Index Administration Task shows error in VAC

Problem

At least one task, the Index Administration Task, shows status 'error' in the Vault Administration Console (VAC)

Error Message

Source:        Enterprise Vault
Date:          04/12/2015 11:00:00
Event ID:      40966
Task Category: Task Guardian
Level:         Error
Description:
A program fault has raised an exception.

Exception: Failed to read records using EnumTasksByComputerID, id: ########################################evserver error:Failed to contact the directory service, command: ReadEntry
Diagnostic:
Type: KVS.EnterpriseVault.Diagnostics.EVBaseException
Reference:

Command Line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVTaskGuardian.exe" -URL:tcp://##.###.###.##:#####/########_####_####_####_############/KVS.EnterpriseVault.ProcessManager18643596
Application Domain: EVTaskGuardian.exe
Process Id: ####
Thread Id: ####
Stack Trace:    at KVS.EnterpriseVault.Management.TaskManager.ListDotNetTasks(Boolean initialList, Boolean UnicodePSTCompatible)
   at KVS.EnterpriseVault.Management.TaskManager.ManageSlaveProcesses()

Cause

When the VAC is attempting to get the status of certain tasks the EV Directory service that is the parent of the 'Tasks' container is queried.  If the local EV Directory service is either stopped or not functioning properly the tasks status will show as error, other task's status will be pulled using the EV Site alias.

Solution

Start the Enterprise Vault Directory service

Note: A good practice is to stop all the EV Services on the affected server and start them in sequence (Admin->Directory->Indexing->Shopping->Storage->Task Controller)