This is one of the errors which occurs when you have set up a SharePoint 2007 farm where you applied the index and query roles to different servers.

Microsoft released a knowledge base article describing the problem: You cannot browse to an SSL-secured Office SharePoint Server 2007 site or to the Search Settings page for a Shared Services Provider.

Problem description

In my case I configured a small server farm: 

The application server ws acting as the indexing server and the 2 web front-end servers acting as query servers.

After reviewing the event log at the end of the week I discovered an error with event ID 6482:

Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server Shared Services
Event ID: 6482

Description:
Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (GUID).

Reason:
The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.

Technical Support Details:
System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send. ---> System.IO.IOException: Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream.

[Please read the knowledge base article for further details.]

This error occurred because I had:

• given my 2 web front-end servers the query role,
• given my application server the index role and
• updated the SharePoint 2007 server farm with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

The reason for this error is an self-issued certificate used by the Office Server Web Services that is no longer valid.

Solution

In order to solve this problem you need to reissue a new certificate. Please read the article for detailed instructions: You cannot browse to an SSL-secured Office SharePoint Server 2007 site or to the Search Settings page for a Shared Services Provider.