4.4 Setting Up Two Filr Search Appliances

Novell best practices require that every Filr-clustered deployment have two Filr Search appliances. A Filr cluster can operate with one search appliance, but this should only occur under special circumstances, such as when reindexing is required. Figure 4-4 illustrates that two Filr Search appliances are the second and third components deployed when creating a Filr Cluster.

Figure 4-4 Filr-Clustering Task 2: Set up two Filr Search appliances

You can use the steps that follow to gain hands-on experience with setting up Filr Search appliances, or for general guidance as you set up a Filr-clustered deployment in your own lab or production network. For complete instructions, see the Filr 2.0: Installation and Configuration Guide.

4.4.1 Downloading, Starting, and Configuring the Filr Search Appliances

  1. Download and configure the virtual environment for a Filr Search appliance as documented in Downloading the Search Index Appliance and Configuring the Virtual Environment in the Filr 2.0: Installation and Configuration Guide.

    For example, for a VMware Workstation deployment this involves the following basic steps:

    1. Download and unzip the Filr Search appliance archive.

    2. Open the Filrsearch*.ovf file.

    3. Name the appliance and click Import.

    4. Add a second hard disk to the appliance for the /vastorage mount point.

    5. Add a third hard disk to the appliance for the log files (/var) mount point.

    6. Adjust the appliance’s resources (RAM and so forth) as needed.

    7. Power on the appliance.

  2. Install the Filr Search appliance that you downloaded and configured in Step 1 as documented in Installing the Search Index Appliance in the Filr 2.0: Installation and Configuration Guide.

    1. Accept the license agreement.

    2. Specify the passwords and time settings, then click Next.

    3. Specify the network settings, then click Next.

    4. Specify the second hard disk you added in Step 1.d as the data storage location for /vastorage by clicking Next.

      When the terminal prompt screen appears, the search appliance is ready to configure.

    5. Specify the third hard disk you added in Step 1.e as the log file storage location for /var by clicking Configure.

      When the terminal prompt screen appears, the search appliance is ready to configure.

    6. Repeat from Step 1.b to install a second Filr Search appliance, then continue with Section 4.4.2, Deploying the Filr Search Appliances.

4.4.2 Deploying the Filr Search Appliances

  1. Using a browser, access the Appliance Administration Utility on the first Filr Search appliance by entering the following URL:

    https://IP_Address:9443

    Where IP_Address is the IP address of the first Filr appliance.

  2. Log in as the vaadmin user using the password that you set in Step 2.b.

  3. Click the Novell Filr Search Appliance Configuration button to launch the Filr Search Configuration Wizard.

  4. Click Next to confirm that this is a new appliance.

  5. Specify and confirm a password for the default Lucene user, then click Finish.

  6. At the bottom of the Search Settings dialog, click Submit.

  7. Repeat from Step 1 to configure a second Filr Search appliance, then continue with Setting Up the MySQL Appliance.

  8. Close the browser.