"Cannot initialize the indexer process." error while Reindexing Product Flat Data Index

Question

While reindexing "Product Flat Data", I am getting the following error message, "Cannot initialize the indexer process". Please suggest how to fix this and allow reindexing.

Answer 1

Based on the error you specified in the comment, I can conclude that you cannot use the flat product tables. It's exactly what I was saying here. You have too many attributes (or too large values) used in product listing. Edit your product attributes and change the field Used in product listing to no for the attributes that are not needed in the product list.
If they are not that many, you may want to remove from product list the product description or any other field that has long values.

[EDIT]
If you don't want to remove attributes from product listing you need to disable the flat products. The website will work a little (or a lot) slower, but at least it will work.

Answer 2

I had this issue and it turned out that a table needed to be repaired.

Run the following command from shell:

php {directory_root}/shell/indexer.php --reindex

I had an error like the following:

'General error: 145 Table './{datbasename}/mg_catalogsearch_fulltext' is marked as crashed and should be repaired'

I ran a mysql REPAIR on the mentioned table and could then run the indexer without issue.

Answer 3

To resolve the "Cannot initialize the indexer process" you need to run follow below step

Solution 1 :-

This is usually occurred when we Enable "Use Flat Catalog Category" and "Use Flat Catalog Product"

Please connect SSH via Putty run below command:-

These is Individual commands for re-indexing:-

php shell/indexer.php --reindex catalog_category_flat

php shell/indexer.php --reindex catalog_category_product

php shell/indexer.php --reindex catalogsearch_fulltext

OR run all re-indexing:-

php shell/indexer.php --reindexall

Then clear the magento all cache.

Solution 2 :-

Try to run indexing with PHP script file. Create a file reindex_custom.php in the root.

<?php
require_once("app/Mage.php");
Mage::app('default');
Mage::app()->setCurrentStore(Mage_Core_Model_App::ADMIN_STORE_ID);
try{
$indexerByShell = Mage::getBaseDir().'/shell/indexer.php';
if(file_exists($indexerByShell))  
 { 
$indexListByCode = array(
"catalog_product_attribute",
                       "catalog_product_price",
                       "catalog_product_flat",
                       "catalog_category_flat",
                       "catalog_category_product",
                       "catalog_url",
                       "catalogsearch_fulltext",
                       "cataloginventory_stock"
    );
        //reindex using magento command line  
        foreach($indexListByCode as $indexer)  
        {  
            echo "reindex $indexer \n ";  
            exec("php $indexerByShell --reindex $indexer");  
        } 
    }
}catch(Exception $e){
    echo $e;
}
?>

Then clear the magento all cache and run this file as http://domain.com/reindex_custom.php

Answer 4

I got this error after installing an extension. I fixed it by going to Magento Connect Manager and uninstalling the extension I previously installed. After the uninstall, I was able to go to the Index Management page and refresh all the indexes. I then installed the extension manually and there were no problems after that. It's also handy to have backups readily available for situations like this!

Answer 5

Product flat data indexer builds flat tables (catalog_product_flat_1 ...) based on product eav attributes. If on your store have many attributes and they are searchable or used in product listing or attribute type is "static", then row size of product flat tables are exceed the limit. You can read more here.
Remove unnecessary attributes or use them as not (searchable, used for product listing, used for product displaying, used for promo rules ...).