Error when updating Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 – An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPSearchDatabase…

Problem description:

I upgraded to SP2 on my dev machine, and test environment first, and it worked like a charm, so it was time to try it on the production server.
When I upgraded our production server with the SP2, I got an error when running the SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration Wizard.
I got an error that there was an update conflict in a database caused by another service account already updating the database.

I got 3 Errors from upgrade.log:

1:

[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]: Upgrade [SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search2_DKTAASR185 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance] failed.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search2_DKTAASR185 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance is being updated by DLH-GROUP\MOSS_FARM_Service, in the OWSTIMER process, on machine DKTAASR185.  View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.StoreObject(SPPersistedObject obj, Boolean storeClassIfNecessary, Boolean ensure)

2:
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]: ReflexiveUpgrade [SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search2_DKTAASR185 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance] failed.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search2_DKTAASR185 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance is being updated by DLH-GROUP\MOSS_FARM_Service, in the OWSTIMER process, on machine DKTAASR185.  View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.StoreObject(SPPersistedObject obj, Boolean storeClassIfNecessary, Boolean ensure)

3:
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]: ReflexiveUpgrade [SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search2_DKTAASR185 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance] failed.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search2_DKTAASR185 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance is being updated by DLH-GROUP\MOSS_FARM_Service, in the OWSTIMER process, on machine DKTAASR185.  View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [9/9/2009 11:31:59 AM]:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.StoreObject(SPPersistedObject obj, Boolean storeClassIfNecessary, Boolean ensure)

There were also 3 errors in the event viewer which were not very informative.

1:
 Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUpgradeJobDefinition
   fdce6cfc-34c5-4ed1-a9d9-f5dfd6450389
   Upgrade completed with errors. Review the upgrade.log file located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Logs\Upgrade.log. The number of errors and warnings is listed at the end of the upgrade log file.

2:
Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products and Technologies. Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products and Technologies. Further information regarding this failure can be found at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\Upgrade.log. An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown. Additional exception information: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products and Technologies. Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException: Exception of type ‘Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException’ was thrown. at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.UpgradeTask.Run() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

3:
 Configuration of SharePoint Products and Technologies failed. Configuration must be performed in order for this product to operate properly. To diagnose the problem, review the extended error information located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics_9_9_2009_14_56_7_788_805303177.log, fix the problem, and run this configuration wizard again.

What fixed it for me:

I searched the net for a while and found a post  by Matthew McDermott that pointed to the right MS KB article.

It seemed like I had 2 problems, but I can’t confirm that now.

Attempt to fix #1:
My first attempt to fix the problem was adding some permissions to a few subfolders in the windows registry database, but that was not enough, in itself at least, to fix it.

Attempt to fix #2:
I read on the KB 939308 that:

This issue occurs if the contents of the file system cache on the front-end servers are newer than the contents of the configuration database. After you perform a system recovery, you may have to manually clear the file system cache on the local server.

The following fix is what worked for me, but I can’t possibly tell if i had to do fix 1  first.

Just try fix 2 first, and then see if it works. It can’t do any harm at least.
If it works or not it would be nice if you would drop a comment here to help figure out if step 1 was needed at all.
I have a feeling SharePoint just encountered a fluke error and only Fix 2 is needed to truly restart the configuration step.

Do this for each of the servers in the farm that have the problem running the SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration Wizard without errors.

1:
Stop the Windows SharePoint Services Timer by going to “Start” -> “Administrative tools” -> “Services”.
Right-click “Windows SharePoint Services Timer” and select “Stop”.

2:
Go to the following folder:
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config

There will be at least one subfolder here with a GUID as foldername.
Open the folder.
Find the Cache.ini file. Copy it to keep a backup.
Open it and delete everything inside it, and then write the number 1 in it. This is just a “flag” to see if it gets altered. You could write anything.
Close Cache.ini and delete all files except that one.
So the c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\SomeGuid folder will now only have Cache.ini in it and it contains the number 1 or any string you wish.

3:
Start the “Windows SharePoint Services Timer” by right-clicking it and choosing “Start”.

4:
Go back to the
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\SomeGuid folder and notice that all the deleted files should be back now.
Open Cache.ini and verify that it has another value than the one you entered. It should be the old value from the backed up file.

5:
Open up SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration (“Start” -> “Administrative Tools” -> “SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration”) and click on “operations” tab.
Click “Timer Job Status” which is located under Global Configuration.

Verify that the “Config Refresh” entry has “Succeeded” as value.

6:
Restart the SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration Wizard. You should not experience any problems now. It can be found under administrative tools.

The KB article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939308/) is aimed at this error message:

An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPAlternateUrlCollection Name=WEBAPPLICATION Parent=SPFarm Name=SharePoint_Config is being updated by DomainName\UserName1, in the w3wp process, on machine ServerName. View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.

That specific error relates to problems updating Alternate Access Mappings, but was still the fix for me.

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