Managing a Microsoft Search Server
The Search Configuration screen lets you manage the Ektron's implementation of a search server.
IMPORTANT: Ektron‘s Search Configuration screen provides access to a few commonly-used features of Microsoft’s Search Server. To fully use Search Server’s capabilities, use the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration utility. Also, if you remove or edit Ektron website information using IIS, you must restart the Ektron Windows Service before using the Search Server Configuration screen.
Before you log into the Search Configuration screen
Before You Log into the Search Configuration Screen
- Is the Ektron Search Server Service started?
- For ports opened between the Ektronserver and the search server, are firewalls off?
-
Verify that the user entered during the Search Server installation is also the user running these Windows services:
- SharePoint 2010 Timer
- SharePoint Server Search 14
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Verify that the user entered during the Search Server installation is also the user set in the Advanced Settings > Identity field running these Application Pools:
- <GUID> (there may be more than one)
- SecurityTokenServiceApplicationPool
- SharePoint Central Administration v4
Logging into Ektron's search server configuration screen
Logging into Ektron's Search Server Configuration Screen
- Log on to Microsoft Search Server 2010 as an administrator.
- Click the Windows Start menu > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. The port number appears in the browser address bar, following
http://server name
- Log onto the Ektron server as an administrator.
- Click the Windows Start menu > All Programs > Ektron > CMS400vreleasenumber> Utilities > Search Config. The Connection Information screen appears.
- In the CMS ServerMachine Name field, enter the Ektron server.
- In the Search Server Administration URL field, enter http:// , your search server name, colon(:), and port number (see Managing a Microsoft Search Server) For example,
http://MySearchServer:12345. - The Search Service Application screen appears. Select appropriate Content and Query Service applications.
Ektron's Search Server Configuration screen appears.
Managing the search configuration
Managing the Search Configuration
This section explains how to use the Search Configuration screen.
When your Search Server configuration is properly set to connect to your Web server, the following appears on the Search Configuration screen.
- CMS Database—shows information about Search Server's connections to your website.
- 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 website.
- Version—The website's Ektron version.
- CMS Database Connection String—Microsoft Search Server 2010 uses the CMS Database Connection 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.
- Crawl Interval—Set the incremental crawl intervalWhenever a crawl finishes, Ektron begins to track the time. After the number of seconds specified in the Incremental Crawl Interval expires, Ektron checks for changes to the database. If any occurred, a new incremental crawl starts. If none occurred, the timer is reset. Incremental crawls enhance your search's performance by using fewer resources..
- 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—See the following sections:
- Crawl Tracing—Use the 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—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—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: Setting Up a Load-Balanced Search with Microsoft Search Server 2010.
- In the Secondary Search Servers section, click Add (
). - Insert the name of the secondary servers.
- Click Register Site.
- In the Secondary Search Servers section, click Add (
Updating the site registration panel
Updating the Site Registration Panel
If you make changes to the Site Registration panel, you need to register the site again.
- Start the Search Configuration Utility. See Also: Logging into Ektron's Search Server Configuration Screen
- If the Ektron server has several databases, select one from the drop-down.
NOTE: If your Ektron version supports multi-site, the CMS Databases drop-down lists the multi-site database only once. The site Url may correspond to the main site or any sub-site (depending on their order in IIS).
- In the Search Server Credentials area, enter the Domain, Username, and Password for your Search Server.
- Click Register Site. A confirmation window appears.
- Click Yes. Progress appears in a window.
- When finished, click Close.
Troubleshooting site registration
Troubleshooting Site Registration
Error: Failed to connect to specified Search Server. Please verify that your Search Server URL and port number are valid and try again.
Possible solution:
- Open the Windows Services control panel.
- Right-click Ektron Search Server Service.
- Choose Properties from the context menu.
- Select the Log On tab from the properties dialog window.
- Select the radio button labeled This account.
- Enter the credentials to match those of the SharePoint Server Search 14 (OSearch14) service.
- Commit your changes.
