Use the following information to configure Search and Insight Engine.

Search and Insight Engine subsystem

There is a search subsystem and it can be used to connect to Search and Insight Engine (which is based on Solr 6).

Just like all previous versions of Solr, the activation and configuration of the Search and Insight Engine subsystem can be done by using either the alfresco-global.properties file or the Admin Console (see Configuring using the Admin Console).

If you haven’t set the following Solr-related properties in the TOMCAT_HOME>/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties file, add these:

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### Solr indexing ###
index.subsystem.name=solr6
solr.secureComms=https
solr.port=8983
solr.host=<hostname> [The host name where the Solr instance is located]
solr.baseUrl=/solr

These configuration properties are used by Alfresco Content Services to talk to Search and Insight Engine.

Configure using the Admin Console

The topic describes the properties for configuring the Solr 6 search service.

1. Open the Admin Console. For more information, see Launch Admin Console.

2. In the Repository Services section, click Search Service to see the Search Service page.

3. In the Search Service section, select Solr 6 from the Search Service In Use list.

4. Set the Search and Insight Engine properties:

   Solr search property	Description
   Content Tracking Enabled	This setting can be used to disable Solr 6 tracking by separate Solr instance(s) configured to track this server, for example Yes
   Solr Port (Non-SSL)	This specifies the application server’s http port (non-secure) on which Solr 6 is running. This is only used if Solr 6 is configured to run without secure communications, for example 8080
   Solr base URL	This specifies the base URL for the Solr 6 web application. Adjusting the URL does not change where Solr is hosted, it changes where Alfresco Content Services looks for Solr, for example /solr6.
   Solr Hostname	his specifies the hostname on which the Solr 6 server is running. Use localhost if running on the same machine, for example localhost.
   Solr SSL Port	his specifies the application server’s https port on which Solr 6 is running, for example 8443.
   Auto Suggest Enabled	This specifies that the Solr 6 auto-suggest feature is enabled. This feature presents suggestions of popular queries as a user types their query into the search box or text box, for example 0 .
   Last Indexed Transaction	This specifies the transaction ID most recently indexed by Solr 6, for example 17.
   Approx Index Time Remaining	This specifies the estimated time that Solr 6 will take to complete indexing the current outstanding transactions, for example 0 seconds.
   Disk Usage (GB)	This specifies the disk space used by the latest version of the Solr 6 index. Allow at least double this value for background indexing management, for example 0.001748.
   Index Lag	This specifies the time that indexing is currently behind the repository updates, for example 0 seconds.
   Approx Transactions to Index	This specifies the estimated number of outstanding transactions that require indexing, for example 0.
   Indexing in Progress	This specifies if Solr 6 is currently indexing outstanding transactions, for example .
   Memory Usage (GB)	This specifies the current memory usage. The value may vary due to transient memory used by background processing. The value does not include Lucene related caches, for example No.
   Backup Location (Main Store)	This specifies the location where the index backup for the main WorkspaceStore is stored on the Solr 6 server, for example ${dir.root}/solr6Backup/alfresco.
   Backup Cron Expression (Main Store)	This specifies a unix-like expression, using the same syntax as the cron command, that defines when backups occur. The default value is 0 0 2 * * ? meaning the backup is performed daily at 02.00.
   Backups To Keep (Main Store)	This specifies the number of backups to keep (including the latest backup), for example 3.
   Backup Location (Archive Store properties)	This specifies the location where the index backup for ArchiveStore is stored on the Solr 6 server, for example ${dir.root}/solr6Backup/archive.
   Backup Cron Expression (Archive Store properties)	This specifies a unix-like expression, using the same syntax as the cron command, that defines when backups occur. The default value is 0 0 4 * * ? meaning the backup is performed daily at 04.00.
   Backups To Keep (Archive Store properties)	This specifies the number of backups to keep, for example 3.
   CMIS Query	This specifies the default mode which defines if and when the database should be used to support a subset of the CMIS Query Language, for example Use database if possible.
   Alfresco Full Text Search	This specifies the default mode which defines if and when the database should be used to support a subset of the Alfresco Full Text Search, for example Use database if possible.

5. Click Save to apply the changes you have made to the properties.

If you do not want to save the changes, click Cancel.

Search and Insight Engine directory structure

After you’ve installed Search and Insight Engine, several directories and configuration files related to Solr will be available in the Search and Insight Engine home directory.

The Search and Insight Engine distribution (alfresco-insight-engine-distribution-2.0.x.zip) contains the following artifacts:

solrhome directory

This is the Solr configuration directory that is specific to Alfresco. It contains the following sub-folders and files:

logs directory

This directory contains the Solr-specific logging configuration file.

