Setting up Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express

Prerequisites

Before you install Search Server 2008 Express, you should make sure that all the required prerequisites are in place:

• Windows Server 2003/2008 with most recent service packs
• .NET Framework 3.0 or later with most recent service packs
• SharePoint Services 3.0

More information

Important: In the following sections, we will refer to the server where you are going to install and run Search Server Express with a placeholder in the URL -[servername]. Make sure to replace the placeholder with your valid server name.

When you deal with administrative tasks on your server, you will run another Web application, which is normally accessed by adding its ad-hoc port number to the server name (e.g. 45225). We will refer to the application with a placeholders for both the server name and the port number –[servername:port]. Make sure to replace the placeholder with both the valid server name and valid port number.

Installing Search Server Express

1. Download and run the Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express installation program.
2. On the Start screen, click Install Search Server.
   Note: If you want to make sure that you have all the required components in place, you can first Run the Search Server Preparation Tool, which will install the components if missing and configure the required role on IIS.
3. Select the Basic installation when prompted unless you need fine-tuning available in the Advanced option. In most cases, the Basic installation is sufficient.
4. Once the installation is completed, make sure that you have the option Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard checked before closing the installation wizard. This will take the necessary post-installation configuration steps.
   Note: While the wizard is running, IIS and some SharePoint services might be stopped and restarted.
5. When the installation is complete, the Welcome page opens in your web browser. It lists the essential steps you should take to start using Search Server 2008 Express.
   Note: If the Welcome page has not appeared, you can open it manually by typing the following URL in your web browser:
   
   http://[servername:port]/ssp/admin/_layouts/MSSWelcome.aspx?wait=1

Important: Apart from the steps listed on the Welcome page, you need to set up some other parameters to implement the Microsoft Search Server package on your C1 website. Read more on this in the next few sections.

Permissions

To administrate and use Search Server 2008 Express, you should be a member of the Site Collection Administrators group on both the Search Administration (http://[servername:port]/ssp/admin/_layouts/mngsiteadmin.aspx) and Search Center (http://[servername]/_layouts/mngsiteadmin.aspx) sites.

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Determining the query Web service URL

Now that you have Search Server 2008 Express installed and configured, its Web service for remote queries is available as:

http://[servername]/_vti_bin/search.asmx

(Make sure to replace the placeholder with your valid server name.)

Important: Remember the URL to the query Web service because you will use it when implementing the Search Server functionality on your C1 website.

Running Search Administration

To start using Search Server 2008 Express, you need to configure a number of its parameters. You can access all the parameters from the Search Administration dashboard.

A few words about what parameters you will need to configure specifically to be used with the Microsoft Search Server package:

(You can access them either from the Search Administration dashboard or by typing the specific URLs in your web browser.)

Content sources

• Navigation menu (on the left) > Crawling > Content sources
• URL: http://[servername:port]/ssp/admin/_layouts/listcontentsources.aspx

Search scopes

• Shortcuts (on the right) > Scopes for this Search Center
• URL: http://[servername]/_layouts/viewscopes.aspx?mode=site

Home Visitors Group

• Shortcuts > Search Center site > Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and Permissions > People and groups > Home Visitors
• URL: http://[servername]/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupId=4

(Make sure to replace the placeholders with your valid server name and, where indicated, the port number.)

Indexing your websites

Before users can search your website, you should have Search Server 2008 Express index the website's content by using Content sources:

1. From the Search Administration dashboard, open Content sources (http://[servername]:[port]/ssp/admin/_layouts/listcontentsources.aspx).
2. Add a New Content Source.
3. Type in the name of the source (e.g. "Contoso Website")
4. For the content type to be crawled, select the Websites option.
5. Type in the URL to the start page of your website (e.g. "http://www.contoso.net")
6. To have the index up-to-date, consider scheduling regular Full or Incremental Crawling.
7. Check the Start full crawl of this content source option and click OK. This will do the full crawling of the website for the first time.

