Configure the SharePoint Server 2007 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

This article provides the following procedures that describe how to configure the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm for a search-first migration:

• Configure crawling

• Configure search boxes and related search links

• Optional: Enable query suggestions and custom scopes by using the Search Box Replacement Control

Before you read you read this article, you should be familiar with the following articles about search-first migration:

• Introduction to search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)

• Plan a SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)

• Plan to configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)

• Configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)

For brevity in this article, the following terms are used:

Configure crawling

In a search-first environment, the search system in the original farm automatically serves any query in the original farm that uses a contextual scope — that is, the This Site scope or the This List scope. You configure the search system in the original farm to forward all other queries to the search system in the new farm to provide search results. For more information, see Configure search boxes and related search links later in this article.

You must configure the search system in the original farm to crawl all of the SharePoint sites in the original farm on which contextual scopes are enabled for searches. This enables the search system in the original farm to serve queries in the original farm that use contextual scopes.

If contextual scopes are disabled for the search boxes on a large site or large list in the original farm, you might want to verify that the search system in the original farm is not configured to crawl that site or list. This helps to ensure that you will not use crawl resources in that farm unnecessarily. For example, if you install the Search Box Replacement Control in the original farm and set its scope mode to 2010, this automatically disables contextual scopes for all non-custom search boxes in the original farm. In this situation, you do not have to configure the search system in the original farm to crawl content there. For more information, see Optional: Enable query suggestions and custom scopes by using the Search Box Replacement Control later in this article.

You should also ensure that the search system in the original farm is not configured to crawl content other than SharePoint sites. If you want the search-first environment to provide search results for content other than the SharePoint sites in the original farm, you should configure the search system in the new farm to crawl that other content. (For information about migrating content sources from the original farm, see Migrate search settings for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010).) Therefore, content sources in the original farm should not contain start addresses for locations such as file shares or Microsoft Exchange Server public folders. You should also ensure that no content source in the original farm contains the start address for crawling user profiles. If you want the search-first environment to provide people search, you should configure the search system in the new farm to crawl the user profiles. This is the case regardless of whether you are using user profiles in the original farm or user profiles that you bring into the new farm. For more information about crawling user profiles in the original farm or the new farm, see Plan a SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010) and Configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010).

To configure crawling in the new farm, perform the following procedure for each SSP in the original farm that uses the Office SharePoint Server Search service.

To configure crawling in the original farm

1. Verify that the account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group.

2. In Central Administration, in the Quick Launch, click the SSP — for example, SharedServices1.

3. On the Shared Services Administration page for the SSP, in the Search section, click Search settings.

4. On the Configure Search Settings page, click Content sources and crawl schedules.

5. On the Manage Content Sources page, for each content source in the list, do the following:

   1. Click the content source.

   2. On the Edit Content Source page, in the Start Addresses section, do the following:

      1. If there is a start address for crawling user profiles (this start address has the form sps3://<HostName>), do the following:

         1. Make a note of the address for later. If you plan to use the search system in the new farm to crawl user profiles in the original farm, you will have to ensure that this start address is added to a content source in the new farm.

         2. Delete the address. When you delete the address, if there are other start addresses remaining in this content source, ensure that each start address begins on a new line.

      2. For each address that remains in the list that is not a start address for one or more SharePoint sites in the original farm, do the following:

         1. Make a note of the address for later. You will have to ensure that this start address is added to a content source in the new farm.

         2. Delete the address.

      3. Optional: if you deleted all start addresses in the content source, you can deactivate or delete the content source by doing the following:

         • To deactivate the content source, on the Edit Content Source page, set the full crawl schedule to None and set the incremental crawl schedule to None.

         • To delete the content source, on the Manage Content Sources page, click the arrow next to the content source name, and then click Delete.

Configure search boxes and related search links

You must configure search boxes and related links in the original farm so that when an end user submits a search query or clicks a related link there, the search system in the original farm forwards the query to the new farm. The new farm processes the query and displays the results on a search results page in the new farm. The search results page in the new farm provides Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 search functionality such as results refinement and relevance improvements to help the user view and interact with search results.

To configure search boxes in the original farm to forward search queries to the new farm, you must adjust settings for search boxes and Advanced Search links in the original farm. You can perform this configuration in one of the following two ways:

• Automatically, by using the Search Redirection Toolkit for SharePoint Server 2007 that is provided by Metalogix Software. The toolkit is a set of Windows PowerShell 2.0 cmdlets that helps you automate the configuration of non-custom search boxes to forward search queries from the original farm to the new farm. For information about obtaining and using this toolkit, see the Metalogix Search-First Migration User Guide, which is available from the Metalogix Search First Migration Accelerator download page (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=210942).

