Search Server Express 2010 resource links

This is a quick post to capture some good resources for working with SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Search Server Express 2010.

Installation steps, prerequisites, etc. from Microsoft:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee808898.aspx

MSSharePointTips post about installing the two: http://mssharepointtips.com/tip.asp?id=1086

Search Server Express home: http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/searchserverexpress/en/us/technical-resources.aspx

and TechNet home:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/enterprisesearch/ee263912

Forum post regarding integrating SPF and SSE: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010setup/thread/3294d73f-b127-439e-88af-c78c70f9a9e2

SP Foundation, Search Server Express & iFilters

I found conflicting information regarding compatibility between Search Server Express (SSE) and SharePoint Foundation when I started looking online.  Some said SSE couldn’t be installed on a server that already had SharePoint Foundation (SPF) running.  It also was rumored that pdf iFilters couldn’t be installed on SSE or SPF.

I hope this post clarifies some of these misconceptions, rumors, and general confusion.

What I Found

Quick Facts

(I hope I get ’em right, I don’t want to continue spreading confusion)

• Search Server Express CAN be installed on top of an existing SPF install
• PDF iFilters CAN be installed on SSE
• iFilters CANNOT be installed on SPF alone
• Installing SSE on a clean server DOES include SPF

More Info

You can find steps to Install Search Server 2010 Express which can be followed to install on a SharePoint Foundation 2010 server.  The only critical changes are:

1. You must select the Server Farm installation (otherwise the SSE will try installing SPF)
2. Do not select “Create a new server farm” after the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard completes, and do not use the wizard to setup/configure your farm – Cancel to manually configure the farm.

After you have completed the installation you will have to configure search manually by following the Post-installation steps for Search Server 2010.  That isn’t ideal, but those steps are close enough that you should be able to work your way through successfully.

Final Steps – PDF iFilter

In addition to setting up the iFilters as described in a previous post about SharePoint 2010 PDF iFilters, I had to make the following registry change before I could get Search Server Express to return results that included PDF files.

1. Start, Run… regedit
2. Navigate to the following location:
   • \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension

3. Right-click Extension, a menu will appear.
4. Click New–> Key to create a new key for .pdf (enter “.pdf” and Save, be sure to enter the dot)
5. Click your new .pdf key, then right-click and Modify the Default (Name (Default) Type REG_SZ)
6. Add {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603} as the Default Value, click OK
7. You may also have to restart the SharePoint Server Search 14 service (I did)
8. Start a Full Crawl to ensure your content is indexed now that the iFilter is configured