SharePoint 2010 Search Databases

We have two new databases for Search Service in SharePoint Server 2010 when compared to MOSS2007. One for Administration purpose, another for Crawling and other one for storing crawled contents, which is already available in MOSS 2007 .

In MOSS 2007, SSP database contains the search administration settings and Crawler information. But in SharePoint Server 2010, we have the separate databases for storing configuration data, crawler information and for storing metadata or properties. Totally we have three databases for SharePoint Server 2010 Search Service.

They are,

  1. Search Service Admin Database (New)
  2. Search Service Crawl Database (New)
  3. Search Metadata Database

1. Search Service Admin Database (New)

  • Only one Service Admin Database is allowed for Search Service Application.
  • Stores the Search Configuration data and ACL’s for the content crawled by crawlers.
  • During upgrade, Search Administration setting stored in SSP Database in MOSS is moved to this database.
  • Has one or many Crawl databases and Property databases

2. Search Service Crawl Database (New)

  • Stores the Crawl history and manages the crawl operations.
  • Each Crawl database can have one or more crawlers
  • During upgrade, Crawl history information stored in SSP database on MOSS is moved to this Crawl Database.

3. Search Metadata Database

  • Stores the properties or metadata for crawled data that are required for querying.
  • During upgrade, the contents of Search database is moved to new Search Metadata database.
Shantha Kumar
Shantha Kumar
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