Site collection does not load after mounting database

Question

Site collection does not load after mounting database

MDuBose 716

Hello,

In SharePoint Server 2016, to test dismounting/mounting a database, I had backed up a content database from the Production database server and restored it to the Dev database server. Then, through Central Administration, I'd dismounted the Dev content database from the Dev web application and mounted the Prod content database. The site collection in the browser loads as expected.

Now, when dismounting the Prod content database from the Dev web application and mounted the Dev content database back then opening the site collection, the site will not load. I get the message below:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Microsoft-IIS/8.5
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2021 20:08:28 GMT
Connection: close

I've checked in the "View Site Collections" page in Central Administration that the site collection is pointing the the Dev content database. In addition, for further troubleshooting, I tried dismounting the Dev content database again but this time through Powershell (Dismount-SPContentDatabase "<ContentdBName>"). The Powershell command throws an error in that it cannot find the content database. The Dev content database is listed when viewing from SSMS.

I did not see anything in the ULS logs that would explain these errors.

What could be causing this issue?

Echo Du_MSFT 17,316 Reputation points

2021-02-24T10:15:23.143+00:00

Hello @MDuBose ,

This is a quick note to let you know that we are performing research on this issue.

Thanks,
Echo Du
Echo Du_MSFT 17,316 Reputation points

2021-03-01T08:21:48.72+00:00

Hi @MDuBose ,

Would you tell me whether your issue has been resolved or have any update ?
I am looking forward to your reply.

Have a nice day!
MDuBose 716 Reputation points

2021-03-01T14:40:56.517+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

The issue has been resolved. Explanation is below.

Accepted answer

2 additional answers

Your answer

Echo Du_MSFT 17,316 Reputation points

2021-02-24T10:15:23.143+00:00

Hello @MDuBose ,

This is a quick note to let you know that we are performing research on this issue.

Thanks,
Echo Du
Echo Du_MSFT 17,316 Reputation points

2021-03-01T08:21:48.72+00:00

Hi @MDuBose ,

Would you tell me whether your issue has been resolved or have any update ?
I am looking forward to your reply.

Have a nice day!
MDuBose 716 Reputation points

2021-03-01T14:40:56.517+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

The issue has been resolved. Explanation is below.

Answer 1

These are the steps that I'd followed and the issue finally resolved. All commands were ran on the App server.

Ran below scripts that did not fix the issue
$db = Get-SPContentDatabase "dbName" ;$db.RefreshSitesInConfigurationDatabase();
Ran Get-SPDeletedSite. Did not fix the issue
Ran Get-SPDeletedSite | Restore-SPDeletedSite. Did not fix the issue
Ran Dismount-SPContentDatabase "dbName". No error this time. It ran successfully.
Checked in Central Administration that the DB was dismounted and it was.
Checked the website in a browser to see if it did not load which was an expected behavior.
Ran below script to test the DB. No errors.
test-spcontentdatabase -name "dbName" -webapplication "webURL"
Ran the below script. No errors returned.
Mount-SPContentDatabase "dbName" -DatabaseServer "dbServer" -WebApplication "webURL"
Checked in Central Administration to see if DB was attached and it was. Checked if DB was listed under site collection and it was.
Checked the website in a browser and got the same error as before.
Ran the below script to see if anything came up from the script and it did.
Get-SPSite "webURL"
Checked the website in a browser and got the same error as before.
Ran below script again and checked site and it finally comes up.
$db = Get-SPContentDatabase "dbName";$db.RefreshSitesInConfigurationDatabase();

I still don't understand the cause of the issue. I'd dismounted and mounted a different web application before running the steps above and it worked fine. Maybe mounting the Prod DB before dismounting the Stage DB caused issues initially.

Echo Du_MSFT 17,316 Reputation points

2021-03-02T10:16:42.22+00:00

Hi @MDuBose ,

Thanks for your enthusiasm for sharing.

You can mark your answer so that other users can learn from it.

Have a nice day!

Thanks,
Echo Du

Answer 2

Echo Du_MSFT 17,316

Hello @MDuBose ,

This error means your entire site collection is accidentally deleted. You need to restore it.

In order to restore this site collection, you can use Restore-SPSite -Path PowerShell command (Pay attention, this command works only when you have a backup, because you need to set -Path).

If you do not have a backup, use this instead:

Get-SPDeletedSite | Restore-SPDeletedSite

There are similar cases for reference：

Thanks,
Echo Du

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MDuBose 716 Reputation points

2021-02-24T14:40:05.14+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

I do not have a backup of my Dev environment so I ran this script: Get-SPDeletedSite | Restore-SPDeletedSite. When running this script and checking to see if the site comes up, I still get the same result. Also, I'd tried just running Get-SPDeletedSite which no results display. This indicates that there aren't any deleted sites, correct?
Echo Du_MSFT 17,316 Reputation points

2021-02-25T09:33:50.123+00:00
Hi @MDuBose ,

By default, this error does not occur. In my test, I can successfully mount/dismount Content DB.

Please try the following troubleshooting:

Check whether there are error logs in the Event View

I recommended that you test with another Web Application and see if all web applications will have similar issue

Thanks,
Echo Du

=========================

Answer 3

trevorseward 11,711

This means one of three things:

1) You have a site in another database that has the same Site ID; Site IDs are unique per farm.

2) You need to refresh the list of sites in the content database; $db = Get-SPContentDatabase dbName;$db.RefreshSitesInConfigurationDatabase();.

3) The site just doesn't exist in that database (but this sounds unlikely).

MDuBose 716 Reputation points

2021-02-24T16:30:43.333+00:00

Hi @trevorseward

I've ran the Get-SPContentDatabase command just to see what would come back. I've noticed that the Dev content database that I've mounted is not showing up in the returned list. I've also noticed that the Prod content databases are not showing up. What does this mean? These databases are present when connecting to the SQL server in SSMS. If I run the RefreshSitesInConfigurationDatabase() method, will this return the Dev content database?

UPDATE #1:
I have two servers: APP and WFE. I'd initially ran Get-SPContentDatabase command on the WFE server in which the Dev content database was not returned. When running the command on the APP server, the Dev content database displayed. I ran $db = Get-SPContentDatabase DevContentDatabase;$db.RefreshSitesInConfigurationDatabase() with no errors. However, the site still does not come up.
MDuBose 716 Reputation points

2021-02-24T21:27:07.787+00:00

@trevorseward

You'd also mentioned that the site could be in another database with the same Site ID. How can I troubleshoot that scenario to make sure that's not the issue? Keep in mind, my Dev site came up before detaching and attaching it again so I'm not sure if something got corrupted in the process.
trevorseward 11,711 Reputation points

2021-02-25T13:26:24.753+00:00

I'll admit I'm a bit confused as to the order of operations you took and running cmdlets on one server shouldn't produce different output from another server on the same farm -- if that is occurring, you should clear the config cache (see https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2014/09/clear-sharepoint-2013-configuration-cache-using-powershell.html).

It might be worth dismounting all content databases from your dev farm and remounting the known good ones.

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Site collection does not load after mounting database

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