This article reviews the various important CUs, hotfixes and related information for FAST Search for SharePoint 2010.

Detailed directions for installing CUs and service packs are provided here:  Install a software update (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).

• Note 1: The article indicates that you must have the RTM version installed. This is not correct if you have installed a previous CU or SP1 or SP2. Hence, skip this step.
• Note 2: You should verify that the update shows up in “Control panel --> Programs and Features --> View installed updates”, not (as the article indicates) in the Windows Update log.  

There is a known issue in the latest CUs (and SP1) for SharePoint Server when using FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. If you apply a recent SharePoint Server update (December 2010 or later), you will disable FAST Search links in the site collection admin. After you have applied the update, follow the steps in this KB article: Updating SharePoint Server 2010 from RTM to December or later Cumulative Update disables FAST Search links in site collection administration.

Below is a list of the most important issues solved in updates for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Some of the CUs listed are SharePoint Server CUs, resolving issues related to the SSAs. Note that the CUs are cumulative (as the name indicates), meaning you should in most cases apply the latest CU (for the respective product) if you are impacted by any of the issues. 

Service Pack 2:  SP2 has been released and is available for download from KB article 2687446

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides the latest updates for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. This service pack includes two main categories of fixes:

1.) Previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack. In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, performance, and security.
2.) All the public updates that were released through May 2013, and all the cumulative updates that were released through April 2013

April 2013 CU:
      2764972 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): The CU resolves the following FAST Search for SharePoint issues:    

       When performing a search query with complex proximity expressions and the sum of requested hits + offset is superior to 200, the search query times out. 
        Here proximity expressions are ONEAR/NEAR/PHRASE queries, and complex means that they either have more than 4 terms, or have sub-expressions or      
        wildcards as operands.
        Note: After applying this update on FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint nodes, if search does not resume as expected, specifically, the FASTSearchSAMWorker  
        process terminates shortly after starting which prevents FAST Search Server from returning results , please make sure you run psconfig after applying the update. Please refer to this 
        KB for more details.
        http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2656160 

February 2013 Security Update:

• Vulnerabilities in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Parsing Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2784242) 

This security update resolves publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution in the security context of a user account with a restricted token. FAST Search Server for SharePoint is only affected by this issue when Advanced Filter Pack is enabled. By default, Advanced Filter Pack is disabled.

In addition to the security vulnerabilities that are resolved by this security update, the following non-security issue is also resolved.

Symptoms Sync interval is a configurable parameter. However it does not work as expected in certain scenarios. In there cases, the trimmer sync process does not accept the "syncIntervalMinutes" configuration changes. This situation can affect customers who require a higher freshness requirement for user group syncing of documents.

Resolution This update applies a change to the trimmer sync frequency in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Extended.Security.Trimmingsync.exe config file.

Note  If you have custom pipeline-extensibility XML, Please back up that file before applying this.

Note: After applying this update on FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint nodes, if search does not resume as expected, specifically, the FASTSearchSAMWorker process terminates shortly after starting which prevents FAST Search Server from returning results , please make sure you run psconfig after applying the update. Please refer to this KB for more details.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2656160 

December 2012 CU: There is no December CU for FAST Search for SharePoint 2010

October 2012 Security Update:

• Vulnerabilities in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Parsing Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2742321)
  • A security vulnerability exists in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 that could allow arbitrary code to run when a maliciously modified file is opened. The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by updating the affected Oracle Outside In libraries to a non-vulnerable version.

  Note: After applying this update on FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint nodes, if search does not resume as expected,  specifically, the FASTSearchSAMWorker process terminates shortly after starting which prevents FAST Search Server from returning results , please make sure you run psconfig after applying the update. Please refer to this KB for more details.
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2656160

August 2012 CU:
Note: This CU has been mistakenly labeled as a Hotfix.  A correction is being worked on.

