Updating the Site Registration Panel

If you make changes to the Site Registration panel, you need to re-register the site. To do so:

1. Start the Search Configuration Utility. See Also: Logging into Ektron's Search Server Configuration Screen
2. If the Ektron server has several databases, select one from the drop-down.
   

   

3. In the Search Server Credentials area, enter the Domain, Username, and Password for your Search Server.
4. Click Register Site. A confirmation window appears.
5. Click Yes. Progress appears in a window.
   

   
   

6. When finished, click Close.

Site Registration Status

When your Search Server configuration is properly set to connect to your Web server, the following appears on the Search Configuration screen.

CMS Database

The Site Registration area's CMS Database area shows information about Search Server's connections to your Web site. The following information explains the properties.

• Site ID—The IIS site ID found on the Web server.
• Database—The database that Search Server crawls.
• Database Server—The name or IP address of the site's Web server.
• Site URL—The URL that visitors use to view the Web site.
• Version—The Ektron product version of the Web site.

CMS Database Connection String

Microsoft Search Server 2010 uses this string to connect to your Ektron site's database. If the database is on the same domain as your search server, set Integrated Security to true. Otherwise, set Integrated Security to false and enter a SQL username and password.

Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval

Use the Search Configuration Screen Site Registration panel's Interval field to define the incremental crawl interval in seconds.

 

Whenever a crawl finishes, Ektron begins to track the time. After the specified number of seconds expires, Ektron checks for changes to the database. If any occurred, a new incremental crawl starts. If none occurred, the timer is reset.

Search Server Credentials

Enter the domain, username, and password of a user with privileges to connect to the Microsoft Search Server 2010 server.

Advanced Options

Crawl tracing

Crawl Tracing

Use this drop-down to specify a level of detail collected by the crawl log. A separate log is created for each crawl, and is saved to the Data Directory.

Data directory

Data Directory

Use the Data Directory field to identify the folder on your Search Server that stores a copy of Ektron content needed by Microsoft Search Server 2010. The directory also stores protocol logs, which track crawl activity. The default value is C:\EktronSearchData.

Secondary search servers

Secondary Search Servers

Use this area to add secondary search servers to a load-balanced cluster. You would only do this on a primary server, to identify its secondary servers. See Also: Hardware and Software Requirements for Search Server

1. In the Secondary Search Servers section, click Add ( ).
2. Insert the name of the secondary servers.
3. Click Register Site.
   

   

Using Crawl Filters to Improve Search Performance

When setting up the connection to Microsoft Search Server, you determine the types of content that will be crawled using the following screen.

If your crawl is taking too long, you might consider removing content types, especially those you do not use. To update the list of crawled content types, use the Search Configuration Screen's Site Registration panel > Advanced Options > Crawl Filters fields.

The following list describes the content covered by each type of crawl filter.

• HTML—Content blocks, forms, blogs, content-associated library items, completed Smart Forms, calendar events.
• Documents—Uploaded Office documents, PDFs, images, and so on. See Working with Assets in the Document Management System
• Products—eCommerce catalog entries. See Conducting eCommerce
• Forums—Discussion topics, replies, and so on. See Working with Discussion Boards.
• Community members—Community user and groups. See Managing Community Groups.
• Community content—Community user and group photos, blogs, and so on.
• Library items—Files created through Ektron's library. See Storing Files in the Library.

  NOTE: Metadata and tags are crawled regardless of the crawl filter settings. Also, changes to other Ektron data objects result in the appropriate crawl, regardless of these settings. See Also: Full vs. Incremental Crawls

Full vs. Incremental Crawls

Ektron supports 2 types of crawls.

• Full—occurs immediately after events that significantly change data structure.
• Incremental—occurs after incremental crawl interval passes for less significant events that still require a crawl. Ektron batches changes and triggers an incremental crawl at specified intervals, such as every 10 minutes. Incremental crawls enhance your Search Server's performance by using fewer resources.

Events that start a full crawl

Events that Start a Full Crawl 

These events, which significantly change data structure, trigger a full crawl when they occur. This crawl registers searchable Ektron properties with Search Server, and ensures that search results reflect the latest information for all Ektron content.

• A site is registered with Search Server. For example, a new site is installed.
• Ektron registers new searchable properties with Search Server. For example, a new metadata definition, a new Smart Form configuration, and so on.

  NOTE: Two full crawls are run whenever new properties are mapped (for example, a Smart Form is added).

• After you synchronize your sites with eSync, a crawl updates them to reflect the changed content.
  • A database sync starts a full crawl.
  • A content or folder sync starts an incremental crawl.

• Any type of aliasing is enabled or disabled through the Workarea's Settings > Configuration > Url Aliasing > Settings page.

