Configure Search on Dedicated APP Server

This blog is part of Series : Comprehensive SharePoint 2013 Development Environment Installation and Configuration

Overview

This blog article discusses how to configure Search Service in SP 2013 such that each of the new sub components of the Search Service can be allocated to run on different APP(s) server.

Based on our initial design we want to run all the Search Service components on SP2013APP2 server.

Steps

Unlike prior SharePoint version, in SharePoint 2013 the Search Service Application topology must be configured via PowerShell only.  Hence I have prepared the following below PowerShell script by referencing this blog.

Substitute following below for your specific environment:

ssaName: Your Search Service Application Name

dbSrv: Your Database name where the Search Service Application related databases will be created

dbNamePrefix: Such as Dev_ or QA_ or Prod etc.  if you desire.

appPoolName : Search Service Application Pool Name

appPoolAccount : Search Service Application Pool  Account

servers : Here you should substitute your Search server name.

See below the script for further instructions:

#---------------------
# Component Type Key:
#---------------------
#   Admin: Admin Component
#   CC: Crawl Component
#   CP: Content Processor
#   AP: Analytics Component
#   IP: Index Partition Component
#   QP: Query Processor
#------------------------------------

$ssaConfig = @{
    ssaName = "Search Service Application";
    dbSrv = "DC";
    dbNamePrefix = "";
    appPoolName = "SharePoint Search Application Pool";  # if exists, will just use the existing pool
    appPoolAccount = "CORP\SPSearchService";
    servers = @{ 
      "SP2013APP2"    = @{ components = @{  Admin=$true; CC=$true; CP=$true; AP=$true;IP=$true; QP=$true; };  
                            index =      @{ Partition=0; # The index partition number
                                            Path="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\"   
                                        # Specified path must exist and be empty
                                     }; 
                     };
      
    }
};



$err = $null
#-----------------------
# Create the App Pool(s)
#-----------------------

# Create managed account if it does not exist
if ((Get-SPManagedAccount $ssaConfig.appPoolAccount -ErrorVariable err -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null) {
  "****************************************************** "
  "* Create managed account for " + $ssaConfig.appPoolAccount
  "****************************************************** "
  $credential = Get-Credential
  if ($credential -eq $null) { "Terminating script..."; start-sleep 10; exit; }
  New-SPManagedAccount -Credential $credential 
}

$sqssPool = Get-SPServiceApplicationPool | where {$_.Name -eq $ssaConfig.appPoolName }
if ($sqssPool -ne $null) { 
    "-- Search App Pool [" + $ssaConfig.appPoolName + "] already exists... <skipping>" 
} else { $sqssPool = New-SPServiceApplicationPool -name $ssaConfig.appPoolName -account $ssaConfig.appPoolAccount }

if ($ssaConfig.adminPoolName -ne $null) {
    $adminPool = Get-SPServiceApplicationPool | where {$_.Name -eq $ssaConfig.adminPoolName }
    if ($adminPool -ne $null) { 
        "-- Search Admin App Pool [" + $ssaConfig.adminPoolName + "] already exists... <skipping>" 
    } else { $adminPool = New-SPServiceApplicationPool -name $ssaConfig.adminPoolName -account $ssaConfig.adminPoolAccount }
} else {
    $adminPool = $sqssPool;
}

$ssaConfig.Add("sqssPool", $sqssPool)
$ssaConfig.Add("adminPool", $adminPool)

#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# start the Search Instances (if not already online) on the relevant servers
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Starting Search Instances..."
foreach ($netbios in $ssaConfig.servers.keys) {
    "   [" + $netbios + "]"
    if ((Get-SPServer $netbios -ErrorVariable err -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null) {
        "The server" + $netbios + "is not found in this farm..." 
        "Terminating script..."; start-sleep 10; exit; 
    } else {
        if ((Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -identity $netbios).status -ne "Online") {
            Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -identity $netbios
        }
    }
    $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -identity $netbios
}

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Create the new SSA (which may take a while (~10min) to run...
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Creating New SSA"
"   - My tests have taken ~10 min to complete this step"
"   - Starting at: " + (Get-Date)

if ($ssaConfig.dbNamePrefix -ne $null) { 
    $dbPrefix = $ssaConfig.dbNamePrefix 
} else { $dbPrefix = $ssaConfig.ssaName }

$SSA = New-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -name $ssaConfig.ssaName -ApplicationPool $ssaConfig.sqssPool -AdminApplicationPool $ssaConfig.adminPool -DatabaseServer $ssaConfig.dbSrv -DatabaseName $dbPrefix
New-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplicationProxy -name $ssaConfig.ssaName -SearchApplication $SSA

"Cloning the topology..."
$initialTopo = $SSA | Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Active
$newTopo = $SSA | New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology 

#------------------------------------------
# Create the new components on each server
#------------------------------------------
"Creating Components on specified server(s)... "
foreach ($netbios in $ssaConfig.servers.keys) {
    foreach ($type in $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].components.keys) {
        if ($ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].components[$type]) {    
            "   [" + $netbios + "] --> " + $type
            switch ($type) {
                "Admin" {
                    New-SPEnterpriseSearchAdminComponent -SearchTopology $newTopo -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance
                    $SSA | Get-SPEnterpriseSearchAdministrationComponent | Set-SPEnterpriseSearchAdministrationComponent -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance
                    $SSA | Get-SPEnterpriseSearchAdministrationComponent
                }
                "CC" { New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -SearchTopology $newTopo -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance }
                "CP" { New-SPEnterpriseSearchContentProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopo -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance }
                "AP" { New-SPEnterpriseSearchAnalyticsProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopo -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance }
                "QP" { New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopo -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance }
                "IP" { New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $newTopo -SearchServiceInstance $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].instance -IndexPartition $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].index.Partition -RootDirectory $ssaConfig.servers[$netbios].index.Path }
            }
        }
    }
}

"Activating the new topology:"
 "   - This also may run for a few minutes..."
$newTopo.Activate()
 
"Cleaning up the inactive topology..."
while ($newTopo.State -ne "Active") { "."; start-sleep 10; } 
$SSA | Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology | Where {$_.State -eq "Inactive" } | Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Confirm:$false

Ensure that the Search Index path (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications\) on SP2013APP1 and SP2013APP2 are empty

Login to APP1 or APP2 with SPSetupAccount

Copy and prepare the powershell script file and save at a location locally

Run the SP 2013 PowerShell command as Administrator

Run the Saved Script

Validate in the CA that the new Search Service Application is started

Click on the Search Service Application to get in to the Search Service Administration page as below.

Click on the link against the Global Search Center URL and set the Search Center that we had previously created:

Update the Search Content Access Account from SPSearch to SPCrawl

At the end now you can see that only APP2 server is running the Search Service