Configure Search Service Application

Configure Search Service Application

SharePoint 2013 Search Architecture and Components

SharePoint 2013 Search with an even improvised architecture. The FAST Search has been integrated with SharePoint 2013.SharePoint Search is further componentized now.

There are 6 Search Components and 4 Search Databases.

Before you read this, I would say complete wipe off the previous Search concepts from your mind. Though the underlying Search architecture is same, it is better to start fresh.

In a nutshell the six Search Components are:

1)   Crawl Component

2)   Content Processing Component

3)   Index Component

4)   Query Processing Component

5)    Administration Component

6)    Analytics Processing Component

The databases associated with Search are:

1)    Crawl DB

2)    Search Administration DB

3)    Link DB

4)   Analytics DB

Crawl and Component Process

1) Crawl Component [CC]

The Crawl Component crawls the content sources and delivers the crawled items [the content and the metadata] to Content Processing Component. Crawl Component uses the Crawl DB to store information about crawled items [like last crawl time, historical information about crawled items etc.]

2) Content Processing Component [CPC]

Content Processing Component is placed between the Crawl Component and Index Component. The crawled items are processed by the Content Processing Component and fed into the Index Component. The processes include document parsing and property mapping.

Index and Query Process

3) Index Component [IC]

The Index Component gets the processed items from the Content Processing Component and writes it to an index file. The Index component receives the queries from the Query Processing Component and provides the results sets

4) Query Processing Component [QPC]

The Query Processing Component is placed between the front end and the Index Component. It analyses and processes search queries and results. The processed search query is submitted to the Index Component. The Index Component returns the result set based on the processed query to the Query Processing Component. This result is send to the front end by the Query Processing Component.

Search Administration

5) Administration Component [AC]

The Search Administration Component is responsible for running the system processes essential to search. It does the provisioning part [adding and initializing search components] .The Administration Component uses the Search Administration DB. We can have multiple Administration Component for a Search Service application. But at a time, only one would be active.

Analytics Process

6) Analytics Processing Component [APC]

Analytics Processing Component analyzes the crawled items (search analytics) and how users interact with the search results (usage analytics). Analytics Processing Component improves the search relevance and creates search reports with these information. The results from this analysis is send to Content Processing Component to include in the Search Index. This information on usage analytics is stored in Analytics Reporting DB. The Link DB stores information extracted from Content Processing Component. It stores data about search clicks and search results. This information is stored unprocessed. The Analytics Processing Component does the analysis.

Go to Central Admin à Application Management àService Applications à Manage Service Applications à New(Search Service Application) àFill Mandatory fields and click Ok.

Goto Central Admin à Application Management àService Applications à Manage Service Applications à Service Application, which we created and click on Ribbon and give the administrator Permissions to the service application

Now Click on Particular Search Service Application, Which we created (Ex: Sample Search1 )

Now open the new search service application instance to configure the content source.

The following figure can explain for you about the search administration, here the searchable content is zero and the default content access account is Search_admin with the privilege to read the content from the local SharePoint site

Next I will add a content source to the search service application, so in the left quick launch bar you can see the content source in the crawling category by clicking. You can see that in the following window.

Just click the existing content source and add the URL of the web applications that you need to crawl the content of

Click Crawl Rule at Left side Panel à Click New Crawl Rule

then click ok, Then go to content source and full crawl the content source, if we are doing the the first time crawling. From next time onwards we can do Incremental crawl, if we do any changes.

Now go to particular site collection to search the content. 

By the above image, we can see the search content

Some of the Search Query Rules

The final new search feature of SharePoint 2013 we will cover are Query Rules. The Query Rule has replaced and deprecated the search keywords and best bets functionality of SharePoint 2010. Query Rules can enable a single user search request to trigger multiple queries and return multiple Results sets.

The components of a Query Rule are:

·   Query Condition

Defines the context in which the query becomes active, such as when a query:

o   Contains a specific word or words.

o   Contains a word that is specific to a dictionary.

o   Contains an action word that matches a specific phrase or term set.

o   Is common in a different source.

o   Results include a common result type.

·   Query Action

Defines actions that should occur when a condition is met, such as:

o   Assigning a promoted result (similar to a Best Bet in SharePoint 2010.)

o   Creating and displaying a result block.

o   Changing the ranking of the returned results.

·   Publishing Option

Decides when a query is used. This is particularly useful in commerce sites because the publishing options can set a time period on when a rule is available, such as special offer events or sales.