Installation and Upgrade > Upgrade Guide > Before Upgrading > Windchill Index Search Upgrade Overview
  
Windchill Index Search Upgrade Overview
Indexing is the process of extracting text strings of attribute values from Windchill objects and sending them to a search engine that builds indices optimized for searching. This enables users to efficiently search for data stored in a Windchill database, without having to know anything about the internal object model. Windchill solutions provide the option of installing Windchill Index Search to help with indexing.
The Windchill Index Search system provides the ability to search for keywords within the meta data and content of Windchill database objects. The oversight of a system administrator is required to maintain the efficiency and usefulness of the search system as it changes over time.
It is important to note that content that is mastered in remote vaults is not indexed. For that reason, users cannot perform full-text searches on content that is mastered remotely; only attribute searches can be performed on this content.
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Windchill Index Search is not available for Windchill PDM Essentials.
Bulk Indexing
You can use the Bulk Index Tool to load all the objects that belong in the Windchill Index Search libraries. This utility sends objects to a search engine to be indexed according to their domain’s indexing policy. You can perform the following tasks with this utility:
Start and stop the bulk indexing process. Because loading indexes can take a significant amount of time, it may be necessary to stop the operation for some length of time. State is maintained in the IndexStatus table, which is used by this too, so the process can be stopped and restarted without having to re-index objects that have already been indexed.
Schedule the process to start and stop at specified times.
Check on the status of the overall bulk indexing process.
Attempt the re-index objects that have failed the indexing process.
Maintain a detailed log of the indexing process.
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The Bulk Index Tool can only be used to load Windchill Index Search libraries.
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If a user searches for the latest iteration of an object that was loaded using the data loading utilities, all iterations appear in the search results. You can correct this problem by using the Bulk Index Tool to re-index the data once it has been loaded.
Installing Windchill Index Search
For information on installing Windchill Index Search and bulk indexing see:
Installing Windchill Index Search
Post-installation Instructions for Windchill Index Search
Using Windchill Index Search During an Upgrade
For more information on using Windchill Index Search and bulk indexing during an upgrade see:
Execute Steps for Windchill Index Search
Administering Windchill Index Search
For information on configuring and administering Windchill Index Search and bulk indexing see:
Windchill Index Search Administration
Defining and Maintaining Keyword Search Indexes
Index Search Properties
Index Search Backup and Recovery
XML Document Searches
Setting Up Index Search to Index CAD Parts