Thursday, June 18, 2009

OWSTIMER error when restoring a SharePoint site

When I was trying to restore a web application with a single site in it and one content database, I received the following two errors:

Error: Object OldIntranet (89) (previous name: Intranet (80)) failed in event OnRestore. For more information, see the error log located in the backup directory.
SPUpdatedConcurrencyException: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPWebApplication Name=OldIntranet (89) Parent=SPWebService is being updated by svc_moss_sql, in the OWSTIMER process, on machine MP-MOSS-INDEX01. View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.


Error: Object SharePoint _OldIntranet89_Content (previous name: SharePoint _Intranet_Content) failed in event OnPostRestore. For more information, see the error log located in the backup directory.
SPException: Cannot attach database to Web application. Use the command line tool or Central Administration pages to attach the database manually to the proper Web Application.


I tried every possible solution I found on the internet, but nothing worked. Then I decided to try the update with stsadm through the following command:

stsadm -o restore -directory "\\fileshare\backupfolder" -restoremethod new -item
"Farm\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\Intranet (80)"


After doing this, I first got a new, different error about the Administration Service. I restarted this service and after that, the stsadm command also gave me the two previous errors. So then I decided to just turn off the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service... and what do you know, it worked! Afterwards, I also noticed that I had turned off the WSS Administration service, so if turning off the Timer service doesn't work, you can also try this one.

I do know that turning off the Timer service in a live environment probably is not such a good idea, but well, if nothing else works, you might be forced to do so...

I also didn't test doing the restore through Central Administration (since it had already been succesfully restored through stsadm), but feel free to give it a shot and let me know if it also works! (Although I doubt it, since I think the procedure through the Central Admin uses a timer job for this, which won't work if the Timer services has been stopped.)

2 comments:

Chris McGinn said...

Nope, doesn't work with Central Admin. Central Admin creates a timer job for the restore so the it will never run if you turn the timer off. I too had luck turning off the timer and using your stsadm command. Thanks a bunch for the tip.

Tom said...

You're welcome, I'm glad I could help!

And thanks for confirming that this won't work with the Central Admin approach!