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Configure the default location for search collections

You can modify the default directory location under which search collections are created on a per search service basis. View some related information.

The default directory location under which search collections are created is as follows:

This default can be applied when you create a new search collection, depending on the value you specify in the entry field Location of Collection when you create a new search collection:

You can customize this default directory location under which search collections are created. To do this, you set the directory location of your choice as the value for the parameter DefaultCollectionsDirectory for the search service. You can configure this parameter for each search service separately. The value that you set for this parameter is prefixed to the relative location that you specify when creating a new search collection for that search service.

The specified value determines the default directory location for the search collections that you create. When you create a new search collection and specify only a relative path (not a full path location), the default value set by this parameter and the relative path that you specify are combined to form the full directory path under which the search collection is created. If you do not specify a value for DefaultCollectionsDirectory, the default directory for search collections remains as set by the installation and described above.

To configure a different default search collection location...

  1. Navigate to the Manage Search portlet by clicking Administration > Search Administration > Manage Search.

  2. Click Search Services.

  3. Click the New Search Service button. Or, if you want to customize the default collection location for an existing search service, click the Edit icon for that search service.

  4. Set the value of your choice for the parameter DefaultCollectionsDirectory for the search service. The value that you set for this parameter is prefixed to the relative location that you specify when creating a new search collection. For details about the value refer to the description above.

  5. Click OK to save your updates. Manage Search returns to the Search Services panel.

Notes:

  1. The directory location that you specify can be on a different hard drive or machine.

  2. If you change the value for the DefaultCollectionsDirectory parameter, make sure that you do all of the following:

    • Specify a full directory path, for example, /root/our_search_collections.

    • On the specified hard drive create the directory that you specify as the value for the DefaultCollectionsDirectory parameter.

    • Manage the write access to the directory to enable creation of search collections in that directory.

  3. The value set for this parameter is used only if during the creation of a new search collection you specify a relative directory for the location of the new search collection. If you specify a full directory for the location of the search collection, the collection is created in that directory. In this case the value that is set for the default directory under the search service has no effect, but is overwritten by the full directory location that you specify for the search collection.

  4. The initial default directory as given above is created during the installation. The process has write access to this default directory.

  5. The default site collection that is part of the installation is created under the default directory. Creation of the site collection is started when you navigate to the Manage Search portlet. If created the site collection by navigating to the Manage Search portlet before changing the default directory for the collection location, you might want to relocate the site collection to your new default directory. For details about how to do this, refer to Creating or resetting the portal site collection.

  6. If you set up a remote search service, for example for a cluster, then this parameter is mandatory. You need to configure the default location for search collections to a directory on the remote server that has write access.

  7. The file path length for search collections is limited to 118 characters. If this limit is exceeded, the collection cannot be created.

    In this case specify a shorter value for the parameter DefaultCollectionsDirectory. This can occur particularly when the site collection is created under UNIX operating systems. For details about this refer to Creating the portal site search collection fails.


Parent topic:

Administer Portal Search


Related tasks


Creating or resetting the portal site collection


Related reference


Hints and tips for using Portal Search