Search index locking in WebSphere Commerce Search

The WebSphere Commerce Search index is locked at certain points during the indexing lifecycle. For example, when running the search utilities or scheduler jobs. The search index is locked or unlocked during the following scenarios:

Lifecycle task	Search utility or scheduler job	Locking behavior
Building the WebSphere Commerce Search index	Build index RESTful call	Checks for indexing locks when the utility starts. If the lock type and build type are different, the call fails. If the index build completes successfully, it clears the lock at completion.
Creating and scheduling the UpdateSearchIndex job	UpdateSearchIndex	Checks for indexing locks when the job starts. If a lock exists, the job does not run. If the job runs, it acquires a lock when it starts preprocessing the search index, and clears the lock at the completion of the index build.
Propagating the search index with the repeater	Index propagation RESTful call	Checks for indexing locks when the utility starts. If a lock exists, the utility fails. If the call is made, it acquires a lock when it starts, and clears the lock when it completes.