VertiGIS Studio Search FAQ

This is a living document where we will publish FAQ topics which we think are of importance to many of our customers.

Table of contents

• Section 1: System requirements and configuration options
  • Memory and hard drive requirements
  • How to change the data directory path of the searchindex?
  • Configuration of advanced setting regarding the creation of Subindices (timeouts etc.)
     
• Section 2: Installation and configuration of VertiGIS Studio Search - troubleshooting
  • How can an HTTP error 403 (CORS restriction) be fixed, when indexing a new search resource? 
  • Where is the search index located and how large is it currently?
  • Where are the log files?
  • How to verify that VertiGIS Studio Search is running correctly?
  • After un-installing VertiGIS Studio Search, not all data in the installation folder is removed
  • How to remove "Data Consistency" errors       [NEW ENTRY 2024-05-29]
     
• Section 3: Searching for results - troubleshooting
  • Why are unexpected search results being displayed?
     
• Section 4: Miscellaneous
  • Typical Deployment Scenarios

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Section 1: System requirements and configuration options
 

Memory and hard drive requirements

• (also see requirements in the VertiGIS Studio Search online manual).
• For a clean disk space management, we recommend installing VSS on a separate hard drive / hard drive partition (e.g. D:\, not C:\). Also, set a low disk space warning (e.g. for less than 50 GB free space)
• Note: The can be temporary spikes in disk space usage. E.g. the size of the search index temporarily doubles during an OPTIMIZE phase.
   

How to change the data directory path of the searchindex?

For on-premise installations, admins might need to change the data directory path.

After the usual installation, the following steps need to be performed manually:
    1. Stop the Windows service "VertiGIS Studio Search Solr"
    2. Move the search index to the new location, e.g. 
from "C:\Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Search\search\Engine\bin\solr\server\solr"
to “C:\VSS_searchindex”    
    3. Set the (new) windows environment variable "SOLR_HOME", e.g. to "C:\VSS_searchindex":

 Note: close all windows/popups of the Windows System Properties, to make sure the changes take effect.

    4. Restart the Windows service "VertiGIS Studio Search Solr" 

    5. Verify that Solr is running properly with the search index at the new location: 

•    Under http://localhost:28983/solr/ (default login is "search", default password is "search4ever")
•    In the lower left corner chose the core "Searchindex" 
•    Then verify the information in the top right corner:

For more technical information, please see https://solr.apache.org/guide/solr/latest/deployment-guide/taking-solr-to-production.html#solr-home-directory
 

Configuration of advanced setting regarding the creation of Subindices (timeouts etc.)

Some vital configuration (such as the interval for resource integrity checks and the interval for re-indexing resources with the status "out of date") can be adjusted by adding / uncommenting the respective lines in the following file: 
\Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Search\search\Engine\bin\search-modules\.env
Example:

Section 2: Installation and configuration of VertiGIS Studio Search - troubleshooting
 

How can an HTTP error 403 (CORS restriction) be fixed, when indexing a new search resource? 

The Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) security settings define whether a webpage is allowed to load data from a different host or not.
If a request fails with an HTTP error 403, this is indicative of a missing CORS permission. 
The CORS permissions must be configured on the machine that is providing the data.

There are two different scenarios regarding VertiGIS Studio Search where CORS problems may occur.

(A) communication between VertiGIS Studio Web and VertiGIS Studio Search

    These are the default deployment scenarios as recommended by VertiGIS:

• Using the products from our SaaS environment https://apps.vertigisstudio.eu/
• Deploying all Studio products on one single machine on-premises

    In these scenarios, the communication between the individual components should not show any CORS problems.
    
    Deploying individual Studio products on different machines of linking SaaS components with on-premises installations is also possible.
    However, CORS issues may show up in these situations and need to be solved.
The following article from our support platform should be helpful:
https://support.vertigis.com/hc/en-us/articles/14986795506578

(B) Fetching data from a search resource 

    CORS permissions need to be set when an ArcGIS Server service disallows requests for VertiGIS Studio Search.
The CORS checks are deactivated entirely In ArcGIS Portal by default.
However, as soon as the first "origins" host has been configured, requests from all other hosts are no longer accepted.
    
