Backup and recovery of search collections configuration

The backup and recovery function in Portal Search automatically detects a corrupted search collection configuration or index and recovers the collection information from the backup files.

The configuration settings for search collections are automatically backed up to a specified directory. The location of this directory is configurable and can be modified by the portal administrator. The default location of the backup is the WP_PROFILE/collections_config_backup/ directory.

If recovery fails, the collection appears in the faulty collections list so that the administrator knows that restore of the collection was not successful. The configuration can then be restored manually. The backup function generates XML backup files with names which are based on the full path to the collection.

By default, a search service does not have a RECOVERY_BACKUP_LOCATION parameter, so the administrator must add this parameter to modify the location of the backup files. When changing the location, the administrator be aware that the existing backup files remain in the previous location, and all subsequent backup files are stored in the new location when creating new collections, when existing collections are modified, or after restarting the server.

To add the backup location parameter to a search service:

1. Navigate to the Manage Search page by clicking Administration -> Manage Search.

2. Click Search Services.

3. Click the Edit icon next to the name of the search service where the parameter will be added.

4. In the Service parameters section of the page, enter the following information:
   Parameter key
   RECOVERY_BACKUP_LOCATION
   New parameter value
   type the full directory path where you want the backup files to be stored, such as C:/backups on a Windows computer.

5. Click Add Parameter.

6. Click OK to save the new parameter setting.

To verify that a backup of the collection configuration has been created:

1. Navigate to the backup directory, either the default directory, or the directory specified when the backup location parameter was set.

2. Confirm that the directory contains at least one backup file for the collection. The file name is based on the name of the collection. For example, if the collection is called projectfiles, then the backup file is named c_c_scollections_sprojectfiles-2007.08.03.22.50.40.297, where the numbers in the file name represent a timestamp based on the time the file was created.

3. Change one or more properties of the collection. For example, create a content source crawler and define a scheduler for it.

4. Confirm that the changes made in the previous step generated an updated configuration backup file for the collection by repeating the verification of the backup. The new backup file name is identical to the previous backup file, expect for the timestamp, which is updated to reflect the time when the modified collection configuration was backed up.

If the automated collection configuration recovery fails, then the collection appears in the faulty collections list. To restore the collection configuration:

1. Stop the server.

2. Manually delete the directory where the collection is stored. For example:
   WP_PROFILE/PortalServer/collections/collection name

3. Restart the server.

4. Confirm that the collection is restored.

The following are limitations of the backup and recovery function:

• When recovering a collection configuration, any crawlers associated with the collection are not restarted. If crawlers are scheduled to run at a future time, they will still run as scheduled.

• Does not backup or migrate uploaded documents.

• Does not backup or migrate updated document metadata such as a modified title.

Parent

Administer Portal Search

 

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