Configuring full text search for a server group

() within is made up of the following primary components for Lucene search:

core—Manages the functionality by using Lucene library
Indexer—Part of
Searcher—Part of and plug-in server
plug-in—A Java plug-in, which runs under the plug-in server to serve search requests from the remote s (which are not indexer servers) in the server group.
Index—Lucene index files

Related topics

Navigating the AR System Management Console to manage server groups

How-FTS-high-availability-works-in-a-server-group-environment

Important

With Elasticsearch you do not need plug-in, multiple indexers or searchers, because the server directly communicates with Elasticsearch server to query data by using the REST APIs.

As events occur within that cause data to be indexed, the sends a message to the indexer, which then adds, deletes, or updates data within the index. Other events could include a request to search the index.

If is not the indexer in a server group, the sends the search request to the plug-in which is running under remote plug-in server on the indexer server (where the index exists). The remote plug-in server returns the search results to and then the processes the data accordingly.

If is the indexer, it performs the search requests locally in the index and then returns the search results to the client.

When you configure a server group for , ensure that the following conditions are met:

The required number of servers are designated as indexing servers in the server group.
The indexing server is the that also has the FTS collection and conf directories located on a local disk.
The indexing server hosts a plug-in server for serving the search requests from the remote s that are not designated as indexer server.

You can designate a server as the indexing server by ranking it in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form. For more information, see Setting-failover-rankings-for-servers-and-operations.

uses only one plug-in server as the reader (searcher). The reader plug-in is installed on the indexing server. Only the designated indexing server has a ranking entry in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form. This acts as indexer and searcher for local search requests. The reader (searcher) plug-in server serves as the searcher for all the other s in the server group that are not designated as an indexing server, so you must configure all other non-indexing servers to connect to the searcher plug-in server instance running on the indexing server. The searcher instance runs on a separate port on the indexing server.

The events that cause data to be written to the index result in data being put into the database as a queue of items to index. Only the indexing server processes index requests from this queue. However, any instance of can send a search request to its corresponding plug-in. This ensures index integrity. For more information, see FTS-plug-in-configuration. There is no search fail-over for the indexer.

Tips

When you perform on a computer, the searcher uses the stop words configured on the corresponding indexer server. The searcher does not use the stop words configured on the computer on which is performed.
When happens on a computer, the value of the AR_SERVER_INFO_FT_SUPPORT_EXACT_MATCH_SEARCH configuration on the corresponding indexer server is used to perform . The value of this configuration on the computer on which full text search is performed has no role to play in full text search.

Configuring for a server group

If you use in a server group, you can designate more than one server as indexing server in the server group.

Each indexing server has its own virtual queue of data to index. When AR System queues data for indexing in parallel to AR Database changes in data, it queues separately for each Indexing server as designated by the Server Group Ranking form for .

In a server group, the server that owns the full text indexing operation processes all pending indexing tasks regardless of their server of origin. (The other servers have read-only access to the index files.)

is configured after all servers in the group have been installed and configured to run within a server group. The FTS collection and FTS configuration directories should be located on the same computer.

To set up in a server group

Rank the servers in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form. For more information, see Setting-failover-rankings-for-servers-and-operations.
You should use the indexing server, which is ranked 1 in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form, for searching and the other indexing server, which is ranked 2, as the failover server.
In a browser, open the BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console, and select System > General > FTS Configuration.

Managing, configuring and checking status of -enabled servers

The Management screen on the AR System Management Console enables you to manage, configure, and check the status of all the -enabled servers in a server group.

You can perform the following tasks on this screen:

Update configuration for all the servers in a server group.
Initiate re-indexing for the entire server or for a form.
If the re-indexing operation is in progress, check the status of that operation.

Required permissions

You must have at least one of the following permissions to access the Management screen:

AR System Administrator
AR System Configuration Administrator
Integration Administrator

To configure settings for a server in the server group

The Management screen enables you to perform the following operations:

Action	Description
View the list of servers in the server group and also view the current status and configuration on a particular server.	The FTS Configuration panel displays the following details: If the selected server is indexed? Is it just a reader or an indexer? If it is an indexer, whether indexing is enabled or not? Whether re-indexing is in progress?
Select a server in the FTS Configuration panel	The Configuration panel displays the following details: The Configuration panel displays detailed information for the server you select in the FTS Configuration panel. The Indexer section is disabled if the selected server is not an indexer. Click Apply to apply all settings in the Configuration panel to the selected server.
View the reindex options	You can view the following section of the Configuration panel only if the selected server is an indexer. This section enables you to perform the following tasks: Re-index the entire server or a single form. Select either Server or Form Name to re-index.
View the reindex options	The following section of the panel is visible only if the selected server is an indexer and the re-index operation is in progress. This section shows the current status of the re-index process and provides the following details: When the reindex started? How many rows were to be processed? How many rows are processed so far? Failures (if any) during re-index Re-index progress
Reindex the indexer server	The Reindex option on the Management screen enables you to reindex the indexer server. Select either Server or Form to trigger the reindex operation. Server —the re-index operations start on all the indexer servers. Form —the re-index operation starts for the selected form on all the indexer servers. Click Reindex.
Reindex After	The Reindex After option on the Management screen reindexes data if a scheduled backup is missed due to a failure when Elasticsearch is configured for FTS. If a failure occurs between backups, the missing data can be reindexed in FTS. For more information, see Task 3 in Recovering after a disaster.