OpenText Common Search 1.0 Installation and Configuration on Windows Server 2008

Common Search 1.0 is the latest OpenText Web Solutions search engine. It can be easily integrated with Delivery Server 10.1 to allow site search within a website. For proper installation and configuration of OpenText Common Search 1.0 on Windows Server 2008, you need to have already installed and configured Delivery Server 10.1 on the same machine you’re going to install Common Search 1.0.

First, you need to do a few prerequisites before the installation of Common Search:
1)    Install a database client on the OpenText Common Search host. In this case, I installed the SQL Native client.
2)    Create a shared directory accessible for Delivery Server and Common Search. This directory in going to store the search index.
3)    Create a database in your Database Server for Common Search and a corresponding user. To create the database and user, use the following script:

USE master

GO

CREATE DATABASE otsschema

ON

(           NAME = otsschema_Data,

            FILENAME =

            '<dataPath>\otsschema_Data.mdf',

            SIZE = 60)

LOG ON

(           NAME = otsschema_Log,

            FILENAME =

            '<logPath>\Data\otsschema_Log.ldf',

            SIZE = 30)

GO

use otsschema

go

create login searchUser with password = 'herepassword', default_database = otsschema

go

create schema otsschema

go

create user searchUser

with default_schema = otsschema

go

exec sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', 'searchUser'

go

use master

go

Note: After the database creation with SQL Server Management studio, right click on the database -> Properties -> Option and set:
Collation: SQL_Latin1_general_CP1_CS_AS
Recovery Model: Simple

Installation Steps
1)     Download the Windows Installer.
2)    Run the installer by double clicking it.
3)    Follow the Wizard.
4)    After the installation, the URL http://<host>:<port> will be shown to start the configuration.
5)    Follow the configuration Wizard. Click on ‘Cancel’ when the Wizard prompts to you to create an index. This is going to be configured via Delivery Server later.

Integration between Common Search and Delivery Server
After the Common Search installation we need to configure it in order to integrate with Delivery Server. To do this, follow these steps:
1)    Activate the OpenText Common Search license in Delivery Server from: Server Manager -> Administer Licenses.
2)    Configure Common Search Connector. In Delivery Server go to Connectors -> Search Engines -> Administer. There you need to create a new connector.
3)    Then you just need to re-index the project.

Conclusion
Common Search is an excellent solution for search engines that can be integrate with Delivery Server. It offers a powerful tool to index many types of content like html and BLOB. As you notice, you just need to follow simple and quick steps in order to configure it and integrate it with Delivery Server.