  To understand how to use the cmdlets in the Search Redirection Toolkit, it is helpful to understand the manual process of forwarding search queries from the original farm to the new farm, which is described next in this list.

• Manually, by separately configuring each search box and its associated Advanced Search link, and other related links, in the original farm. This process consists of the following procedures:

  • Configure the delegate-control search box for each site collection

  • Configure search boxes on Search Centers

  • Configure other non-custom search boxes

  • Configure custom search boxes

  • Modify links to Search Centers or Advanced Search pages in the original farm

The following sections explain how to perform these procedures.

Configure the delegate-control search box for each site collection

For each site collection in the original farm, perform the following procedure to configure the delegate control to forward search queries to the new farm. The delegate control is the default search box that is located near the top right of non-custom master pages for site collections.

To configure the delegate-control search box for a site collection

1. Verify that the account that is performing this procedure is an administrator of the site collection.

2. Go to the top-level site of the site collection.

3. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings.

4. In the Site Collections Administration section, click Search settings.

5. On the Search Settings page, in the Search Center and Custom Scopes section, do the following:

6. Click the Use custom scopes. Display richer results using the following Search Center button.

7. In the associated text box, type the following URL:

   http://<Web application>/pages

   Where <Web application> is the Web application that is associated with the Search Center and Search service application in the new farm.

   This is the URL to which you want the search system in the original farm to forward queries that users submit from the delegate control of this site collection.

   Note

   This action will also automatically update the Advanced Search link on the Search Center site to point to http:// <Web application>/pages. When you type the URL http://<Web application>/pages, do not type a trailing .aspx extension. The search system will automatically append results.aspx or advanced.aspx, depending on the type of query that the user issues.

Configure search boxes on Search Centers

Perform the following procedure on each Search Center in the original farm that you want to configure to forward user search queries to the new farm.

To configure search boxes on Search Centers

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure has Contribute permission for site content on the Search Center site.

2. Perform the following steps, depending on whether there are tabs on the Search Center site:

   • If there are no tabs on the Search Center site, do the following:

     1. On the Site Actions menu, click Edit Page.

     2. In the Search Web Part, click the edit arrow, and then click Modify Shared Web Part.

     3. In the Web Part Properties window, click Miscellaneous.

     4. Ensure that Use Site Level Defaults is selected.

     5. Click OK.

     6. Follow the steps that your organization uses to save, submit, approve, and publish the page.

   • If there are tabs on the Search Center site, do the following:

     1. Select the tab that you want to configure.

     2. Click the Site Actions menu, and then click Edit Page.

     3. In the Search Web Part, click the edit arrow, and then click Modify Shared Web Part.

     4. In the Web Part Properties window, click Miscellaneous.

     5. Perform the following steps in the Miscellaneous section, depending on the tab that you are configuring:

        • If you are configuring the All Sites tab, ensure that Use Site Level Defaults is selected.

        • If you are configuring the People tab, do the following:

          1. Ensure that the Use Site Level Defaults check box is cleared.

          2. Ensure that the Target search results page URL field contains the URL of the people-search results page in the new farm.

             Typically, the URL of a people-search results page has the following form: http://<Web application>/pages/peoplesearch.aspx

             where <Web application> is the Web application that is associated with the Search Center and Search service application in the new farm. This is the URL to which you want the search system in the original farm to forward queries that users submit in the people-search text box.

          3. In the Miscellaneous section, if Display advanced search link is selected, ensure that the Advanced Search page URL text box indicates the location of the Advanced Search page in the new farm.

             Typically, the Advanced Search page URL text box contains only the following portion of the Advanced Search page URL:

             /pages/advanced.aspx

             Note

             Do not use the Advanced Search Web Part for this purpose.

        • If you are configuring a custom search tab, do the following:

          1. Configure the search box by doing the following:

             1. Ensure that the Use Site Level Defaults check box is cleared.

             2. Ensure that the Target search results page URL field contains the URL of the search results page in the new farm.

             3. In the Miscellaneous section, If the Display advanced search link is selected, ensure that the Advanced Search page URL text box indicates the location of the Advanced Search page in the new farm.

                Typically, the Advanced Search page URL text box contains only the following portion of the Advanced Search page URL:

                /pages/advanced.aspx

                Note

                Do not use the Advanced Search Web Part for this purpose.

          2. Configure the people-search box by doing the following:

             1. Ensure that the Use Site Level Defaults check box is cleared.

             2. Ensure that the Target search results page URL field contains the URL of the people-search results page in the new farm.

                Typically, the URL of the people results page has the following form:

                http://<Web application>/pages/peoplesearch.aspx

                where <Web application> is the Web application that is associated with the Search Center and Search service application in the new farm. This is the URL to which you want the search system in the original farm to forward queries that users submit in the people-search text box that you are configuring.

