Ektron Reference

>>Helping Users Navigate Your Web Site > Using Search > Using Microsoft Search Server > Setting Up a Load Balanced Search

Setting Up a Load Balanced Search

You can use load balancing to distribute your search's workload across multiple servers. Load balancing improves search's performance by significantly decreasing the time to complete search crawls and process search queries (especially when the site is under a heavy load).

This section describes two scenarios for setting up Load Balanced search.

Installing Microsoft Search Server 2010 to a Primary Server in a Load Balance Cluster

Use this procedure if you have not installed Microsoft Search Server 2010 on the primary server in a Load Balance Cluster.

Prerequisite: Hardware and software requirements (Search Server 2010) (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb905370.aspx)

  1. Obtain, download, and begin to install Microsoft Search Server 2010.

    NOTE: You may be informed that you need to run the Products Preparation Tool before beginning the installation.

  2. When you are prompted for an installation type, choose Server Farm.
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  3. On the Server Type tab, select Complete then click Install Now.
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  4. Search server is installed.
  5. You are prompted to run the Configuration Wizard, which lets you set up Microsoft Search Server 2010. Accept that choice.
  6. The SharePoint Configuration Wizard is launched.
  7. On the Connect to a server farm screen, choose Create a new server farm.
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  8. You are prompted to specify a database server, name, and user name and password for access to the account.
    For Database name, accept the default of SharePoint_Config.
    Enter a Username and Password of a SQL user with the sysadmin role. Microsoft Search Server 2010 uses them to access your Ektron database. Click Next.
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  9. You are prompted to enter a password for access to the server farm.
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  10. You are prompted to enter a port number and Security settings. You may enter any open http port. For Security Settings, choose NTLM.
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  11. A confirmation screen displays the information you entered. Click OK.
  12. Click Finish to launch the SharePoint Central Administration site to allow for additional configuration and provisioning. Noted that the first installation in a farm does not create a Web application or provision a site. See Also: SharePoint 2010 Central Administration
  13. The following screen appears within SharePoint. Click Start the Wizard.
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  14. Complete the wizard.

Adding Servers to a Load Balance Cluster

Prerequisite: Two servers running Microsoft Search Server 2010; the servers cannot use Search Server Express

When setting up search load balancing, you need to decide which server is the primary one, and which is/are the secondary one(s). This procedure describes how to set up a single secondary server in a load balanced cluster. To set up additional secondary servers, follow these instructions for each secondary server. See Also: Installing Microsoft Search Server 2010 to a Primary Server in a Load Balance Cluster

Prerequisite: Hardware and software requirements (Search Server 2010) (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb905370.aspx)

This procedure has two parts.

Part One: Install Microsoft Search Server 2010

  1. Obtain, download, and begin to install Microsoft Search Server 2010.

    2. NOTE: You may be informed that you need to run the Products Preparation Tool before beginning the installation.

  2. When you are prompted for an installation type, choose Server Farm.
    Show me.
  3. On the Server Type tab, select Complete then click Install Now.
    Show me.
  4. Search server is installed.
  5. You are prompted to run the Configuration Wizard, which lets you set up Microsoft Search Server 2010. Accept that choice.
  6. The SharePoint Configuration Wizard is launched.
  7. On the Connect to a server farm screen, choose Connect to an existing server farm.
    8. Show me.
  8. On the Specify Configuration Database Settings screen, in the Database server field, enter the primary server in the load balance cluster.
  9. Click Retrieve Database Names. The primary server's database appears in the Database name field.
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  10. You are prompted to enter a passphrase. Enter the same passphrase that you entered when setting up the primary server. See Also: Installing Microsoft Search Server 2010 to a Primary Server in a Load Balance Cluster
  11. Complete the remaining prompts. The wizard uses all information to configure Microsoft Search Server 2010.

Part Two: Set up Query Components

In this procedure, you create two query components. One defines this secondary server as a failover server, which takes over processing if the primary server goes offline. The second query component distributes the processing of search queries among search servers.

  1. Open Microsoft Search Server 2010's Central Administration screen.
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  2. Click Manage service applications (highlighted above).
  3. The Service Applications screen appears. Click Search Service Application 1.
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  4. The Search Service Application 1: Search Administration screen appears. Scroll down to Search Application Topology.
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  5. Click Modify (highlighted above).
  6. To begin setting up the failover server, under Index partition 0, click Query Component, then Add Mirror.
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  7. Use the following table to complete the Add mirror query component screen.
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The Query Component Screen

Field Description
Server Enter the server to which you are currently signed on.
Associated Property database Select the primary server and the database you specified in Step 4.
Location of Index Accept the default.
Failover-only Query Component Ektron recommends checking this box. If you do, when the primary search server goes offline, the secondary server processes all search queries until the primary server returns.
  1. The Search Service Application 1: Search Administration screen reappears. Click Apply Topology Changes.
  2. The secondary server now appears under Index Partition (highlighted below).
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  3. Set up a query component to distribute the workload of handling search queries. To do that, from the Search Application Topology area, click New > Index Partition and Query Component.
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  4. The Add Query Component Screen appears. Complete The Query Component Screen as you did above, but this time do not check the Failover-only Query Component box.
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  5. The Search Service Application 1: Search Administration screen reappears. Click Apply Topology Changes.
  6. To do that, from the Search Application Topology area, click New > Crawl Component.
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  7. The Crawl Component screen appears. Use the following table to complete it.
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The Crawl Component Screen

Field Description

Server

 Enter the server to which you are currently signed on.
Associated Crawl database Select the primary server and the database you specified in Step 4.
Temporary Location of Index Accept the default.
  1. The secondary server appears under Crawl (highlighted below).
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  2. Close Search Server Administration.

    NOTE: You only need to follow the next two steps once. So, if you are setting up multiple secondary servers, you can skip these two steps after setting up the first one.

  3. On the Ektron server, copy C:\Program Files\Ektron\CMS400versionnumber\Utilities\SearchServer\EktronSearchConfiguration.exe.
  4. On both search servers, paste EktronSearchConfiguration.exe and run it.
  5. On your Ektron Web server, open the Search Configuration screen, available from C:\Program Files (x86)\Ektron\CMS400v85\Utilities
    \SearchServer\Ektron.Cms.Search.Config.UI.exe    .
  6. Click Advanced Options.
  7. In the Secondary Search Servers section, click Add ( ) then insert the name of the secondary server(s).
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  8. Click Register Site.

Ektron Version 8.5, Doc. Rev. 2.0 (Dec. 2011)
Visit the Ektron Dev Center at http://dev.ektron.com 1–866–4–EKTRON
Ektron Documentation, © 2011 Ektron, Inc.