Start, suspend, resume, or stop a crawl process (FAST Search Web crawler)
Applies to: FAST Search Server 2010
When you have completed your configuration, use the command line to operate the FAST Search Web crawler.
Start a single server Web crawler process
To add a FAST Search Web crawler configuration, see Add, edit or remove a FAST Web crawler configuration.
To start a single server Web crawler process:
Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
nctrl start <process>
Where:
- <process> is the process you want to start, either “crawler” or “browserengine”
Stop a single server Web crawler
It may be necessary to stop the FAST Search Web crawler, for example in order to perform certain administrative tasks such as reefed content or run database tools. This is done the same was as you would stop any other FAST Search component, using the nctrl.exe tool. For a single node FAST Search Web crawler deployment there are two processes that always run on the same server in the farm, namely crawler and browserengine. Only the crawler process needs to be stopped when performing “offline” administrative tasks.
Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
nctrl stop <process>
Where:
- <process> is the process you want to stop, either “crawler” or “browserengine”
Start a multi-server Web crawler
To start a FAST Search Web crawler process, start the FAST Search Web crawler on the multinodescheduler server:
Procedure overview
First start all dupserver_primary, dupserver_replica and browserengine processes (if stopped).
Start the multinodescheduler process.
Start all nodescheduler processes.
Stop a multi-server Web crawler
In a multi-server FAST Search Web crawler deployment there are multiple different processes running on different servers in the farm. The multinodescheduler runs on one server, and is the central component of the FAST Search Web crawler. Stopping it will effectively restart all the nodescheduler components and halt any crawling until it is restarted.
Each server responsible for actually crawling will contain one nodescheduler (instead of the crawler in single node) and one browserengine.
In addition, one or more servers will contain a dupserver_primary and optionally a dupserver_replica. These do not have to be stopped when performing any database maintenance (unless the maintenance involves their databases) and must be running for content to be submitted.
The recommended procedure for shutting down a multi node crawler is:
Procedure overview
First stop all nodescheduler processes and wait for them to exit.
Stop the multinodescheduler process and wait for it to exit.
Optionally stop all dupserver_primary, dupserver_replica and browserengine processes.
How to start a process
Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
nctrl start <process>
Where:
- <process> is the process you want to start.
How to stop a process
Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
nctrl stop <process>
Where:
- <process> is the process you want to stop.
Suspend and resume a crawl configuration
The FAST Search Web crawler can have multiple crawl collections active at the same time, and each of these can be controlled individually. These operations are performed using the crawleradmin command line tool.
Note that it may take some time, depending on the number of Web sites crawled, for the crawling to be completely suspended or resumed. Refer to crawleradmin for more information on managing the Web crawler.
How to suspend crawling of a given crawl collection:
Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
crawleradmin --suspendcollection <MyFASTSearchWebCrawlerCollection>
Where:
- <MyFASTSearchWebCrawlerCollection> is the name of the FAST Search Web crawler collection to be suspended.
How to resume crawling of a given crawl collection:
Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
crawleradmin --resumecollection <MyFASTSearchWebCrawlerCollection>
Where:
- <MyFASTSearchWebCrawlerCollection> is the name of the FAST Search Web crawler collection to be resumed.
For detailed information about the command line options, see the reference topics.