Microsoft Search Server 2010 offers all of the enterprise search features and functionality that are in Microsoft Search Server 2008 and provides many new enterprise search capabilities. This article summarizes the new enterprise search features and functionality in Search Server 2010. With these new capabilities, search administrators can configure an optimal, secure search infrastructure that enables end users to find information in the enterprise quickly and efficiently.
You can download a beta version of Search Server 2010 Express at Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express download. For customers just getting started with search, Search Server 2010 Express is a standalone search server that is free to download and easy to deploy.
For information on how to plan, deploy, and operate Search Server 2010 Express, see the collection of articles Search Server 2010 Express on TechNet:
For end users, Search Server 2010 provides the following new capabilities from Search Server 2008.
Search Server 2010 enables end users to create and run more effective search queries. It also enables users to issue search queries from the desktop in Windows 7.
Search Server 2010 provides many improvements for getting and viewing search results.
Search Server 2010 includes new ways for administrators to help provide the most benefits for end users who are searching for information.
After an Advanced installation, the Farm Configuration Wizard runs automatically. This wizard helps simplify deployment of small farms. It provides the option to automate much of the initial configuration process with default settings. For example, when you use the Farm Configuration Wizard to deploy the first server in a farm, the wizard automatically creates a fully functional search system on that server, which includes:
The search system can crawl local SharePoint sites (sites in the server farm) immediately after the Farm Configuration Wizard finishes running.
In Search Server 2008, the Office SharePoint Server Search service was contained in the Shared Services Provider (SSP). In that architecture, you could not create a new Search service without creating a new SSP. In contrast, in Search Server 2010, you can create and manage Search service applications independently. A Search service application requires no host such as an SSP.
You can automate many search administration tasks by using Windows PowerShell 2.0 scripts. For example, you can use Windows PowerShell 2.0 scripts to manage content sources and search system topology.
Search Server provides many new ways to configure and optimize a search solution for better performance, capacity, and reliability.
You can increase the number of crawl components to do the following:
Index partitioning enables subsecond latency over indexes that contain 300,000 items when the system uses Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express, or 10 million items when the system uses Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2. Results can vary depending on item sizes and types and other factors.
You can increase the number of query components to do the following:
You can tune the existing search topology during regular farm operations while search functionality remains available to users. For example, during usual operations, you can deploy additional index partitions and query components to accommodate changing conditions.
Search Server 2010 provides new capabilities for monitoring farm operations and customizing reports.
Health and performance monitoring features enable an administrator to monitor search operations in the farm. This can be especially helpful for monitoring crawl status and query performance.
Search Server 2010 includes a health analysis tool that you can use to automatically check for potential configuration, performance, and usage problems. Search administrators can configure specific health reporting jobs to do the following:
You can customize reports that help you analyze search system operations and tune the search system to provide the best results for search queries. For example, reports can include information about what terms are used most frequently in queries or how many queries are issued during certain time periods. Information about peak query times can help you decide about server farm topology and about best times to crawl.
Search Server 2010 can search content in repositories other than SharePoint sites by crawling or federating. For example, the search system can do the following:
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