Viewing the Gatherer Log for a Content Index

Each time Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 updates an index, it creates a gatherer log entry in a table in the component settings database for the portal site.

Note  The name of the component settings database ends in _SERV, and the first six characters of the database name is based on the first five characters of the portal site name plus a number.

By default, gatherer log entries appear in the component settings database in a table for each of the following:

• Autocat_train$$$
• Non_Portal_Content
• Portal_Content
• ProfileImport

Log entries contain data about URLs that SharePoint Portal Server accesses while creating an index. The log can record successful accesses, access errors, and accesses affected by rules (in case the user needs to debug or check the rules she has created to include and exclude content). By default, SharePoint Portal Server does not log successful accesses and accesses disallowed by rules.

The log contains up to five days of logging entries. When the first log entry is written during a crawl, any entry older than five days will be overwritten. If no crawl is performed for more than five days, the log will contain records older than five days until a new crawl is started, and then all entries are deleted.

View the gatherer log for a content index

1. On the Site Settings page, in the Search Settings and Indexed Content section, click Configure search and indexing.
2. On the Configure Search and Indexing page, do one of the following:
   • If you have not enabled advanced search administration mode, in the General Content Settings and Indexing Status section, next to View errors and warnings on, click portal content or non portal content.
   • If you have enabled advanced search administration mode, do the following:
     1. In the Content Indexes section, click Manage content indexes.
     2. On the Manage Content Indexes page, rest the pointer on the name of the content index, and then click the arrow that appears.
     3. On the menu that appears, click View Gatherer Log.
3. On the Gatherer Log Details page, you can view summary or detailed information, and you can customize your view of the log.

   If you want to see results from previous crawls, you must clear the Show only entries from last crawl check box. If a crawl has just started, you might not see any results for several minutes.

   By default, the gatherer log shows only the information from the last crawl. It is possible for multiple crawls to overlap. The last crawl is defined as the most recently started unfinished crawl, or if no crawls are unfinished, the most recently finished crawl. If a crawl is still occurring, but a subsequently started crawl has completed, only records from the unfinished crawl are shown unless you clear the Show only entries from last crawl check box.

Administrators can view the gatherer log by using a Microsoft Visual Basic script file. Administrators might want to back up old versions of the gatherer log for statistical purposes or trend analysis. For more information about how to view the log by using a Visual Basic script file, see ToolsHowTo.txt in the Support\Tools directory on the SharePoint Portal Server CD.

You can also view the gatherer log for a content source. For more information, see Viewing the Gatherer Log for a Content Source.