Change the content index location for the index server (Search Server 2008)

Applies To: Microsoft Search Server 2008

Topic Last Modified: 2008-08-25

When deploying Microsoft Search Server 2008, you can choose to specify the location of the index file, also referred to as the content index, on the index server or accept the default setting which is drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\

where drive is the drive partition on which Office SharePoint Server 2007 is installed

After the index file is created at the location you chose, you might later decide to change the location of the file for one of the following reasons:

• You forgot to specify the location you wanted during deployment or you performed a basic installation, so the default index file location was used.

• You have added an additional hard drive or storage area network (SAN) to your index server to store the index file.

• You have discovered that the location you chose does not have enough available disk space.

Regardless of the reason for changing the location, you can use the following procedures in the order shown to change the location of your index file. You can use these procedures in a production environment. Note that these procedures not only assign a different file location for the content index but also copy the content index to the new location that you specify.

Prerequisites

To perform the procedures shown in this article, you have to be a Search Service administrator, and a member of the Administrators group on the index server.

Do not allow crawls to occur during the change

We recommend that do not change the index location while content is being crawled. Otherwise, you might have to perform a full crawl of the content sources that were crawling during the move. To ensure that crawls do not occur during the file location change, do the following:

• Pause all content sources that are currently crawling content. After the index has been moved to the new location you will resume the crawls that you paused. We recommend that you do not stop crawls because the next time you crawl the affected content source, the system will force a full crawl of that content source even if an incremental crawl is requested. For more information about stopping crawls, see Pause and resume a crawl (Search Server 2008).

• Remove all crawl schedules that might start a crawl while the index file location is being changed. You do not need to remove crawl schedules for crawls that are paused.

Remove a crawl schedule for a particular content source

Perform the following steps on content sources that have scheduled crawls that might start while the content index location is being changed. Note that you do not need to perform these steps for content sources that are paused.

1. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section of the Quick Launch, click Content sources.

2. On the Manage Content Sources page, point to the content source for which you want to remove a crawl schedule, click the arrow that appears, and then click Edit.

3. On the Edit Content Source page, in the Crawl Schedules section, if the Full Crawl list is set to None or set to a schedule that will not start during the time that the index location is being changed, proceed to step 7. Otherwise continue to step 4.

4. In the Crawl Schedules section, below the Full Crawl list click Edit schedule.

   The Manage Schedules dialog box appears.

5. Write down the settings of the crawl schedule and the content source for which it is configured so that you can recreate this crawl schedule after the index file location has been changed. Click Cancel to close the Manage Schedules page.

6. Select None in the Full Crawl list.

7. On the Edit Content Source page, in the Crawl Schedules section, if the Incremental Crawl list is set to None or set to a schedule that will not start during the time that the index location is being changed, proceed to step 11. Otherwise, continue to step 8.

8. In the Crawl Schedules section, below the Incremental Crawl list click Edit schedule.

   The Manage Schedules dialog box appears.

9. Write down the settings of the crawl schedule and the content source for which it is configured so that you can recreate this crawl schedule after the index file location has been changed. Click Cancel to close the Manage Schedules page.

10. Select None in the Incremental Crawl list.

11. Click OK to close the Edit Content Source page.

12. Repeat steps 2 through 11 for each remaining content source that is not paused.

Ensure delete crawls are not taking place

Delete crawls occur when a search service administrator deletes a content source or a start address from a content source. When either of these actions occurs, the system deletes the items associated with the affected URLs from the index.

We recommend that you verify whether delete crawls are taking place, and if they are, wait for them to complete before you move the index file location.

Verify whether delete crawls are taking place

1. On the Search Administration page, in the System Status section, verify that the Crawl status is Idle. You can also view the Active crawls section of the Search Administration page to verify that no crawls are occurring.

   Tip

   If a delete crawl is taking place, the Crawl status row displays “Deleting content from the index“.

2. If a delete crawl is taking place, wait for it to stop before proceeding to the next step. We recommend that you refresh the page periodically to ensure that you are viewing the latest status.

Back up the Shared Services Provider

Before you change the index file location, we recommend that you create a full backup of the Shared Services Provider. Doing so backs up the following items that are related to search:

• Search data, including the search database

• Content index that is in the file system of the index server.

For more information, see Back up and restore SSPs (Office SharePoint Server 2007).

Change the location of the index file

Use the following procedures to change the location of the index file.

Verify the name of the shared services provider

1. In Central Administration, on the Application Management tab, in the Office SharePoint Server Shared Services section, click Create or configure this farm’s shared services.

2. On the Mange this Farm’s Shared Services page, in the SSP and associated Web applications column, you can see the name of the shared services provider. Write this name down – you will need it in a later step.

Change the index file to a new location

Perform the following steps to change the index file location. Note that this procedure copies the index to the new location – it does not delete the content index in the original location. You can choose to delete the files in the original location later in this article.

1. Log on to the index server as a member of the Administrators group.

2. Open a command prompt.

3. Type the following and then press ENTER to go to the folder that contains the stsadm.exe command-line utility.

   cd %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\bin

4. Type the following and then press ENTER to move the content index to the new location.

   stsadm –o editssp –title sspname -indexlocation drive:\folder

   where sspname is the name of the shared services provider that is associated with the content index.

   drive:\folder is the new location to which you want to move the content index.

   Important

   The –indexlocation property must refer to an NTFS partition on a hard drive or SAN that is attached to the index server.

5. After the command prompt displays "Operation completed successfully" proceed to the next step.

(Optional) Delete the content index from the original location.

You can choose to delete the content index from the original location. To do so, use Windows Explorer to delete the original file location.

Resume crawls and restore

If you paused crawls earlier, you can now resume those crawls. For more information, see Pause and resume a crawl (Search Server 2008).

Restore crawl schedules

If you removed any crawl schedules earlier, you can recreate them now. For more information, see Schedule a full crawl (Search Server 2008) and Schedule an incremental crawl (Search Server 2008).

You can start new incremental crawls after the index is moved. You are not required to perform full crawls.