• solr directory: This directory contains the Solr binaries and runtime Java library files.
• solr.in.cmd: Use this file to specify additional Solr configuration options for Windows.
• solr.in.sh: Use this file to specify additional Solr configuration options for non-Windows platforms, such as Linux and Mac OS X.
• README.MD: This file provides version information for Alfresco Content Services, Search and Insight Engine, and Solr.

Search and Insight Engine externalized configuration

As a best practice, use the alfresco-insight-engine/solr.in.sh file (Linux-based platform) or alfresco-insight-engine/solr.in.cmd file (Windows-based platform) to set the external configuration that applies to all the Search and Insight Engine cores.

Note: For any property, only the environment variables should be specified in the solr.in.sh/ solr.in.cmd file. For example, SOLR_SOLR_HOST, SOLR_SOLR_PORT, or SOLR_ALFRESCO_PORT.

The following configuration properties are used by an external client, such as Alfresco to talk to Solr. Besides the solr.in.sh/ solr.in.cmd file, you can also set these properties in the alfresco-insight-engine/solrhome/conf/shared.properties file.

Important: From Search and Insight Engine 2.0 the solr.content.dir property has been removed. The solr.content.dir was a filesystem-based extension of the Solr index. It was used for maintaining a copy of the original data indexed in Solr. The storage the solr.content.dir provided is available in Solr itself which means that it can be safely removed from Search and Insight Engine 2.0 onwards. The removal of solr.content.dir does not mean a loss of functionality because the Solr storage capabilities still retain a copy of the data originally sent for indexing.

solr.host

solr.port

solr.baseUrl

solr.content.dir (removed from Search and Insight Engine 2.0)

solr.model.dir

Configurable per core values

These properties can also be set in the alfresco-insight-engine/solrhome/templates/rerank/conf/solrcore.properties file.

alfresco.host

alfresco.port

alfresco.baseUrl

alfresco.port.ssl

data.dir.root

These external values can be overridden by the JNDI attributes from java:comp/env, Java System properties, or OS environment variables.

Note that:

• JNDI properties are always lowercase
• Java System properties are always lowercase
• Environment variables are always uppercase
• Property names in the property files are case sensitive

Additional external configuration when using SSL

You need to set these properties only if you are configuring Search and Insight Engine with SSL. These properties can also be set in the solrcore.properties file.

alfresco.secureComms

alfresco.encryption.ssl.keystore.passwordFileLocation

alfresco.encryption.ssl.truststore.passwordFileLocation

alfresco.encryption.ssl.keystore.location

alfresco.encryption.ssl.truststore.location

alfresco.encryption.ssl.truststore.provider

alfresco.encryption.ssl.keystore.type

alfresco.encryption.ssl.keystore.provider

alfresco.encryption.ssl.truststore.type

Solr configuration files

When you install Search and Insight Engine, several Solr configuration files are made available to you. The section lists the Solr configuration files, their location in the directory structure, and their description.

Note: Some of these files are only available once Search and Insight Engine has been started for the first time.

Note: The solrcore.properties configuration file is the property configuration file for a Solr core. There is one solrcore.properties file in each core’s configuration directory. See Solr core configuration properties for more.

Alfresco Index Engine

You can host a separate instance of Alfresco Content Services 6.2 or above with Solr 6 for high scalability and for maximizing the throughput of your Alfresco services. This setup is termed Alfresco Index Engine.

This setup shows a single repository database and content store. There are four nodes with Alfresco/Share and two nodes with Solr, all accessing the content simultaneously. This set up provides a higher level of availability, reliability, and scalability, thereby maximizing the throughput of various Alfresco services. Nodes in a cluster are positioned behind a load balancer that delegates requests to cluster members based on any one member’s ability/availability to handle the load.

Each Alfresco/Share instance is deployed into its own Tomcat servlet container. Alfresco services and CPU runtime footprint are optimized for high throughput under heavy concurrency with such a deployment. The load balancer fronts the cluster, and directs traffic to the member of the cluster most able to handle the current request.

Note: All the servers in a cluster should have static IP addresses assigned to them.

In this deployment scenario the following flows are present:

• Client flow:
  • Client sends the request to the main load balancer to reach Share application.
  • Main load balancer analyses the load and redirects the client to one of Share hosts.
  • Main load balancer uses the JSESSIONID cookie to stick the client to one of Share nodes.
  • Share sends the web scripts requests to the local repository instance, renders the page, and returns it to the user via the main load balancer.
• Alfresco internal flow:
  • Repositories intercommunication is done via Hazelcast to replicate caches.
  • Repositories share the same contentstore available via NFS/SAMBA share.
  • Repositories share the same database schema.
• Alfresco Solr flow:
  • Tracking tier: Two Solr instances periodically query repositories to detect new transactions, fetch new content, and build local indexes. Tracking is done through the Solr load balancer, which analyses the load and distributes it across the repositories.
  • Search tier: Four repository instances query two Solr instances on demand through the Solr load balancer.

To implement this setup, see Install and configure Content Services nodes.