  IMPORTANT: If you edit the siteroot/web.config file's ek_ecom_DefaultCurrencyId property, you must begin a manual crawl. See Also: Managing Your Search Server You will only see the new default currency in search results when that crawl is complete.

Events that start an incremental crawl

Events that Start an Incremental Crawl

Except for those listed in Events that Start a Full Crawl , any event that updates the database is queued for an incremental crawl to be run when the specified time interval passes. See Also: Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval

An incremental crawl looks for content that was added, deleted, or updated since the last crawl. Here are examples of such events.

• creating content

  NOTE: If a user begins to edit content then cancels, an incremental crawl is queued.

• editing existing content's text, images, or properties
• creating a new menu, collection, or taxonomy category
• creating a new user or updating an existing one

Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval

Use the Search Configuration Screen Site Registration panel's Interval field to define the incremental crawl interval in seconds.

 

Whenever a crawl finishes, Ektron begins to track the time. After the specified number of seconds expires, Ektron checks for changes to the database. If any occurred, a new incremental crawl starts. If none occurred, the timer is reset.

Starting Crawls Manually

You should not need to start a crawl. Ektron initiates crawls as necessary. You would typically begin a manual crawl for troubleshooting purposes.

Prerequisite: You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Search-Adminrole.

• To start an incremental crawl immediately, go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status. Click Request Incremental Crawl.
  
• To start a full crawl immediately, go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status. Click Request Full Crawl.
  

Screens to Monitor and Manage Crawls 

Ektron provides 2 screens and a log that enable you to monitor and manage crawls.

• Workarea’s Search Status screen See Also: Monitoring Search from the Workarea
  

  

• Search Configuration Screen's Crawl Management panel
  

  

  The following table compares the screens.

  Options	Workarea's Search Status screen	Search Configuration Screen
  How to access	Ektron Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status	On server that hosts Search Server: Windows Start > All Programs > Ektron > CMS400vreleasenumber> Utilities > Search Config
  View crawl information	search server content source name query credentials if there is a pending request to begin incremental search current and next scheduled search action See Also: Monitoring Search from the Workarea most recent start and end times duration (last if no crawl currently running; current if crawl currently running) interval See Also: Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval crawl filters	On Site Registration panel Crawl IntervalSee Also: Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval Crawl Filters Crawl Tracing Level   On Crawl Management panel content source name crawl status (same as Current Action on Search Status screen) most recent start and end times duration
  Start full crawl See Also: Managing Your Search Server		Not available
  Start incremental crawl See Also: Managing Your Search Server		Not available
  Set incremental crawl interval	View only	Site Registration panel > Crawl Interval field See Also: Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval
  Set the type of data that is searched	View only	Site Registration panel > Advanced Options > Crawl Filters

What happens if a crawl is running when a new one is scheduled to start

What Happens if a Crawl is Running When a New One is Scheduled to Start

• If a crawl request is issued while a crawl is running, the new crawl will start only after the current crawl completes.
• A pending full crawl starts before any pending incremental crawls.

The Crawl Log

The Data Directory stores a log of information about each crawl. The logs are stored in the Data Directory. The Search Configuration screen's Crawl Tracing field lets you determine the amount of detail you want the log to collect.

The following errors may appear in the crawl log.

• Error—<url_path_to_asset>:  The filtering was stopped because of a user action, such as stopping the crawl
• Problem—An asset is referenced in the Ektron database, but the physical file was deleted from the file system.

Troubleshooting Crawl Errors

The following information lists errors that may appears during a crawl, and how to resolve them. Errors appear in Microsoft Search Server 2010's administration portal. They do not appear in Ektron.

• Problem—A content block based on a Smart Form has a blank content_html field.
  • Error—Exception from HRESULT: 0xC00CEE2D
  • Solution—Remove the field or insert content into it.

• Problem—The crawl is taking a long time, your Web site has over 1 gigabyte of assets, and over 100 PDFs.
  • Solutions
    • Install Foxit PDF Filter

      Install Foxit PDF filter from http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/ifilter/installation.

      After installing, update the registry as shown below:

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0
        \Search\Setup\Filters\.pdf]
      "Extension"=".pdf"
      "FileTypeBucket"=dword:00000001
      "MimeTypes"="application/pdf"
      
      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0
        \Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf]
      @="{987f8d1a-26e6-4554-b007-6b20e2680632}"     
      

      See Also: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/opal/archive/2009/10/20/index-and-search-pdf-files-in-sharepoint-server-2010.aspx

    • Use the Filters Screen

      The Crawl Filters screen lets you decide which file types are crawled. You can exclude non-critical file types to speed up the crawl. See Also: Managing Your Search Server

• Problem—Either the crawl or the response time for search queries is too slow.
  • Solution—Hardware and Software Requirements for Search Server