Managing the search crawl
Managing the Search Crawl
Crawling is the process of preparing index files for searching. When Ektron content is added, deleted, or updated, a crawl makes that content available (or no longer available) to the search. In general, Ektron manages the crawl automatically—you do not need to do anything.
This section explains the automatic crawl: what starts one, how to monitor its status, and so on. In addition, if your search has a problem, you can run a manual crawl to troubleshoot it.
Full vs. incremental crawls
Full vs. Incremental Crawls
Microsoft Search Server 2010 supports 2 types of crawls.
- Full—occurs immediately after events that significantly change data structure
- Incremental—occurs after incremental crawl intervalWhenever a crawl finishes, Ektron begins to track the time. After the number of seconds specified in the Incremental Crawl Interval expires, Ektron checks for changes to the database. If any occurred, a new incremental crawl starts. If none occurred, the timer is reset. Incremental crawls enhance your search's performance by using fewer resources. passes for less significant events that still require a crawl
A full crawl registers searchable Ektron properties with the search provider and ensures that search results reflect the latest information for all Ektron content. An example of a full-crawl triggering event is the registration of a new site.
Other Ektron events trigger an incremental crawl, which is run when the specified time interval passes. See Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval. Typical incremental-crawl triggering events include the creation of new content and the editing of existing content.
If you are using eSync, a sync can trigger a full or incremental crawl, depending on the data being synched and the profile selected.
Setting the incremental crawl interval
Setting the Incremental Crawl Interval
Use the Search Configuration Screen Site Registration panel's Interval field to define the incremental crawl intervalWhenever a crawl finishes, Ektron begins to track the time. After the number of seconds specified in the Incremental Crawl Interval expires, Ektron checks for changes to the database. If any occurred, a new incremental crawl starts. If none occurred, the timer is reset. Incremental crawls enhance your search's performance by using fewer resources. in seconds.
Starting crawls manually
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.
Improving search performance with crawl filters
Improving Search Performance with Crawl Filters
When you set 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 Forman Ektron-defined Web page that contains XML (hidden from the end user) to display content, and receive, verify, and save user input.s, 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. Also, Ektron users and groups.
- Community content—Community usera user with limited privileges, such as writing to a community forum, but not having the same privileges as a forum moderator, or an administrator who has access to the Workarea. (A community user is the same as a membership user.) and group photos, blogs, and so on.
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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
Monitoring crawls
Monitoring Crawls
The Data Directory stores a log of information about each crawl. The logs are stored in the Managing a Microsoft Search Server. The Search Configuration screen's Managing a Microsoft Search Server 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.
The following screens also let you monitor and manage crawls.
- Search Status screen in the Workarea. See Also: Monitoring Microsoft Search Server 2010 from the Workarea
- Search Configuration Screen's Crawl Management panel
The following table compares the screens.
Table
| Options | Workarea's Search Status screen | Search Configuration Screen |
|---|---|---|
| How to access | Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status | On server that hosts Search Server: Windows Start > All Programs > Ektron > CMS400vreleasenumber> Utilities > Search Config |
|
View crawl information |
(last if no crawl currently running; current if crawl currently running)
|
On Site Registration panel
On Crawl Management panel
|
| Start full crawl See Also: Managing a Microsoft Search Server |
|
Not available |
| Start incremental crawl See Also: Managing a Microsoft Search Server |
|
Not available |
| View only |
Site Registration panel > Crawl Interval field |
|
| Set the type of data that is searched | View only |
Site Registration panel > Advanced Options > Crawl Filters |
Troubleshooting crawl errorsTroubleshooting 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.
Condition—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.
Problem—A content block based on a Smart Form has a blank content_html field. An error occurs: Exception from HRESULT: 0xC00CEE2D
Solution—Remove the field or insert content into it.
Problem—The crawl is taking a long time, your website has over 1 gigabyte of assetan external file, such as a Microsoft Word document or image, stored in Ektron. It can be managed like native Ektron content.s, and over 100 PDFs.
Solutions
- Install Foxit PDF Filter
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Install Foxit PDF filter from Foxit® PDF IFilter - Server
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: Index and Search PDF Files in SharePoint Server 2010
- 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 a Microsoft Search Server