SharePoint Search and the HOSTS File

I just ran into a nice SharePoint problem that is being described and resolved over here. Apparently there is a job trying to access your HOSTS file, in order to add some lines for the Search, and if it doesn’t have sufficient rights it complains about it. Whenever you decide to add users and give them ‘fulltrust’ it just deletes the host file..

So whenever you see your log filling up with:

Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance

Reason: Access to the path ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’ is denied.

Or:

Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance

Reason: Access to the path ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’ is denied.

Make sure that COMPUTERNAME\WSS\_ADMIN\_WPG has modify permissions on your HOSTS file. Whenever the HOSTS file is already gone, just create a new empty file with notepad and save it as HOSTS without an extension. (Make sure to add the COMPUTERNAMWSS\_ADMIN\_WPG with modify permissions after that again).