Rebuilding the Full Text Search Index

Rebuilding the index means that all documents stored in the library will be re-indexed along with the metadata tags associated with them.

WARNING: Rebuilding the index can take several hours to complete. Please initiate this during a time of low / zero user activity. Under normal operating conditions (and depending on the average size of the documents stored in the library) you can expect documents to be re-indexed at a rate of 5,000 (or more) per hour or more.

To rebuild the re-index your library there are two options to do so.

Option 1: Web Client > Library Admin > Initialize Index approach

1. Go to Library Admin > Search Engine > Settings.

2. In the Initialize Index area, click Initialize Index to start full-text search indexing.

WARNING: Use this feature only when absolutely necessary - check with FileHold support before doing this.

• This will wipe out the existing Full Text Search collection and create a queue for all documents in the system to be reindexed in the Microsoft SQL Databases.
• On large collections, this may also interfere with documents being added to the system by FileHold users.
• This task takes considerable time and is only recommended if there are significant reasons for re-indexing the entire system.
• We recommend this be run over the weekend.
• Before doing this you should ensure an IT Administrator is available in case server changes to the configuration is needed.
• The scheduled task runs this process, and an IT server administrator can disable this scheduled task (Update FTS index) during business hours. This process may take minutes or hours or longer - it depends on whether you have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or in millions of documents in your collection.
• We recommend you run this on a Friday afternoon so that it can work over a weekend without users accessing the system so that it goes as fast as possible.
• Contact FileHold Support if you have any questions, but include the following information:
  1. A screenshot of the problematic searches using Desktop Client or Web Client, and what a description of what you were expecting. This helps us understand the issue.
  2. The HealthChecker Report - created by following this procedure as an IT administrator with domain admin and SQL server admin abilities.
  3. A screenshot of the Full Text Search Status page from Web Client > Library Admin > Search Status
  4. A screenshot or several screenshots that captures all settings in Web Client > Library Admin > Search Settings.
      

Option 2: (you must be a server administrator or domain administrator to do this task)

• Also - you cannot be running SSL on the FileHold server to use this option. Support for SSL is coming with FileHold 12.

Step 1 of Option 2:

1. Run the FHInstrumentation Health Checker as outlined in this support article: 

If all checkpoints in the Health Check Report are green or amber/yellow then proceed, if you find any red items - then please send FileHold support all of the following items. This should take

1) Generate and send  Send FileHold Support the Health Checker Report

2) Temporarily enable Full Text Search debugging mode to generate a Full Text Search debug report

This will be explained below this procedure - but you can also click here to go there now - and attach this debug report as well.

3) Please include several screenshots to cover all search settings in Web Client > Library Admin > Search settings. This normally takes two screenshots to capture, although if you have 3rd party screencapture software like TechSmith Snagit Pro - then it has a function to capture the entire page or menu if there is a scroll bar.

Note - we have no connection with TechSmith and are mentioning this as an example.

4) Include a screenshot of the Web Client > Library Admin > Search Engine > Status Page   

Step 2a: Temporarily Disable the Full Text Search Status - Scheduled Task

Step 2b: Run the FH instrumentation file as an administrator and without restricted permissions.

Step 3: Click on Rebuild FTS and then Click Start.

In this screen you then click Rebuild and wait for it to complete. If you find any errors, send the contents of the error message to FileHold support.

If it completes successfully, then the next step is to click Finish - and move onto the next step.

Step 4: Reindex the Document Collection by processing the search index queue

You have two choices that greatly depend on how many documents you have in the system.

Choice A: If you have under 10,000 to 20,000 files/documents in the system - then you can use the FH instrumentation based approach to reindex all documents in Choice B. This procedure can be found below.

Choice B. If you have over 10,000 to 20,000 files/documents - then we recommend that you simply re-enable the scheduled task. The process will start up, and this may take hours or a day or more for the system to index the entire queue.

• In either case, with Choice A or Choice B - the full text search system will not function perfectly while this indexing is occuring.
• As more documents are indexed, then more documents are capable of being included in full text search results.
• You can find out the status by going to Web Client > Library Admin > Search Settings > Status page.
• Please note that this page may not appear if the SQL server is busy (as SQL locks tables etc) so please be patient and try it a few times.

Choice A: Using FHInstrumentation to Reindex all documents in the index queue

• After some time - this process will finally complete.
• Then you should re-enable the Full Text Search Scheduled task so that the scheduled task can keep up with documents being added to the system, by updating the search index.

 Enabling Search Debugging so that technical log files can be generated and sent to FileHold Support

• This feature only works currently in HTTP mode (not HTTPS)
• Each time you search it will update a technical debug file
• The goal of this tool is to share technical debugging files with FileHold support.
• If you are experiencing issues with certain searches, please enable this temporarily, then run the search and send us all the files.
• Once you send the files to FileHold support, then you should immediately disable the debugging mode as it will cause server performance issues when users are using search.

Using FHInstrumentation tool - choose Search Engine > Turn on Debug and click Start

Then choose destination file name and location, and click Next.

Now you can click Turn On.

This will complete successfully and display this screen.

• Now you should repeat the problematic search query in Desktop Client or Web Client - and then make a copy of the debug file to send to FileHold Support
• Keep repeating this for various problematic search queries, so that each query has its own unique debug file.
• Make a search, save a copy of the debug file, and continue.
• Send 2-3 search examples at maximum, a long list of things is not useful

Now that this is complete, you MUST immediately disable the debugging mode by selecting Turn Off Debug, clicking Start, and then Turn Off.<>

See Also:

Search Engine Configuration

Search Engine Status

Un-Indexed Files

Search Engine Errors