Add Search to your Intranet

Want an effective search engine for your own intranet, and that too for free? We tell you how to go about deploying it using Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

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Recently, Microsoft launched an enterprise-class search server, 'MS Search Server.' You can either avail it with MS SharePoint Server 2007, or buy it separately, or you can get its free edition called Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express from the link provided in the specs box.

There's only one difference between the Express and enterprise editions of MS Search Server. The Express edition lacks high availability and load balancing. Everything else is pretty much similar in both editions. So we thought of giving the Express edition a try this month. Next month we would try the complete SharePoint Server 2007 and see the difference.

Now let's understand what Express edition has on offer. By using this server you can crawl and index each and every piece of data on your network and storage pools, and make it searchable through a simple but powerful interface. The data which it can index are web sites, file shares, Exchange public folders, Notes Databases, Office files, XML, HTML, text files, etc.

Pre-requisites for installation
Microsoft launched two versions of Search Server 2008 Express: 32 bit and 64 bit. Before installing the search server, make sure you have the following at hand:

• The system on which you would install the search server should be connected to the network
• Windows Server 2003 or 2008 should be installed in the server
• SQL Server installed on the machine you'll install Search Server on
• Do remember that your machine is a member of the domain so that it has at least read-only access to all the storage pools on your network
• At least 5 GB free space
• .NET Framework and IIS services preinstalled on the same server

Installation in action
Once you begin the installation of Search Server, you will find two installation options: basic and advanced. Basic installation installs SQL Server Express and uses it as a back-end database. Advanced installation allows you to connect and use a preinstalled SQL server. Now just follow the wizard and it will install the Search Server.

Installation time would also depend on the Internet speed, as some components are downloaded from the Internet during the installation. After completion of the installation go to All Programs àMicrosoft Search ServeràMicrosoft Search Server 2008 Administration. It will display a configuration page of Microsoft Search Server 2008. The first page that comes up is the Search Administration page. Here click on the 'Default Content Access Account' link. When the page opens, provide the name and password of a user who can access all storage pools in your network at least with read-only rights. This will be the user whose rights will be used by the crawlers while indexing the contents.

After the installation of Search Server Express, the welcome screen shows the steps to begin using the Search Server	In Default Content Access Account enter the user name and password for accessing the content for crawling

Backend Configuration
Once you are done with it you have to add the sources of the contents you want to index. To do so click on the 'Content Sources' link under the crawling option. Once the 'Manage Content Sources' page opens up click on the 'New Content Source' button. A new page will open. Here fill in the details about the content source you want to add. Essentially you have to provide the name, type, and location of the content source. The types can be SharePoint Site, Web Site, File Shares, or Exchange Public Folder.

After login you need to add content to be crawled by the Search Server in the Add Content Source option	Once the sources are added you can see the status of content being crawled. You can access the required files during the crawling process also

Once you provide all the options scroll down to the radio button and select the 'Crawl everything under the hostname for each start address' option. Then scroll down to the last option which says 'Start Full Crawl ....' Enable it and click on OK to start the crawling. You have to repeat the same process for all the content sources you want to add to the system.

Front-end Configuration
With the backend configuration of the search server more or less done, the next thing you have to do is to access and integrate the search page of the server with your Active Directory so that users can login to the search site using their credentials and access the search results. To do so go to the search page of the search server. You can access it by typing in either the domain name or the IP address of the machine where you have installed it. Once the search page opens up login to it as Administrator and click on the 'Site Actions' option at the right top corner of the page. A drop down menu will open. Click on the last option which says 'Site Settings.' Another page opens up. Here click on the 'People and Groups' option under the 'Users and Permissions' option. Now click on the 'New' button and another page will open up. Here add the group/users who should be able to access the search site.

Select the level of control you want the group to have and click on OK. And your search server is ready to rock. The only thing which might take some more time is the crawling. Depending upon the speed of your network, storage pool, and the size of the content, the crawling can take from a couple of hours to a couple of days.

Once the crawling is done, you can see the site by going to the search page and providing the FQDN or the IP address of the search server.

Besides searching the internal company files, Search Server Express has the ability to search external databases and websites.

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