    To allow requests from the host where VertiGIS Studio Search has been installed please proceed as follows:
        a. Log in to your ArcGIS portal as an administrator. 
        b. Click Organization > Settings > Security.
        c. Scroll down to "Allow Origins".
        d. Enter the domain name of the site hosting the VertiGIS Studio Search application.

The protocol (http or https) must be included with the domain name, such as https://webapp.domain.com.
 

Where is the search index located and how large is it currently?

The search index can be found here: \Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Search\search\Engine\bin\solr\server\solr\Searchindex\data

Solr admin interface: http://localhost:28983/solr/
    • Only accessible from the actual machine (using localhost)
    • Default login: search default password: search4ever
See screenshot: 

Where are the log files? 

The VertiGIS Studio Search log files are located here: 
    \Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Search\search\Engine\logs

The searchindex (Solr) log files are located here:
    \Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Search\search\Engine\bin\solr\server\logs

(depending on the installation folder that was chosen during the setup process).
 

How to verify that VertiGIS Studio Search is running correctly?

After installing VertiGIS Studio Search, the "About" section, accessible from the menu on the left hand side, lists the installed components and their status (green indicates "up and running", red indicates "stopped or crashed").

Additionally, a web admin to the physical searchindex (based on the "Solr" framework) is provided.

Address: http://localhost:28983/solr/

Default login: search
Default password: search4ever

For security reasons, this interface is only accessible from the actual machine, using "localhost".
 

After un-installing VertiGIS Studio Search, not all data in the installation folder is removed.

This behaviour is as designed.
The uninstalling process removes all files that have been created during the original installation.
Any files that have been created later or that have been modified will not be deleted.
This ensures that configuration information and indexed data is preserved and can be taken into account when the product is installed again later (probably using a newer version).
If desired, the remaining files in the installation folder can be deleted manually.
 

How to remove Data Consistency errors

On-premises installations prior to Studio Search 1.6 came with a set of sample data, which is located in both the config database and in search index. Over time the Data Consistency analysis grew more refined and eventually flagged these samples as imperfect, because the portal item that is expected for each search app config was not present. See “Engine Health UI”.

The latest installer does not include sample data anymore.
Removing the sample data from an existing installation can be accomplished using the Search API.
Under “Engine Settings” the "Swagger UI" can be started (note that this is only available for on-premises installations, not on SaaS).
In the Section “apps” the operation “DELETE /api/apps/{appUuid}” can be displayed and activated using the button “Try it out”.
The following three apps are part of the sample data. They can be entirely removed using the respective appUuid.

c6d0a378-5ee8-11ea-bc55-aaabbbcccddd     (World Cities App)
76abd0d5-2bf1-47d2-aafb-cccdddeeefff     (US Parks & Rivers App)
ff543027-ca82-44c9-a18e-8050d2c935f5     (Canadian Airports App)

Section 3: Searching for results - troubleshooting
 

Why are unexpected search results being displayed?

If unexpected search results are returned, or the rendering of the search results is different than expected, it is vital to first thoroughly verify the configuration.
Please check the search fields and the result representation ("description pattern") of the resource in question.
The resource must be indexed (status "created") and the timestamp must indicate, that the latest changes already have been taken into account.

Bottom part of the page:

Section 4: Miscellaneous
 

Typical Deployment Scenarios

These are the default deployment scenario as recommended by VertiGIS:

• Using the provided products from our SaaS environment (https://apps.vertigisstudio.eu or https://apps.vertigisstudio.com [.com coming soon])

OR

• Deploying all Studio products on one single machine on-premises.

Many other deployment scenarios are justifiable, such as

• using Studio Web as a SaaS instance in combination with a Studio Search instance that is deployed on-premises and made available as a VertiGIS Studio organization subdomain such as customer123.apps.vertigisstudio.eu
• using Studio Web on-premises and Studio Search on-premises on a different machine
• and many more.
   

VertiGIS strives to support as many of those options as possible.

In the recommended default deployment scenarios, Studio Web and Studio Search are linked automatically and everything should work out of the box.

For any other scenario, additional configuration might be required to link Studio Web and Studio Search and remedy any potential CORS restrictions.