How to install and configure the Indexing Service on a Windows Server 2008-based computer

This article describes how to install and configure the Indexing Service on a Windows Server 2008-based computer. Additionally, this article describes the changes that were made to the Indexing Service for Windows Server 2008.

How to install and configure the Indexing Service

By default, the Indexing Service is not installed on a Windows Server 2008-based computer. To install the Indexing Service on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you must first use Server Manager to add the File Services role to the server. Then, you must add the Indexing Service role service that is available under the Windows Server 2003 File Services role. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
2. In the console tree of Server Manager, right-click Roles, and then click Add Roles.
3. In the Add Roles Wizard, click Next.
4. On the Select Server Roles page, click to select the File Services check box, and then click Next.
5. On the File Services page, click Next.
6. On the Select Roles Services page, click to select the Indexing Service check box under Windows Server 2003 File Services, and then click Next.
7. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.
8. Follow the instructions in the Add Roles Wizard to complete the installation.

After you install the Indexing Service, you must create a new Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in for the Indexing Service. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then press ENTER.
2. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.
3. In the Available snap-ins list, click Indexing Service, and then click Add.
4. In the Connect to Computer dialog box, click Local computer: (the computer this console is running on), and then click Finish.
5. To close the Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box, click OK. The console displays the Indexing Service snap-in.

Changes that were made to the Indexing Service for Windows Server 2008

The following changes were made to the Indexing Service settings for Windows Server 2008:

• After you install the Indexing Service, a default catalog is not created for the Indexing Service. You must manually create a catalog for the Indexing Service. For more information about how to create and configure a catalog for indexing, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  308202

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308202/ )

  How to create and configure a catalog for indexing
• The "Query the Catalog" search page is not available in the Indexing Service. You can create a custom search page to search the catalog. For more information about how to create a custom search page for the Indexing Service, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  820105

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820105/ )

  How to use an ASP.NET application to query an Indexing Service catalog by using Visual Basic .NET
  820983

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820983/ )

  How to use an ASP.NET application to query an Indexing Service catalog by using Visual C# .NET
• You cannot index Internet Information Services (IIS) Web sites in Windows Server 2008 because of the design changes that were made to IIS 7.0. The catalog that you use for the Indexing Service still has the Tracking tab. However, the catalog does not save any changes that you make to the WWW Server setting.
  
  
• To index documents that have custom properties, you must apply hotfix 947265. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  947265

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947265/ )

  In Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008, the Content Indexer service cannot index the custom properties of a document
• Because of changes in the word breaker that is used for Japanese documents, kanji single-character searches fail, and you receive the following error message:
  The query contained only ignored words
  This behavior is by design.
• Because of changes in the word breaker that is used for Japanese documents, searches for more than two kanji characters may fail, and you receive the following error message:
  The query contained only ignored words
  This behavior is by design.
  
  To work around this behavior, use the other search services. For example, use Windows Desktop Search, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, or Microsoft Search Server.

For more information about how to index IIS 7.0 Web sites in Windows Server 2008 by using the Indexing Service, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For help with Windows Search problems in Windows Vista, visit the following Microsoft web page: