linda christin pedersen
Aug 27, 2010
  6173
(4 votes)

How to get EPiServer Search to work on Windows Server 2008 R2

EPiServer uses the Microsoft Indexing Service to create the indexes for the built in EPiServer search control.

To get it to work with Windows Server 2008 you need to do a couple of setups.

Here’s my action list - hope I can save someone else’s time…

 

1. The MS Indexing Service is not installed by default on the 2008 Server, so we need to get this up and running: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954822 (I run a reboot after this. Not sure if its needed)

2. Then we need to add a index catalog. Start with firing the CIADV.MSC

3. Right click, choose “New” and “Catalog”

4. Enter a name for your catalog (the default is “Web”) and browse to your web folder (typically the VPP folder)

5. Choose “Properties” for the catalog you just added and go to the folder “Tracking”. Make sure the “WWW Server” points to your    web site

6. After that, right click on the catalog you just added and choose “New” “Directory”.

7. Create directories to the folders you want to index – i.e the “PageFiles” and “Documents” folders

8. Restart the MS Indexing Service after the creation of the catalog

9. Edit the “EPiServer.IndexingService.exe.config” hidden under your EPiServer installation (…EPiServer\Shared\Services\Indexing Service). Make sure the  connectionstring (one for each item root index) has the correct database values. In addition, the “filePath” must lead to the right VPP folder (i.e. …\VPP\Global)

10. Edit the “episerver.config” – make sure you are using the “VirtualPathVersioningProvider”. Important: The “indexingServiceCatalog” is the one you created in step 4

<add showInFileManager="true" virtualName="Global Files" virtualPath="~/Global/" bypassAccessCheck="false" name="SiteGlobalFiles" type="EPiServer.Web.Hosting.VirtualPathVersioningProvider,EPiServer" indexingServiceCatalog="Web" physicalPath="[YOUR PATH]\VPP\Global" />

11. Delete any “index” folder under your VPP\Global, VPP\Documents, VPP\PageFiles (probably you don’t have any)

12. Restart the EPiServer CMS Indexing Service (runs under Administrative Tools ->Services)

13. Take a look at Mari’s blog on how to test if your CMS is ready for searching: http://labs.episerver.com/en/Blogs/Mari-Jorgensen/Dates/2009/11/Searching-for-files-in-EPiServer-CMS-5/

 

 

Good luck!

Aug 27, 2010

Comments

Jørgen Tonvang
Jørgen Tonvang Sep 21, 2010 10:33 AM

Great post. I think the most obvious "gotchas" are that the Indexing Service is not installed by default on 2008, and when you do install it, the Web catalog (that is refered to by default in web.config) has to be created.
One would think that the EPiServer deployment center would handle (or at least inform about) this upon installation, but it seems the EPiServer search has a really low priority these days...

Sep 28, 2010 07:48 AM

Excellent.

Torbjörn Andersson
Torbjörn Andersson Mar 31, 2011 05:21 PM

Indexing Service is only needed if you wish to make files referenced by EPiServer.Web.Hosting.VirtualPathNativeProvider searchable. Files referenced by a EPiServer.Web.Hosting.VirtualPathVersioningProvider are indexed internaly by EPiServer CMS and should not be indexed by Indexing Service.

Johan Book
Johan Book Dec 2, 2011 11:15 AM

Searching in native files isn't working for EPiServer CMS 6 R2 regardless of how much you try to configure the Index Service ;-) This is confirmed to be a bug. See http://world.episerver.com/Support/Bug-List/#bug,EPiServer%20CMS,74385,%2b4d5gb25szlPurXylr9TFRIdi%2fs%3d

Sigve Fast
Sigve Fast Jan 19, 2012 11:09 AM

Thanks

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