SSP Stuck on Unprovisioning

I tried to delete a test SSP the other day via Central Administration. Having selected the options to also delete associated content databases and web applications i hit ok and left it to run. The SSP status changed to 'Unprovisioning' and an hour later was still stuck.

I then followed this example in the hope the SSP would delete.

• http://prequest01.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/unable-to-delete-shared-services/
  
  
1. Tried: stsadm -o deletessp "TestSSP" –force, but this did not work
   
2. Login to SQL server.
   
3. Open SQL Management Studio and expend Databases.
   
4. Expand Configuration Database & Tables.
   
5. Opened table for dbo.object.
   
6. Executed following query in query analyzer: SELECT * FROM [MOSS_CFG_CA_01].[dbo].[Objects]where name like ‘Name of the Shared Services’.
7. Copy the ID of object referenced in objects table of configuration database.
   
8. Open command prompt and changed directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN> and executed following command to delete the Shared Services using the ID which was copied: Stsadm -o deleteconfigurationobject -id “id retrieved from object table”

• To clean up we decide to delete the DBs via SQL Management Studio and delete the web applications via Central Administration.

A week later I discovered that one of our servers had rebooted itself with the following log (don't yet know if this is related):

System Failure: Stop error
Reason Code: 0x805000f
Bug ID:
Bugcheck String: 0x000000c5 (0x00000004, 0xd0000002, 0x00000001, 0x8089bce3)
Comment: 0x000000c5 (0x00000004, 0xd0000002, 0x00000001, 0x8089bce3)

I then discovered that the search was no longer working. Submiting a query returned the following error:

Cannot connect to the search service

The status of the test SSP i had tried to delete was still stuck on 'Unprovisioning'. Also the other SSPs 'Edit Properties' pages in Central Administration were no longer available and returned the following error:

An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface.Exception Information: Cannot open database "xxx" requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user 'xxx'.

In the event log on the server I found multiple instances of the following error:

Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (e6a1ecb4-3aa8-45cd-a179-d7e053aa927a).

Reason: Cannot open database "xxx" requested by the login. The login failed.
Login failed for user 'xxx'.

Solution:

1. Restart the Office SharePoint Server Search service in via the Computer Management console - Search still not working.
2. I retried the STSADM CMD
   stsadm -o deletessp "TestSSP" –force

Operation was successful this time and the SSP has now gone. The event log is now clear of all errors and the unavailable pages in Central Administration are now available again.