Getting the Most from Your Google Search Appliance: Setup

Google Search Appliance software version 6.0
Posted June 2009

The Google Search Appliance enables you to provide universal search to your users. You can get the most from your Google Search Appliance by using some or all of its many features to fine-tune and enhance universal search. Become familiar with the Google Search Appliance's features by reading this document and apply those features that best suit your search solution.

Contents

1. Setting Up a Search Appliance
   1. Installing and Configuring a Search Appliance
      1. Learn More about Installation and Configuration
   2. Configuring Search Appliances for Load Balancing and Failover
      1. Learn More about Load Balancing and Failover
2. Creating User Accounts
   1. Administrator Accounts
   2. Manager Accounts
   3. Setting Up User Accounts
   4. Learn More about User Accounts

Setting Up a Search Appliance

Before you can start implementing a universal search solution, you need to set up your Google Search Appliance. The following sections provide an overview of the set up process:

• Installing and configuring a search appliance
• Configuring search appliances for load balancing and failover

These topics are covered in depth in Google Search Appliance documentation. Before you install and configure your Google Search Appliance, read Planning for Search Appliance Installation. This document provides all the information you need to set up a network and the content files on the network before installing a search appliance. This guide also contains preinstallation checklists of the values you must determine and tasks you must complete before installing a search appliance.

Installing and Configuring a Search Appliance

Basic installation of a search appliance consists of the following activities:

1. Connecting the search appliance to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). This ensures that the search appliance has continuing power during a power failure.
2. Connecting the Google Search Appliance to your network and to a local computer.
3. Configuring the Google Search Appliance software so that it can communicate with other computers located on your network.

Configuration consists of setting up all the network settings such as: IP address, default gateway, subnet mask, DNS server, SMTP server, and NTP server.

To configure the search appliance, you need:

• The values listed the preinstallation checklists that are in Planning for Search Appliance Installation.
• A laptop computer (with a browser) or other computer that can be connected to the search appliance by a crossover cable. This laptop computer is used for the initial configuration.

After you complete the installation process, record the identification number of the search appliance, which is useful in troubleshooting if the search appliance experiences any problems. You can find the appliance ID in the following places:

• On the label on the back of the search appliance
• On the Administration > License page in the Admin Console
• On the Google Enterprise Technical Support web site, if you log in with the credentials used for your Technical Support account

If the search appliance experiences any problems during installation or configuration, attach a monitor directly to the search appliance. The search appliance displays messages on the monitor indicating the progress of the start-up process and when the process is complete.

Learn More about Installation and Configuration

For comprehensive instructions for installing and configuring a search appliance, refer to Installing a Google Search Appliance.

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Configuring Search Appliances for Load Balancing or Failover

After your Google Search Appliance has been deployed, it may experience a high volume of search queries, which might affect performance. You can improve performance by configuring load balancing. Load balancing distributes network traffic of a particular type to two or more instances of an application, dividing the work load between the instances. A load balancer is a software or hardware application that distributes network traffic.

Load balancing requires two Google Search Appliances. When you configure two Google Search Appliance systems for load balancing, search queries are distributed between the two systems. For load balancing, you can choose one of the following configurations:

• A configuration where there is a physical connection between the search appliances and the load balancer. Each search appliance is on the same network or subnet as the load balancer.
• A configuration where there is a logical connection between the search appliances and the load balancer. Each search appliance is potentially on different networks or subnets from the load balancer.

Google does not recommend specific load balancers to use with the search appliance.

With two Google Search Appliances, you can also configure your systems for failover. In this configuration, the first search appliance responds to search queries. If the first search appliance fails, the second search appliance starts responding to search queries.

Learn More about Load Balancing and Failover

For comprehensive information about load balancing and failover, refer to Configuring Search Appliances for Load Balancing or Failover.

Creating User Accounts

The Google Search Appliance has a default administrator account with the user name "admin" and password "test." The default account cannot be deleted. After you install the search appliance, you can create additional user accounts.

The Google Search Appliance has two levels of user accounts:

• Administrator accounts
• Manager accounts

Each type of account has different permissions.

Administrator Accounts

An administrator has access to all functions in the Admin Console. As an administrator, you can:

• Set up and edit user accounts and their permission levels
• Delete user accounts
• Create, assign, and delete collections
• Create, assign, and delete front ends
• View and edit network and system settings

Manager Accounts

Managers have access to assigned collections and front ends. They can view and edit their collections and export collection configurations, but cannot create or delete collections. They have access to KeyMatch, Related Queries, Filters, and Search Reports within their assigned collections and front ends.

Setting Up User Accounts

Set up a user account by selecting an account type and providing user information on the Administration > User Accounts page in the Admin Console, shown in the following figure.

Learn More about User Accounts

For more information about creating user accounts, refer to the Admin Console help page for the Administration > User Accounts page.

Let Google know what you think about this document by sending feedback to gsadoc-gtm-feedback@google.com.

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