TroubleshootCI.ps1 is a Exchange 2010 script, it does not work on 2013 due to registry changes made.

Did you ever get a resolution to this? I have the exact same issue, and a 2013 environment as well. As you did, I have tried the fixes above multiple times.