How to Disable or Enable Exchange Search

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Shell to enable or disable Exchange Search for a mailbox database. This topic also explains how to use the Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to enable or disable Exchange Search for a Mailbox server.

Important

Disabling Exchange Search will impact the functionality and performance of the full-text searches that are performed by your users.

By default, Exchange Search is enabled for all new mailbox databases and does not require additional configuration. To learn more about Exchange Search, see Managing Exchange Search.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated the following:

  • Exchange Server Administrator role and local Administrators group for the target server

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Procedure

To use the Exchange Management Shell to disable or enable Exchange Search for mailbox databases

  • To disable Exchange Search for a mailbox database, run the following command:

    Set-MailboxDatabase MailboxDatabaseName -IndexEnabled $false
    
  • To enable Exchange Search for a mailbox database, run the following command:

    Set-MailboxDatabase MailboxDatabaseName -IndexEnabled $true
    

    Note

    By default, Exchange Search is enabled for all new mailbox databases and does not require additional configuration. If you previously disabled Exchange Search, you will need to enable it.

To use the Services MMC snap-in to disable or enable Exchange Search for a Mailbox server

  1. Click Start, point to Settings, point to Control Panel, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.

  2. In the Services details pane, right-click the Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer service, and then click Stop to disable the service or Start to enable it.

    Note

    To stop the Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer service from restarting when you restart your Exchange server, change the Startup Type to Manual.

Note

Exchange Search can be enabled or disabled for servers or mailbox databases, but not for individual mailbox users.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see the Set-MailboxDatabase reference topic.

For More Information

For more information about Exchange Search, see Managing Exchange Search.