FAQs and troubleshooting

Basic troubleshooting steps for the Acquia Search module¶

To resolve issues with the Acquia Search module:

• Use the Acquia Search module messages on a Search API server or on an index page to understand why the module is failing.

• If the module is trying to connect to localhost or to the IP address 127.0.0.1, the Acquia Search module is not configured as expected or cannot detect the appropriate search index based on environment variables.

• Check that the Drupal site can properly reach the Acquia Search API service, which provides the list of available Solr indexes for your application to your Drupal site. To check the site connection with the Acquia Search API Service, complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the Search API Server you are trying to configure.

  2. Click Edit.

  If properly connected, the system displays a list of available search indexes in the SOLR INDEXES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR YOUR APPLICATION box.

• If you are running the Acquia Search module on a non-Acquia environment, you must use $settings['acquia_search']['override_search_core'] to point the module to a search index. For more information, see README.txt.

• The Acquia Search module has some hidden settings. For more information, see README.txt.

Can I search using logical operators?¶

Yes, Acquia Search uses the Apache Lucene Query Parser Syntax.

Can I search using wildcards?¶

Yes, you may use \* (several characters) and ? (single character) wildcards. Searches may not begin with wildcards or other logical operators.

Does Acquia Search support attachment indexing?¶

Yes. This feature requires installing and configuring the Apache Solr Search Attachments module. For setup and configuration information, see Indexing attachments with Apache Solr Search module.

Does Acquia Search support multisite search? Can I combine multiple content indexes from multiple hosts in the search results on my website?¶

Yes. This feature requires installing and configuring the Apache Solr Multisite Search module.

Does Acquia Search support near-realtime search?¶

No, Acquia Search does not support near-realtime search. The required configuration would jeopardize the Search-as-a-service platform and cause issues with performance and stability. Also, Acquia does not allow the modification of the solrconfig.xml file to increase the frequency of auto commits.

My website does not run in English; what can I expect?¶

Acquia Search can index websites in most languages, but Acquia Search passes content through a language-specific stemmer during indexing, depending on the search schema you have configured for your website. Acquia Search offers search schemas for Dutch, French, German, Spanish, and English. You can search other languages, but the search may produce less relevant search results because partial words, plurals and other variations may not be indexed as expected. For more information, see Selecting a language.

If your website is in a language other than Dutch, English, French, German, or Spanish, create a Support ticket to see whether a search schema specific to that language is available for you.

Does Acquia Search support server-side Solr configuration modifications?¶

You can select standard configurations on the Search page of the Acquia user interface. If you are an Enterprise customer who needs a custom configuration (typically a schema.xml or synonyms.txt file), you can upload your own custom configuration directly in the Cloud Platform user interface. For more information, see Custom Solr configuration. If you need help developing a custom configuration, contact Acquia sales to discuss your needs and implementation possibilities through Acquia’s professional services division.

Can I use the Search API module?¶

Yes, you can use the Search API module with Acquia Search. This is an alternative to using the Apache Solr Search module. Acquia Search for the current Drupal version requires the use of Search API, and won’t use the ApacheSolr module.

Don’t use both the Search API module and the Apache Solr Search module in the same environment.

For more information, read Using the Search API.

Can I use Nutch to index my non-Drupal data for search?¶

Acquia Search does not support using Nutch to index external data. For data security, the Acquia Search architecture requires authentication, which Nutch does not natively support.

Acquia recommends exporting your non-Drupal content into a Drupal website using contributed modules such as Feeds or Migrate to transform your data into Drupal entities, which Acquia Search may then index.

What counts as a search query toward my entitlement?¶

Acquia counts select (searching) and update (indexing) requests reaching the Acquia Search back end.

Can Drupal modules index more than one item at a time in a single Solr update request?¶

Yes, Drupal modules can index more than one item at a time in a single Solr update request.

Does my custom Solr 7 configset work with Solr 8?¶

Yes, both custom and provided Solr 7 configsets are compatible with Solr 8.

Custom configset error messages¶

Troubleshooting Acquia Search with Apache Solr Search module¶

Use the following steps when you troubleshoot issues with Acquia Search with the Apache Solr Search module:

• Attempt to connect from your local install using the subscription’s keys. You must disable and enable all the search modules to regenerate the salt variables. The step can determine if the issue is with the website or the search subscription.

• Examine the version of the Apache Solr Search module.

• If indexing appears to run fine but the results are sparse, examine /admin/settings/apachesolr/query-fields to ensure no major fields are configured to Omit. Also, scroll to the bottom of /admin/settings/apachesolr/content-bias and check which content types are excluded from indexing.

• Find the last node indexed by completing the following steps:

  1. Run the following command:

     drush -vd search-index
     

  2. At some point, you’ll start seeing notices about what node IDs failed to index. Run the following command and note the limit:

     drush vget apachesolr_cron_limit
     

  3. Divide the number returned by the previous command by 2, and then use the resulting number with the following command:

     drush vset apachesolr_cron_limit [value]
     

     For example, if you have 100 results, run the following command:

     drush vset apachesolr_cron_limit 50
     

  4. Repeat the process, halving the limit each time until you reach 1 as the returned number.

  When you reach 1, you will know which node is causing problems.

  Another technique to find the last indexed node is to use the following command:

  drush vget apachesolr_index_last
  

  Use the following command for Drupal 7:

  drush php-eval 'module_load_include("inc", "apachesolr", "apachesolr.index"); $rows = apachesolr_index_get_entities_to_index(apachesolr_default_environment(), "node", 1); foreach ($rows as $row) { print_r($row); }'
  

  The reported node is probably where the indexing problem resides.