Building a Virtual Search Server

Using NetWare Web Search Manager, you define a new virtual search server and then index data found on your NetWare server or content found on any Web site that can then be searched using the NetWare Web Search Server.

Building a virtual search server involves four fundamental tasks:

1. Plan the purpose of your virtual search server, which includes identifying what will be searched and how to optimize your search solution based on the content to be searched.
2. Defining a new virtual search server using Web Search Manager.
3. Building one or more indexes of your Web sites and file servers.
4. Testing your new virtual search server using the default search form and the search and print result templates.

After completing the first task of planning your virtual search server (see Designing Your Search Solution), use the NetWare Web Search Manager to complete the remaining tasks. The following figure illustrates these tasks.

Figure 6
Steps to Creating a Virtual Search Server

Repeat this process for each new virtual search server you want to add. A virtual search server can include one or more indexes of files located on your file server and files located in one or more directories on one or more Web servers.

Indexing a Web server (or Web site) involves a process known as crawling. The Web Search Server begins indexing files on a Web server at the directory level you specify and continues to index along hypertext links until reaching a dead-end, which occurs when either a linked file cannot be found or when there are no more links found within the specified Web sites.

Accessing NetWare Web Search Manager

NetWare Web Search Manager is the tool you use to create and manage virtual search servers and their associated indexes.

To run NetWare Web Search Manager, do the following:

1. Type https://domainname:portnumber in your Web browser's address field, where portnumber is the port number of NetWare Web Manager and press Enter.

   HINT:  You must use the HTTPS protocol because NetWare Web Search Manager uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). You can disable encryption from the Admin Preferences page of NetWare Web Manager (see Securing Web Manager).

2. Under NetWare Web Search Server, click the servername link, where servername is the name of your NetWare Web Search Server.