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OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Indexing Service

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Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 include Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and Microsoft Indexing Service. These services enable filtering files based on their properties and performing full-text indexing and retrieval of file data.

Indexing Service also includes the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Indexing Service. This provider can be used to perform full-text or property value searches on nondatabase files. A linked server definition can be made by using sp_addlinkedserver, and security can be set up using SQL Server Management Studio. Distributed queries can then reference the provider to retrieve indexed information.

To create a linked server to access an Indexing Service full-text index

  1. Create the full-text index by using Indexing Service. By default, Indexing Service installs a catalog named default. For more information, see the Indexing Service documentation.

  2. Execute sp_addlinkedserver to create the linked server, specifying MSIDXS as provider_name, and the name of the full-text index as data_source.

    For example, to create a linked server named FTIndexWeb that accesses a full-text index named Web, execute:

    sp_addlinkedserver FTIndexWeb, 'Index Server', 'MSIDXS', 'Web'

  3. The security authorization of Indexing Service clients is based on the Windows account of the process consuming the OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Index Service. For SQL Server authenticated logins, distributed queries are run in the context of the SQL Server 2005 process. Because SQL Server typically runs under an account that has a high level of authorization, SQL Server authenticated users that use an Indexing Service linked server may be able to access information that they are not authorized to access. Members of the sysadmin fixed server role address this problem by strictly controlling the SQL Server logins that are authorized to perform distributed queries that use an Indexing Service linked server.

    The administrator first uses sp_droplinkedsrvlogin to remove all login mappings to the Indexing Service linked server, for example:

    sp_droplinkedsrvlogin FTIndexWeb, NULL

    The administrator then uses sp_addlinkedsrvlogin to authorize individual logins to access the linked server, for example:

    sp_addlinkedsrvlogin FTIndexWeb, true, 'SomeLogin'

    To perform these actions, right-click the linked server in SQL Server Management Studio, click Properties, and then select the Security tab.

Transact-SQL statements can use the OPENQUERY function to send commands to Indexing Service by using an SQL syntax that is consistent with the full-text query syntax supported in SQL Server for full-text searches of data stored in the database. The SQL full-text syntax supported by Indexing Service is defined in the Index Server Programmer's Guide found either on the Microsoft Development Network or in the Indexing Service documentation.

See Also

Concepts

Distributed Queries
OLE DB Providers Tested with SQL Server

Other Resources

sp_addlinkedsrvlogin (Transact-SQL)
sp_droplinkedsrvlogin (Transact-SQL)
sp_addlinkedserver (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance