The document indexer service is a Windows Service that reads documents residing in a customer’s share (Normally CV data) and places the contents into the database so that SQL Server can index them.
The service is designed to index multiple databases on a given server. In order to do this the database must contain information about the location of the documents to be indexed. This is achieved via a new system setting that specifies the location of the share for a given database. This is detailed in the next section.
In summary the application essentially goes through the following life cycle:
Service is started, polling time is read from the Config file.
Waits for X minutes as specified in the polling time.
Connects to the server specified in the Config file.
For each TriSys database on the server:
Check if the share is specified. If not skip the DB.
Index the documents in the share.
Update the database logging the outcome of the index.
Sleep until the next poll is due.
In order to install and configure the service there are two primary areas. Firstly the service itself needs to be set up and secondly any databases that it is going to index needs to have certain settings applied. These two steps are distinct because in an environment with multiple databases the service only needs to be configured once where as each database must be done as it is added.
Please note that when adding a new ASP customer to an existing server you should just have to complete this section as the indexer will automatically pick up the new database.
The first thing to do is to set the share location in the TriSys database. In order to do this open the TriSys V7 Application and log in as the SuperUser. Then go to Application Properties and add or locate the following entry:
This needs to be set to the root of the share for the database. (“\\MyServer\TriSys” points to the root of the customer’s share (G drive), for example \\TriSys-NAS-D01\OpusLaborus$)
If the customer is using a drive other than G as the mapped drive from the client machines then another entry needs to be made/updated in order to tell the indexer which drive letter is being used. If this setting is not present then G will be assumed as the default.
In order to install this product run the MSI and leave all of the options at default unless you need to install to another location. However the size of the install is very small (approx 10mb) therefore I can’t see this being an issue:
During the install you will be prompted to enter the account credentials for the Windows account that the service will run under. Note that this is not a true modal dialog for some reason and therefore can get lost behind another window.
The account specified must have access to ALL of the customer shares that are to be indexed. In client server installs this will just be one, where as in ASP environments it may be every customer.
Once the install is completed you manually need to tell the application which server it is connecting to. In order to do this open the “DocumentIndexerService.exe.config” file which will be in the install directory (c:\Program Files\TriSys\Document Indexer by default).
The line above must be edited by replacing the “MY_SERVER” string with the name of the SQL Server instance and the “MY_PASSWORD” string with the Sa account password. For example:
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If necessary you can also alter the indexing frequency which is set in this config file, adjust this as necessary:
Once this has been completed the service needs to be started. In order to do this open the services console by going to Administrative Tools and opening Services (Normally Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services).
Right click the service and choose start.
The service will log entries to the Windows Event Log under the applications category:
As described in the introduction the service generally has the following life cycle and each of these items will normally write something to the event log (examples shown in blue):
Service is started; polling time is read from the Config file.
Service started successfully.
Waits for X minutes as specified in the polling time.
Countdown started, frequency 30 minute(s).
Connects to the server specified in the Config file.
Countdown completed, initiating process.
- Processing server: Server=Trisys-sql-02\SQL2005;Database=Master;UID=sa;Password=p1ng994ever;
For each database TriSys database on the server:
Check if the share is specified. If not skip the DB.
TriSysV7Master - Invalid settings specified. Root Dir: , Mapped Drive: G:\, Sub Dirs System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String].
Index the documents in the share.
TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Document indexing completed successfully on datastore: TriSysCore.Datastore TRISYS-SQL-02\SQL2005.TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate. 689 file(s) scanned, 0 file(s) updated, 11 file(s) ignored based upon file type, unable to index 0 file(s), 0 file(s) removed from the index because they were not found.
Update the database logging the outcome of the index.
(Just updates the individual DB).
Sleep until the next poll is due.
- Processed server: Server=Trisys-sql-02\SQL2005;Database=Master;UID=sa;Password= p1ng994ever;
Countdown started, frequency 30 minute(s).
In addition to these entries in the event log the application also saves historical details to two other locations. One is in a log file placed in the share for each database indexed in a directory named “Service Logs”:
In the case of this service the log will be named “DocumentIndexer.log” and will contain details of the last index attempt for this database. For example:
23 Jun 2008 09:15:00 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Commencing Index
23 Jun 2008 09:15:01 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Validating directory: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Retrieving file list from: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Processing file: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1\123123_1_049480.doc
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - File has not been modified since last index \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1\123123_1_049480.doc
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Processing file: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1\123_T_049486.doc
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - File has not been modified since last index \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1\123_T_049486.doc
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Processing file: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1\_123_F_087802.doc
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - File has not been modified since last index \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\1\_123_F_087802.doc
23 Jun 2008 09:15:02 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Retrieving file list from: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\9
23 Jun 2008 09:15:03 TriSys705_ReleaseCandidate - Processing file: \\TriSys-Nas-02\V7DemoData\CVData\9\99_T_049473.doc
Finally the outcome of the last index and the time it completed will be placed in the following system setting in the database:
In order to remove the service simply go to the “Add/Remove Programs” or “Programs and Features” option under control panel, find the “Document Indexer” entry in the list of programs and click “Remove”:
In general if a database does not appear to be getting indexed correctly you need to check the following points in this order:
Is the service running?
Is it indexing the correct server? (Check the Config file and the event log).
Does the DB contain the correct share settings? (Check the DB and the event log).
Check the outcome of the last index.
In most cases so far the problems have generally been down to the settings being incorrect or missing from the database. Errors such as this can be seen in the event log.