             3. If Display advanced search link is selected, ensure that the Advanced Search page URL text box indicates the location of the Advanced Search page in the new farm.

                Typically, the Advanced Search page URL text box contains only the following portion of the Advanced Search page URL:

                /pages/advanced.aspx

                Note

                Do not use the Advanced Search Web Part for this purpose.

             4. Click OK.

             5. Follow the steps that your organization uses to save, submit, approve, and publish the page.

Configure other non-custom search boxes

Developers or administrators can add non-custom search text boxes and non-custom people-search text boxes to pages on SharePoint sites. Typically, such pages are not part of a Search Center. From each page that has such a text box, perform the following procedure to configure the search box to forward users’ queries to the new farm.

To configure other non-custom search boxes

1. Go to a page that has one or more non-custom search text boxes and people-search text boxes.

2. Verify that the account that is performing the remainder of this procedure has Contribute permission for site content on that page.

3. Click the Site Actions menu, and then click Edit Page.

4. In the Search Web Part for the search text box or people-search text box, click the edit arrow, and then click Modify Shared Web Part.

5. In the Web Part Properties window, click Miscellaneous.

6. In the Miscellaneous section, do one of the following:

   • If you are configuring a search text box, select the Use site level Defaults check box.

   • If you are configuring a people-search text box, do the following:

     1. Clear the Use site level Defaults check box.

     2. In the Target search results page URL text box, type the URL for the people-search results page in the following form:

        http://<Web application>/pages/peoplesearch.aspx

        where <Web application> is the Web application that is associated with the Search Center and Search service application in the new farm. This is the URL to which you want the original farm to forward queries that users submit in the people-search text box that you are configuring.

     3. In the Miscellaneous section, if Display advanced search link is selected, ensure that the Advanced Search page URL text box indicates the location of the Advanced Search page in the new farm.

        Typically, the Advanced Search page URL text box contains only the following portion of the Advanced Search page URL:

        /pages/advanced.aspx

7. Click OK.

8. Follow the steps that your organization uses to save, submit, approve, and publish the page.

Configure custom search boxes

If there are custom search text boxes in the original farm, you will probably want to configure those search boxes to forward search queries to the new farm. For site collections for which you have already configured the delegate-control search box, you can test the behavior of custom search text boxes to determine whether those text boxes use the site-level defaults. For custom search text boxes in those site collections that do not use site-level defaults, or for custom search text boxes in other site collections, we recommend that you contact the developer to determine how to configure the custom search text boxes to forward search queries to the new farm.

Modify links to Search Centers or Advanced Search pages in the original farm

If sites in the original farm have links that refer to Search Centers or Advanced Search pages, content contributors or others who have appropriate permissions should manually update the links as appropriate to refer to Search Centers or Advanced Search pages in the new farm.

Optional: Enable query suggestions and custom scopes by using the Search Box Replacement Control

The Search Box Replacement Control is a search Web Part from Metalogix Software that you can install and use in the original farm to take the place of all delegate controls there. Delegate controls are the non-custom search boxes in the top-right corner of SharePoint sites. The Search Box Replacement Control looks and works the same as search boxes that it replaces because it inherits its appearance and functionality from the standard Search Box Web Part. However, the Search Box Replacement Control provides two additional functions for search queries in the original farm — query suggestions and search scopes.

If you do not use the Search Box Replacement Control or some other solution for the same purpose, neither custom scopes nor query suggestions will be available when the search-first migration is complete. Nonetheless, some organizations might not want to use the Search Box Replacement Control. This might be the case, for example, if the organization has custom search boxes in the original farm or if there are certain restrictions on installing software in the environment.

You should plan to notify end users that search functionality will not be available in the original farm while you install and configure the Search Box Replacement Control.

For more information about installing and using the Search Box Replacement Control, see the Metalogix Search-First Migration User Guide, which is available from the Metalogix Search First Migration Accelerator download page.

Query suggestions

SharePoint Server 2010 provides query suggestions as a user types a query in a search box. Office SharePoint Server 2007 does not provide this functionality. However, after a search-first migration is complete, search boxes in the original farm that you replace with the Search Box Replacement Control can provide query suggestions for users who type search queries in the original farm. The replacement control obtains query suggestions from the log of search queries that have been submitted in the new farm.

Search scopes

In SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010, site collection administrators can define search scopes to help end users narrow their searches. Available scopes can be displayed in a drop-down box next to the search box. An end user can select a scope in the drop-down box at query time to narrow a search.

If you install the Search Box Replacement Control, you can specify one of the scope modes that the replacement control can display. The scope mode specifies the server farm from which scopes are available when users submit search queries in the original farm. These modes are described in the following table.

See Also

Concepts

Introduction to search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Plan a SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Plan to configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Migrate search settings for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Train end users to use the search-first environment (SharePoint Server 2010)