Windows could not start the "sharePoint Search Host Controller"

Question

SharePoint search host controller service did not start. When I tried to manually start it i got the following error:-

Here are the related logs:-

2/22/2014 12:40:23.02   hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x0130  SharePoint Foundation           General                         avew    High        An application domain named hostcontrollerservice.exe has just been loaded.  
12/22/2014 12:40:23.02  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x0130  SharePoint Foundation           Topology                        2myf    Medium      Enabling the configuration filesystem and memory caches.     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.02  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x0130  SharePoint Foundation           Topology                        aik7t   High        Set the certificate validation policy for this app domain to the SharePoint certificate validator.   
12/22/2014 12:40:23.02  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x0130  SharePoint Foundation           Monitoring                      b4ly    High        Leaving Monitored Scope (Initializing Admin OM). Execution Time=772.647640971129     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.05  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x1778  SharePoint Foundation           General                         00000   Medium      Microsoft SharePoint Foundation log file                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.05  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x1778  SharePoint Foundation           General                         94vw    Medium      Primary Domain = TGROUP, Computer Name = SHAREPOINTDEV   
12/22/2014 12:40:23.07  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x0130  SharePoint Server Search        Administration                  afzfy   Medium      VSS - Search VSS writer created successfully     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.11  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x1778  SharePoint Foundation           Object Cache                    9j6t    High        SPXmlDocCache cache parameters are: high water mark 10485760 bytes, low water mark 5242880 bytes, interval 180000 ms     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.15  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Unified Logging Service         b8fx    High        ULS Init Completed (hostcontrollerservice.exe, Microsoft.Ceres.Diagnostics.Native.dll)   
12/22/2014 12:40:23.18  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      WcfService: Starting host controller service - threadId: 13  
12/22/2014 12:40:23.18  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      WcfService: Machine Configuration:     Machine Name          : SHAREPOINTDEV     Operating System      : Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1     Runtime Version       : v4.0.30319  - threadId: 13     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.19  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      WcfService: Service Configuration:      Log Level             : Info ....Log handler: ULSLogHandler     Runtimes              : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Search\Runtime\     Runtimes              : <none>     Assemblypath          : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Search\Resources\Bundles\     Preinstalled assemblypaths    : <none>     Repository Path       : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\Search\Repository\     Replicated From       : <none>     Node Path             : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\Search\Nodes\     Node Port Allocation  : Start = 17002, End = 60000, Block Size = 20     Node Memory Limit     : Soft = 70%, Hard = 80% of installed physical mem...  
12/22/2014 12:40:23.19* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      ...ory     On Shutdown           : Terminate all nodes - threadId: 13    
12/22/2014 12:40:23.21  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      RepositoryManager: Initializing repository - threadId: 13    
12/22/2014 12:40:23.33  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      RepositoryManager: Initializing repository journal - threadId: 13    
12/22/2014 12:40:23.37  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x1B84  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      RepositoryManager: Thread deleting uninstalled modules has started - threadId: 16    
12/22/2014 12:40:23.37  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search Platform Services        agw7w   Information Repository initialization succeeded.     
12/22/2014 12:40:23.41  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      HostController: 17559 MB physical memory installed - threadId: 13    
12/22/2014 12:40:23.41  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      HostController: 14047 MB physical memory available for nodes - threadId: 13  
12/22/2014 12:40:23.44  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      WcfService: Repository running in primary mode (not replicated from another repository) - threadId: 13   
12/22/2014 12:40:23.53  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Medium      WcfService: Service available at net.tcp://localhost/ceres/hostcontroller - threadId: 13     
12/22/2014 12:40:24.23  NodeRunnerIndex1-4c3a4290-d047- (0x131C)    0x237C  Search                          FsPlugin indexing tasks         aj7ox   Medium      people MergeSet[IndexComponent1-4c3a4290-d047-4e3c-9d0a-e3bb37ab8fdb-SP3287edc02327.I.0.0](169A0AA5-C610-49F3-8AE1-881BE3BBE37A): Merge Levels: 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0)  [mergeset.cxx:2394]  search\foundation\searchcore\fastserver\fastserver\src\merge\mergeset.cxx     
12/22/2014 12:40:24.32  NodeRunnerIndex1-4c3a4290-d047- (0x131C)    0x237C  Search                          FsPlugin indexing tasks         aj7ox   Medium      usage MergeSet[IndexComponent1-4c3a4290-d047-4e3c-9d0a-e3bb37ab8fdb-SP3287edc02327.I.0.0](AFF05C9B-40F0-4C94-B191-1E5265856942): Merge Levels: 1(1) 1(1) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0)  [mergeset.cxx:2394]  search\foundation\searchcore\fastserver\fastserver\src\merge\mergeset.cxx  
