Sitecore Processing Server log shows "Could not find configuration node: contentSearch/configuration"

Question

In Sitecore (9.1) processing server's logs, I could see the following error:

Exception: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException
Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Source: mscorlib
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(Object obj, Object[] parameters, Object[] arguments)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)
   at Sitecore.Reflection.ReflectionUtil.InvokeMethod(MethodInfo method, Object[] parameters, Object obj)
   at Sitecore.Tasks.CommandItem.Execute(Item[] items, ScheduleItem schedule) 
  
Nested Exception 
  
Exception: System.InvalidOperationException
Message: Could not find configuration node: contentSearch/configuration
Source: Sitecore.Kernel
   at Sitecore.Configuration.DefaultFactory.GetConfigNode(String xpath, Boolean assert)
   at Sitecore.Configuration.DefaultFactory.CreateObject(String configPath, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)
   at Sitecore.ContentSearch.ContentSearchManager.get_SearchConfiguration()
   at Sitecore.ContentSearch.ContentSearchManager.GetIndex(String name)
   at Sitecore.ContentTesting.Tasks.RebuildIndex.Process(Item[] items, CommandItem command, ScheduleItem schedule)

Could anyone please let me know what's the issue here and how to solve it?

Answer 1

Thanks @Dean OBrien for your responses.

We raised a ticket with Sitecore and got the below response. To resolve the issue, please edit the /App_Config/Sitecore/CMS.Core/Sitecore.Processing.config file and change the following line

from:

<sitecore role:require="Standalone or ContentManagement or Processing">

to:

<sitecore role:require="Standalone or ContentManagement">

This seems to me that on processing servers the agents are being disabled. Once we changed that, we are no more seeing the error in the log file.

Answer 2

Rather than continuing in comments, will try and provide some points to check here.

As per my comment, I believe you may have slight mis configuration in roles. As first suggestion please make sure processing server has:

<AppSettings>
<add key="role:define" value="Processing"/>
</AppSettings>

Then on only one content management:

<AppSettings>
<add key="role:define" value="ContentManagement, Indexing"/>
</AppSettings>

This should ensure the rebuild index task is performed on an instance that has access to both Web and master databases.

I believe the reason for the exception is because your processing server is trying to rebuild an index that requires a database it doesn't have access to.

For example, if one of your solr configuration (web_index) has a crawler which points to the Web database and the instance can't access it, then the task will fail when initialising.

Update

Further to comments it seems indexing sub role was introduced in sitecore 9.2. In 9.1 I believe task is picked up by any available instance.

You have two options, either disable the worker that performs rebuild task on the processing server. Or add the necessary connection strings to the processing server.

Please ensure master and Web conn strings are available in connectionstrings.config on processing instance and see if the error stops.

Update

Further to your recent comments. In order to disable indexing job on provessing server, i believe you should just be able to set the update strategy to manual.

Please try adding patch for all indexes that includes line as below:

<strategy ref="contentSearch/indexConfigurations/indexUpdateStrategies/manual" />

Your patch files should sit in a sub folder of: <root>/app_config/includes/. I normally put all in folder call "z.custom".