Configure all Web servers as query servers (Search Server 2008)

  • Article

Applies To: Microsoft Search Server 2008

 

Topic Last Modified: 2009-04-08

Note

The information in this section does not apply to Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express. It applies to the full version of Microsoft Search Server 2008 only.

This article describes how to add the query server role to existing Web servers. The query server role can be deployed to any number of Web servers. However, if the query server role is deployed to the same server that hosts the index server role, you should not enable additional query servers. This is because the index role recognizes that the query role is located on the same server. Therefore, it does not attempt to propagate the content index to any other query servers.

Note

Before you can add a query server, you must install and configure Search Server 2008 on the first computer in the deployment by following the instructions under "Run an Advanced installation" in Install Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express. After you complete that procedure, you can add query servers or Web servers to the deployment at any time. For information about Search Server planning, server roles, and topology options, see Plan to deploy Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express.

Configure all Web servers as query servers

Use this procedure to configure existing Web servers so that they are also query servers. Perform this procedure on all Web servers to which you want to add the query server role.

Important

To perform the following procedure, you must be a farm administrator.

To configure all Web servers as query servers

  1. In Central Administration, on the Operations tab, in the Topology and Services section, click Services on server.

  2. On the Services on Server page:

    1. If the server name that appears is not the Web server that you want to also configure as a query server, click the arrow next to the server name, click Change Server, and then click the appropriate Web server.

    2. In the Start services in the table below section, verify that this server is a Web server by checking whether the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service is started, and then click Office SharePoint Server Search.

  3. On the Configure Office SharePoint Server Search Service Settings page, in the Query and Indexing section, select the Use this server for serving search queries check box.

    Note

    If the Use this server for indexing content check box is selected, you should stop this procedure because the server that you are configuring is the index server and should not be configured as a query server if you want multiple query servers. For more information, see Plan to deploy Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express.

  4. In the Query Server Index File Location section, type the path to which you want to save the content index in the Query server index file location box. This path can be a local or a mapped drive.

  5. The location in the Query server index file location must be shared to allow the index server to propagate the content index to it. Depending on how you want to configure the share, select one of the following choices:

    • If the location in the Query server index file location is not configured as a share, click Configure share automatically. In the User name box, type the name of a user account that is a member of the Administrators group on this query server. In the Password box, type the password of the user account named in the User name box.

    • Select I will configure the share with STSAdm, if you want to configure the path of the content index using the Stsadm command-line tool with the Osearch operation and the propagationlocation parameter. For more information, see Osearch: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server). This operation shares the location and gives the search service account write permission to the share.

    • Select Do nothing. The share is already configured if the location for the content index is already shared and the search service account has write access to that share.

  6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 until all Web servers have the added role of query server.

  7. To save the changes and return to the Services on Server page, click OK.

See Also

Concepts

Configure Web servers (Search Server 2008)
Configure a dedicated front-end Web server for crawling (Search Server 2008)