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Monitorable HostController: Failed to determine if the node running [System = 5EDB90, Node = QueryProcessingComponent1] - threadId: 13 - exception: System.FormatException: Wrong format of property in System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Object], should be in KEY=VALUE form.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ...  
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Monitorable ...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           at Microsoft.Ceres.Co...   
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Monitorable ...mmon.Utils.SettingsUtils.ReadSettingsFromFile(String filePath)     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.NodeRunner.LoadProperties()     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.NodeRunner..ctor(String runtimeRoot, String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.DeploymentController.GetNodeRunner(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.DeploymentController.IsNodeOperating(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.RuntimeProxy.InvokeControllerMethod(String method, Object[] args)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.RuntimeProxy.IsNodeOperating(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.RuntimeProxy.IsNodeOperating(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostCon...   
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Monitorable ...troller.IsNodeOperating(String systemName, String nodeName)   
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Unexpected  WcfService: Exception during service start - threadId: 13 - exception: Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostControllerException: Failed to determine if the node running [System = 5EDB90, Node = QueryProcessingComponent1] ---> System.FormatException: Wrong format of property in System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Object], should be in KEY=VALUE form.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ...  
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Unexpected  ...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ...   
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Unexpected  ...                                                                              at Microsoft.Ceres.Common.Utils.SettingsUtils.ReadSettingsFromFile(String filePath)     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.NodeRunner.LoadProperties()     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.NodeRunner..ctor(String runtimeRoot, String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.DeploymentController.GetNodeRunner(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.CoreServices.Deployment.DeploymentController.IsNodeOperating(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.RuntimeProxy.InvokeControllerMethod(String method, Object[] args)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.RuntimeProxy.IsNodeOperating(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.Run...   
12/22/2014 12:40:26.13* hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           ad5eq   Unexpected  ...timeProxy.IsNodeOperating(String nodeRoot)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostController.IsNodeOperating(String systemName, String nodeName)     --- End of inner exception stack trace ---     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostController.IsNodeOperating(String systemName, String nodeName)     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostController.StartNodes()     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostController.Start()     at Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.WcfServer.WcfService.StartService()  
12/22/2014 12:40:26.15  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Search HostController           aejgm   Exception    Microsoft.Ceres.HostController.Controller.HostControllerException: Failed to determine if the node running [System = 5EDB90, Node = QueryProcessingComponent1] ---> System.FormatException: Wrong format of property in System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Object], should be in KEY=VALUE form.  StackTrace:  at Microsoft.Ceres.Diagnostics.Native.dll: (sig=60af7aa7-4007-4bef-b094-aac7e614994d|2|microsoft.ceres.diagnostics.native.pdb, offset=A75E) at Microsoft.Ceres.Diagnostics.Native.dll: (offset=191DD)  
12/22/2014 12:40:26.15  hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x08F4)          0x2044  Search                          Unified Logging Service         c91s    Monitorable Watson bucket parameters: Search Foundation, ULSException14, 7b5e300c "search", 0f0011db "15.0.4571.0", 796590b7 "microsoft.ceres.hostcontroller.controller", 0f00118a "15.0.4490.0", 5108b251 "wed jan 30 05:40:33 2013", 000000b8 "000000b8", 0000006e "0000006e", 021b17a7 "hostcontrollerexception", 0010918c "aejgm"

Answer 1

I have the same problem, and found solution - Here

Corrupted node.ini file in AdminComponent1 folder - size 2kb, but empty when open with notepad.

Solution - browse to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\Search\Nodes\

For each node, open the folder and browse to \Configuration\Local\ and check the node.ini file with notepad. If the file is empty, the file is corrupted, copy the node.ini from one of the nodes and then start the service.

In my case, delete corrupted node.ini file solved the problem.

Answer 2

You would normally start and stop SharePoint services using Central Administration, not the Services manager. What happens when you go to CA, Application Management, Manage services, select the server, and stop/start the service there? If you still get an error, use a ULS viewer to examine the ULS for related errors.

Answer 3

I have same problem.

And I deleted node.ini.

SharePoint creates new node.ini automatically and I reset index on search service application.

In my case, problem resolved.