Sitecore Index Error - Root Element Undefined

Question

Any help regarding below would be greatly appreciated. We use the Advance database crawler for sitecore CMS, which interanlly uses Lucene.NET.

We get below the error when we try to enter the sitecore desktop

Heartbeat 16:23:24 ERROR Exception in alarm clock event subscriber. Exception: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. Source: mscorlib at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(IRuntimeMethodInfo method, Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeType typeOwner) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) at System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke(Object obj, Object[] parameters) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.AssignProperties(Object obj, Object[] properties) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.AssignProperties(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Object obj, Boolean assert, Boolean deferred, IFactoryHelper helper) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert, IFactoryHelper helper) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetInnerObject(XmlNode paramNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.AssignProperties(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Object obj, Boolean assert, Boolean deferred, IFactoryHelper helper) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert, IFactoryHelper helper) at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(String configPath, String[] parameters, Boolean assert) at Sitecore.Search.SearchManager.get_SearchConfiguration() at Sitecore.Data.Managers.IndexingManager.UpdateIndexAsync(Database database) at Sitecore.Data.Managers.IndexingManager.AlarmClock_Ring(Object sender, EventArgs args) at Sitecore.Services.AlarmClock.Heartbeat_Beat(Object sender, EventArgs e) 

Answer 1

The most common reason I saw this error is because you set up the index for both the main database and the web database, but you have not yet published your content tree on the Internet.

Troubleshooting steps: Delete the index configuration file. Log in to sitecore and verify that the root path exists in master. If the configuration file contains an index definition of "web", publish your root path (at least) to "web". Return the index configuration file.

Answer 2

Assuming you have placed the wrong vitreous string and the error you are getting is “The root element is not defined”, you should check your configuration and find the element:

 search/configuration/indexes/index/locations/<any name here>/Root 

There may be more of these nodes (each index may have several node nodes).

In your case, at least one of these root nodes contains a Sitecore path that does not exist. Point it at an existing item and it will work.

You probably copied the configuration that comes with the advanced database crawler without changing it to suit your environment.