Getting Rid of http://server/Analytics_{GUID}/ Requests

When I'm developing software I often have Fiddler turned on to capture client HTTP traffic. I've noticed weird http://server/Analytics_{GUID}/ Requests appearing in a batch of 4 requests every minute:

Investigation led me to Application Server Administration Service Timer Job which in turn called Search Service Instance's Synchronize method. This method calls code which uses rather odd way of determining whether file share exists:
    private static bool ShareExists(string path)
    {
      try
      {
        Directory.GetDirectories(path);
        return true;
      }
      catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ex)
      {
        return true;
      }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
        return false;
      }
    }

Line Directory.GetDirectories(path); causes those 4 requests. This execution path happens when you don't have Search Service Application provisioned but you do have SharePoint Server Search service started.

Anyway, I stopped the service using cmdlet:
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Local | Stop-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance

And the problem was solved, no more pesky Analytics requests.

OpenQuery Failed with status ID: 0x800007d0

ULS on my clients' farm was polluted by messages "OpenQuery Failed with status ID: 0x800007d0" every few seconds.

Turns out I had to add user which is running mssearch.exe process (SP_Search in my case) to local group called Performance Monitor Users. After adding the user I rebooted the machine and the problem went away.