SearchStax Cloud Connector for Sitecore

Introduction

This script is used to connect a Sitcore installation to a SearchStax' Solr instance. It does following:

Upload the config files to Solr
Create collections in Solr
Configure sitecore files

Supported Sitecore Versions

Currently the script only supports following sitecore XP versions and their XConnect:

9.0 Update-2 (9.0.2)
9.1 Update-1 (9.1.1)
9.2 Initial Update (9.2.0)
9.3 Initial Update (9.3.0)
10.0 Initial Update (10.0.0)
10.0 Update-1 (10.0.1)
10.0 Update-2 (10.0.2)
10.0 Update-3 (10.0.3)
10.1 Initial Update (10.1.0)
10.1 Update-1 (10.1.1)
10.1 Update-2 (10.1.2)
10.2 Initial Update (10.2.0)
10.3 Initial Update (10.3.0)
10.4 Initial Update (10.4.0)

Requirements

Powershell v6 or above
Powershell-yaml module

Installing

Powershell v6

Powershell v6 can be installed by running following command via Powershell Windows.

iex "& { $(irm https://aka.ms/install-powershell.ps1) } -UseMSI"

Powershell Yaml Module

Install-Module powershell-yaml

In order to run the script, first you have to update the config file

Config File

Config file is located at .\config.yml

It contains following fields:

Name	Description	Example
accountName	Name of the SearchStax account	ABCInternational
deploymentUid	UID of the SearchStax deployment to connect to	ss123456
sitecorePrefix	Prefix of the sitecore installation	sitecore
pathToWWWRoot	Path to wwwroot folder in inetpub, i.e. your %IIS_SITE_HOME% variable	C:\inetpub\wwwroot
solrUsername	Solr username (Optional)
solrPassword	Solr password (Optional)
sitecoreVersion	Version of sitecore from the above list	10.1.1
isUniqueConfigs	"true" will create a separate config file for each collection, "false" will create only 1 config which will be used by all the collections. (Note: This defaults to true for Sitecore v9.0.2)	true/false
configurationMode	Select the part of Sitecore being configured - "XP", "XCONNECT"	XP\|XCONNECT
isSxa	"True" will add two additional collections to Solr for SXA support	true/false
switchOnRebuild	Extended configuration for switch on rebuild.
switchOnRebuild.enableForPlatformIndexes	When "true", will add additional collections and aliases for Sitecore Platform Indexes (core, master, web, etc.).	true/flase
switchOnRebuild.enableForMarketingIndexes	When "true", will add additional collections and aliases for Sitecore Platform Marketing Indexes (content testing, fxm, etc). Generally, this will always be false unless a specific use case calls for this configuration.	true/flase
switchOnRebuild.enableForSXA	When "true", will add additional collections and aliases for Sitecore SXA Indexes.	true/flase
switchOnRebuild.sufix	The suffix of the rebuild collection name. Default: "_rebuild"	string value
switchOnRebuild.MainAlias	The suffix of the Main Alias name. Default: "_MainAlias"	string value
switchOnRebuild.rebuildAlias	The suffix of the Rebuild Alias name. Default: "_RebuildAlias"	string value
switchOnRebuild.sitecorePrefix	The prefix of the Rebuild collctions and Aliases. Default: "sitecore"	string value
customIndexes	Allows of creation of custom indexes. Can be repeated for multiple custom indexes
customIndexes.core	Collection name of the custom index	string value
customIndexes.isSwitchOnRebuild	When "true" will create additional rebuild collection and aliases	true/false

Instructions

Configure the config.yml file.
Start Powershell v6 as Administrator.
Change the execution policy to skip checking.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

Execute following command

.\sitecore-searchstax-connector.ps1

Go to your sitecore page > Control Panel > Populate Solr Managed Schema > Select All > Populate
On the same page, Indexing Manager > Select All > Rebuild

Best Practice/Recommendation:

Use your CI/CD deployment to set Configuration and ConnectionString values using secure environment unique tokens/variables.

Instructions for PaaS/Scaled/Custom Environments

Every Sitecore Web Instance (CD/CM) needs these updates:

Web.config: <AppSettings><add key="search:define" value="Solr"/> - set to Solr
App_Config/ConnectionStrings.config: <add name="solr.search" connectionString=

Every XConnect Instance needs these updates:

App_Config/ConnectionStrings.config: <add name="solrCore" connectionString=
App_Data\jobs\continuous\IndexWorker\App_Config\ConnectionStrings.config: <add name="solrCore" connectionString=
Use the SearchStax API and upload the Schema - App_Data\solrcommands\schema.json to both XDB Collections. - reference: https://lucene.apache.org/solr/guide/8_6/schema-api.html

How can I get help with SearchStax Cloud Connector for Sitecore?

You can use GitHub to submit bug reports or feature requests for Searchstax-Cloud-Connector-for-Sitecore. Please do not submit usage questions via GitHub.

FAQ

Recommended Performance Optimization Settings by Sitecore

Sitecore recommends updating some settings for performance optimization when working with Solr. You can find more details here: Performance optimizations when using Solr

Sitecore SXA

This plugin currently does not support Sitecore SXA configuration.

IP Filtering

If you have enabled IP filtering on your Solr instance, then make sure that you add the IP/CIDR block of your network or machine to the IP Filtering page. For more instructions on how to set up IP filtering, please follow our guide here - How To Set-up IP Filtering

Sitecore v9.0 Update-2+

The plugin will automatically default to creating a separate config directory for every collection when being used to setup Sitecore v9.0.2.

Have additional questions?

Check SearchStax Help Center

searchstax / searchstax-cloud-connector-for-sitecore