It may take a few minutes before indexing your website is finished.

Creating search scopes

In general, search scopes allow you to control what will end up in the search results. For the Microsoft Search Server package, the scopes are first of all required to manage search results on multiple websites.

The single Search Server 2008 Express installation is normally used for multiple websites on multiple web servers. Consider the following cases for using search scopes:

• You have a number of unrelated websites indexed by Search Server 2008 Express and you want each website to only show the search results specific to its content.
• You have a number of related websites and you want combine search results from them.
• You do not want some resources to appear in the search results for some websites (although these resources are indexed and might be allowed in search results on other websites).

To create a search scope for a specific website:

1. From the Search Administration dashboard, open Scopes for this Search Center (http://[servername]/_layouts/viewscopes.aspx?mode=site).
2. Add a New Scope.
3. Type in the name for the scope (e.g. "Contoso") and, if necessary, write a description.
4. Keep default values for other parameters and click OK.
5. Now back on the View Scopes page, click Add rules next to your scope in the Update Status column.
6. For the Scope Rule Type, select Content Source.
7. In the Content Source dropdown list, select your indexed website (e.g. "http://www.contoso.net")
8. Make sure that Include is selected for Behavior and click OK.

The scope will be updated on schedule or you can force the instant update from the Search Administration dashboard.

Important: Remember the name of the search scope because you will use it when implementing the Search Server functionality on your C1 website.

More information

Setting up access for remote users

In general, users can only access and search from the Search Center (http://[servername]/default.aspx), if they are at least members of the Home Visitors group on the Search Center site.

For the Microsoft Search Server package in particular, to make use of this search functionality on a C1 website, the credentials of the user who is the member of this Home Visitors group must be available.

First, create a Windows user (e.g. "searcher") on the server where Search Server 2008 Express is running. This user must have permissions sufficient to submit search queries and read search results.

Then, add this user to the Home Visitors group on the Search Center site:

1. From the Search Administration dashboard, open the Search Center site and click Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and Permissions: People and groups > Home Visitors (http://[servername]/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupId=4)
2. Click New.
3. For Users/Groups, type in the username of the Windows user you have just created. You can click Check Names to make sure the username is valid.
4. Make sure that the Home Visitors group is selected as a SharePoint group and click OK.

Alternatively, you can add an entire group of users instead of a single user.

Important: Remember the username and password for the user account you have set up here because you will use these credentials when implementing the Search Server functionality on your C1 website.

Now that you have installed and configured Search Server 2008 Express properly, you can implement its search functionality on your C1 website with the Microsoft Search Server package.

Creating search server administrator

You can allow another user to manage Search Server 2008 Express by granting necessary permissions to this user.

First, you should give this user the site collection administrator permissions on the Search Administration site. This will allow the user to, for example, access the Search Administration dashboard or add content sources for crawling.

1. On the Search Administration page, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and Permissions : Site collection administrators (http://[servername:port]/ssp/admin/_layouts/mngsiteadmin.aspx).
2. Under Site Collection Administrators, type the name of the user that you want to add as a site collection administrator and click OK.

Second, you should give this user the site collection administrator permissions on the Search Center site. This will allow the user to, for example, define search scopes and set up access to the site for remote users.

1. On the Search Administration page, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and Permissions : Site collection administrators (http://[servername]/_layouts/mngsiteadmin.aspx).
2. Under Site Collection Administrators, type the name of the user that you want to add as a site collection administrator and click OK.

Note: When adding more than one user, separate the users with a semicolon (";").

Summary

By now you should have:

• Installed Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express
• Added one or more content sources
• Defined one or more search scopes
• Set up at least one user as a member of the Home Visitors group on the Search Center site

To proceed with the Microsoft Search Server package, you should have the following information available:

• Query Web service URL (pattern: http://[servername]/_vti_bin/search.asmx)
• The name of at least one search scope
• The username and password of at least one user account, a member of the Home Visitors group on the Search Center site