Choosing the method for configuring Solr

A deployment of i2 Analyze uses Solr to manage the search index. i2 Analyze requires at least one Solr collection that consists of nodes, shards, and replicas.

The Solr configuration can be controlled through the topology.xml file, or through the createSolrCollection script. Regardless of how Solr is configured, the collection is created by i2 Analyze.

If the collection is configured through the topology.xml file, the modifications that you can complete are limited to those that are supported in the topology.xml file. If the collection is managed through the createSolrCollection script, you can complete all the modifications that are supported by the Solr Collections API.

The createSolrCollection script file contains REST calls to the Solr Collections API to configure the Solr collection. The script uses curl commands to make the REST calls.

Note: You must install curl on your path to use the createSolrCollection script as it is generated.

Configure the Solr collection in the topology.xml file

By default, or when toolkit-configured="true" in the solr-collection element of the topology.xml file, the Solr collection is created by using the definitions in the topology.xml file.

For example, the <solr-collection> element is defined as follows:

<solr-collection toolkit-configured="true" num-replicas="1" id="main_index" num-shards="4" lucene-match-version=""/>

For more information about configuring the collection and the values that you can set in the topology file, see ZooKeeper and Solr.

The Solr collection is created when the createSolrCollections toolkit task is run the first time. After, you can use the clearSearchIndex toolkit task. This task clears the search index, and then recreates the collection. When Liberty starts, the search index is recreated.

Configure the Solr collection in the createSolrCollection script file

If you deployed the distributed deployment example, the createSolrCollection script is in the toolkit\configuration\environment\opal-server\main_index directory on the server that the createSolrCollection script was run. You can then change the topology file to toolkit-configured="false".

Note: If the script doesn't exist, run setup -t createSolrCollections toolkit task with toolkit-configured="true" in the topology.xml file.

If toolkit-configured="false" in the topology.xml file, the createSolrCollection script is used to configure the Solr collection.

For example, the <solr-collection> element is defined as follows:

<solr-collection toolkit-configured="false" num-replicas="1" lucene-match-version=""  id="main_index" num-shards="4"/>

The script file contains the Solr collection configuration from the topology.xml file. You can then modify the Solr Collections API CREATE call in the script file. When i2 Analyze recreates the Solr collection, it uses the call in this file.

For more information about configuring the collection by using the script, see Creating a Solr collection using the createSolrCollection script.

Managing changes to the createSolrCollection script file

The script file contains the definition of your Solr collection.

You must keep a copy of the createSolrCollection in a source control system to ensure that the REST call required to make your Solr collection is maintained. You might need to use previous versions of this file when you move from a test to a production system, or when you make a configuration change that you later decide is incorrect.