Administrator Guide

Settings

You can change several different indexing options within Search LX: scheduling, file system location, and performance.

1. Navigate to the System Admin tab.
2. Click the Manage Search LX link.
3. Click the Search Options link.
4. Configure the Search indexing process.

Indexing Schedule

The index can be refreshed manually, on a predefined schedule, or on a customized schedule.

 

Note: The indexer looks at all content and adds to the indexing anything that is new. During the first run of the indexer, it will consider everything new, resulting in a longer than normal index time. Subsequent indexing runs will take substantially less time, as the indexer will already contain previously found content. The first and second indexing runs should be manual (non-scheduled) so that you can determine how Search LX interacts with your system.

 

It is recommended that indexing is scheduled to ensure that Search always returns the most up-to-date results.

 

• To enable the manual refresh for the Search LX index, click on the Manual radio button. Click on the Refresh Index Now button when you wish to update the Search LX index.
  
• To select a predefined indexing schedule, click on the Predefined radio button. Choose the predefined option from the drop-down list. The Search LX index will be updated at the selected time.
  
• To run a custom indexing option, click the Custom radio button . The custom schedule setting is similar to the CRON utility. The Show Help link provides detailed examples.

 

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Index Location

 

Specify the file directory in which the Search index files should be stored.

 

The Search LX index files require a significant amount of space. For best results, you will need approximately 5-10% of your total file system space that is in use by Blackboard.

 

Shared Index Files Location is the main location of the index files. If the system is load-balanced, this value must be the same on each of the application servers. For load-balanced systems, the main index must be stored on a network or shared drive.

• To use the default setting for the Shared Index Files Location, click the Default radio button.
• To enter a custom setting for the Shared Index Files Location, click the Custom radio button. Enter the custom location in the text box provided.

 

Local Index Files Location is the location where temporary files are stored during indexing. It should be on the fastest drive available, which is usually a drive directly attached to the indexing server, but can also be on a SAN.

• To use the default setting for the Load Index Files Location, click the Default radio button.
• To enter a custom setting for the Load Index Files Location, click the Custom radio button. Enter the custom location in the text box provided.

 

Note: The default values are optimized to work for most institutions.

 

If the index files have become corrupted or must be deleted for some other reason, select the Delete Index Files button. Note that institution content must be re-indexed after deletion or Search LX will not return any results when users perform searches.

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Performance

Control performance of the Search LX index by specifying the following settings.

 

Pause Between Documents

Specify the amount of time, in milliseconds, that the index process should pause between indexing documents. Lowering the pause time will cause the indexing to run faster, but the rest of the system may become slower. It should only be lowered when few or no users will be on the system. If the index process produces an unacceptable decrease in responsiveness, the pause time may be raised.

Thread Priority

Lowering the thread priority may cause the indexing to run slower, with the rest of the system becoming more responsive. Raising the thread priority may cause the indexing to run faster, with the rest of the system becoming less responsive.

Note: The default values are optimized to work for most institutions.

Merge During Index

Administrators can specify an incremental merge of the search index during the indexing process. Merging frequently during the indexing process slows down the indexing process slightly, but it will allow users to search for content that is being indexed soon after it is indexed rather than requiring the entire indexing process to be complete. Frequent indexing also allows the indexer to recover more quickly when the indexing process is interrupted.

Index Courses With Recent Activity

This setting allows administrators to control the performance of the Search index process by limiting the index process to re-index active courses. The indexer looks at the dates of recently modified course documents and entries in the Blackboard activity database to determine whether a course is active. Specify the number of days in which a course must have no activity in order to be considered inactive. Specifying "0" will cause the Search indexer to ignore this setting. Specifying anything larger than "0" will cause the indexer to only re-index courses that have had activity in the past number of days specified in the field.

Remove Inactive Courses from the Index

This setting allows administrators to control the size of the Search index files by removing course files from the index for courses that have had no activity in the specified number of days. Specifying "0" will cause the Search indexer to ignore this setting, so all old content will remain searchable. Specifying anything larger than "0" will cause the indexer to remove course files from the index if the course has not had any activity in the specified number of days.

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Branding

If you have changed the name of the My Institution tab, update it in the Branding section to be consistent. This will allow the Search LX breadcrumbs and scope select box to properly reflect your branding.

1. Specify what label should appear for the Institution Name field in Search LX interfaces.