The Index Server Manager provides seven management tools for Index Server administration.

CiDaemon process

The CiDaemon process is a child process created by the Index Server engine. The Index Server engine gives a list of documents to the CiDaemon process, which is responsible for filtering the documents by identifying the correct filter DLL and word-breaker DLL associated with a particular document.

Filtering is done as a background activity so as not to interfere with any foreground activity. On local drives, if another process for writing needs a document opened by the CiDaemon process for reading, the CiDaemon process closes the document as soon as possible. The document retried for filtering at a later time. (This feature is not available on network shared folders.)

If the CiDaemon process stops, the Index Server engine will automatically restart it.

Checking Status

With the Index Server snap-in, you can check indexing status and view the properties of directories that are indexed as well as the cached properties. To do this, you highlight the Index Server folder in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC.) In the right pane, the number of files indexed, catalog size, documents to filter, and so on is displayed.

Setting Global Properties

At the Index Server level, you can adjust property settings for all catalogs. For example, you can choose to turn off characterization for all catalogs. In this case, no summaries or abstracts would be generated for files listed on the results page of a search. You can also change a value for a specific catalog. The values you set on the catalog level override those set on the Index Server level.
Creating and Configuring Catalogs

During installation, Index Server creates the Web catalog. You can create additional catalogs to spread queries across them. Also you can separate the content in those catalogs.

Adjusting the Property Cache

To reduce the time it takes to retrieve values frequently queried for, you can add properties to the cache on your server. If not cached, Index Server will directly access Microsoft ActiveX documents (for example Microsoft Office documents) returned from a query and retrieves the properties at that time. Additional properties that are not indexed by default can be added to the cache properties and later used in queries. For example, adding the tag META=”ServerProduct” VALUE=”product name” to your HTML documents allows you to create queries that will look for server products that match a specific name.
If your index becomes corrupted and is rebuilt, you will need to reconfigure your property cache.

Adding and Removing Directories

You can use the Index Server snap-in to add or remove directories to be indexed by Index Server. Taking this action will neither add nor delete physical directories. Instead, it will instruct Index Server to include or exclude them from the directory it indexes.

Forcing a Scan

To re-inventory a virtual root (virtual directory), you need to force Index Server to scan it. You should rescan after making particular global changes, including:

  • Changing the size of characterization.
  • Adding or removing a filter.
  • Changing the filtering of unrecognized extensions.
  • Adding a new word breaker.

To force a scan

  1. In the left pane of the Microsoft Management Console , under the catalog where the virtual directory resides, double-click Directories.
  2. In the right frame, right-click the directory you want to scan.
  3. From the Action menu, select Rescan.
  4. In the Full Rescan dialog box, click Yes for a full rescan, or click No for an incremental rescan.

Forcing a Merge

If response time for queries begins to slow down, you need to free resources by combining indexes. From time to time, you need to combine smaller indexes into larger ones to free space—both in memory and on disk—to resolve queries quickly. To merge smaller indexes, you need to force a merge.

To force a merge

    1. In the left frame of the Microsoft Management Console, select the catalog where you want to merge indexes.
    2. From the Action menu, select Merge.
    3. When the Merge Catalog? dialog box appears, click Yes.