FAST Search for SharePoint: Cannot start service FASTSearchMonitoring on computer ‘.’

We recently had a scenario where we applied some Windows Updates to our servers.  When our FAST Server for SharePoint Servers were rebooted after applying the updates the following FAST services were listed as “Dead”:

• QRProxy Service  qrproxy
• SAM Admin samadmin
• SAM Worker samworker

Dead Services: QRProxy Services, SAM Admin and SAM Worker

It should also be noted that these FAST Servers are NOT connected to the INTERNET.

The problem is the server is unable to perform Certificate Revocation Checking (CRL) checking and so the service times out — SharePoint Server suffers from the same issue if the server are not connected to the INTERNET.  The solution is discussed here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sambetts/archive/2012/10/03/psconfig-system-invalidoperationexception-cannot-start-the-service-spadmin-on-computer.aspx

You have a few options:

• Disable CRL Check
• Allow the server access to CRL.MICROSOFT.COM
• Edit the HOSTS file and point CRL.MICROSOFT.COM to 127.0.0.1

We opted for the 1st option.  After we disabled the check the service was able to start successfully.

Here is the error message we received before we disabled the Certificate Revocation Checking (CRL) check:

Verbose StartServices – Starting service – FASTSearchMonitoring

Error Utility.WriteException – Exception –  : Exception – Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ServiceCommandException: Service ‘FAST Search for SharePoint Monitoring (FASTSearchMonitoring)’ cannot be started due to the following error: Cannot start service FASTSearchMonitoring on computer ‘.’. —> System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot start service FASTSearchMonitoring on computer ‘.’. —> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion