Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Chapter 22: Managing External Content in Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 619
Editing the Properties of a Content Index
Editing the properties of a content index takes place when you need to modify indexspecific
information such as description, source group, status, and logging options.
Such options might have to be changed, depending on the particular requirements of
your organization. The logging information available as part of content-index properties
is also useful in troubleshooting any content-index issues you might encounter.
In the properties of a content index, you can learn the following information:
■ Name and description of the content index. The name is not configurable,
but the description is.
■ Source group. You can see to which source group the index file is assigned
and assign the file to a new source group if needed. To assign the file to a new
source group, simply type in the name of the new source group and then click
OK at the bottom of the screen.
■ Status information. The status information includes the file size, the number
of documents in the index, the last update, warnings and error message
counters, and a link to the gatherer log for this index file.
■ Logging options. These two check boxes will allow you to specify additional
information that should be placed in the gatherer logs. If documents that
you think should appear in the index are not appearing, enable these two
selections, rerun a full index, and then view the gatherer log for additional
troubleshooting information.
■ Excluded and included paths. You can view the number of included and
excluded paths and then click on a link that will allow you to further modify
these rules.
Because this information is held in the properties of the index files, you’ll want
to enable Advanced Search Administration Mode to quickly open the properties of
these index files.
Managing Content Indexes
Managing content indexes is an important element of SharePoint Portal Server 2003
site maintenance because resetting and updating content indexes keeps the index
up to date and ensures a successful search experience based on the latest portal site
content. The management tasks include:
■ Resetting a content index and thus stopping index updates and emptying the
selected content index entirely. This is an option best used if you suspect file
corruption or other issues with the selected content indexes. Resetting the content
index file will automatically start a full update for all content sources
assigned to that file.