• 2687489 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): The CU resolves the following FAST Search for SharePoint issues:
  • Assume that a document contains a word that has many lemmatized forms in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. When you search for the document by using the word, it takes longer than expected to receive the search results, or the search times out.
    
    Note The hotfix that is described in this article adds the juniper.rewriter.<lemmas>..max_expansion parameter to the Fsearch.addon configuration file. This parameter limits the number of lemmatized forms of a word that are queried. The default value for the parameter is 0 or unlimited.
  • Assume that you apply the update that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 2598329 to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. When you search for a document that is located on a SharePoint site, no search results are returned.
    Note For more information about the update that is described in KB article 2598329, click the following article number:

                2598329 - Description of the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint hotfix package (Fsserver-x-none.msp): April 24, 2012

    • Consider the following scenario:
      • You configure a SharePoint site to use claims-based authentication
      • You use a username whose claim value starts with the lowercase letter "i" to log on to the SharePoint site
      • You search for a document on the site
  In this scenario, no search results are returned.
  • Assume that you configure a refinement panel web part to display more than 10 customer filters on a Results.aspx page. When you search for an item on a SharePoint site, no search results are returned.
  • The hotfix that is described in this article upgrades the version of Oracle Outside In that you are running in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint to Oracle Outside In 8.3.7.

June 2012: There was no CU for FAST Search for SharePoint in the June 2012 timeframe.  However, there was a hotfix released for SharePoint 2010 that included refiner panel (web part) fixes that could affect FAST Search installations, if a large number of refiner fields is returned.  See KB article 2598349 for a description.

April 2012 CU:

•       2598329 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): The CU resolves the following FAST Search for SharePoint issues:   

This CU resolves FAST Search for SharePoint issues both on FAST backend through KB article 2598329 and FAST front end through 2598151

FAST back end issues fixed includes following

• Ability to override the language after the automatic detection (default language).April 2012 CU introduced an option to allow you to set the language and/or character encoding based on crawled properties. With this mechanism, it is now possible to set the language/encoding on a per document basis.
• Improving the Automatic Language detection (etc/langid - NWDS)
• DCTM: Multiple repositories, encryption + simplifications
• CD enforcing the one session-one collection rule

FAST front end fixes include:

• SharePoint 2010 does not make use of the ‘nohtmlindex’ tag for excluding content for Web Parts, but SharePoint 2007 did. As a result, when combined with FAST’s dynamic hit-highlighting functionality, it is possible to get document summaries for parts of documents that a user cannot see. The CU changes the behavior of the crawler to honor ‘nohtmlindex’ correctly when crawling SharePoint 2007 content.

• Crawled properties generated by the Gatherer are not factored into size calculations performed when batching documents for submission to FAST’s contentdistributor process. The CU changes the behavior of the crawler to no longer generate ‘Links’ crawled properties (which are not used by the FAST Search backend) on the fly, resulting in improved crawl performance when crawling documents with very high numbers of links (most commonly BCS content). For more information please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2601211

 

February 2012 CU:

• 2597131 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): The CU resolves the following FAST Search for SharePoint issues:

  • This CU resolves  FAST Search for SharePoint issues both on FAST backend through KB article 2597131 and FAST front end through 2597150.

    FAST back end fixes include:

  •  When you perform an advanced search by using the last day of a month as a date restriction in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, the restriction is applied incorrectly.
  •  Lotus connector issues related to user permissions. 
  •  Documentum connector issues related to user permissions. Please see this technet article for more info regarding this feature.
  • Applying SP1 for FAST Search Server 2010 results in a response of "Your query is malformed. Please rephrase your query." when querying from a Chinese-language browser locale or with Chinese language queries. The CU fixes this behavior.

                FAST front end issues fixed includes following

  •  Applying October CU breaks thumbnails for SharePoint sub sites. FEB CU fixes that issue.    

 
December 2011 CU:

• 2597067 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): The CU resolves multiple FAST Search for SharePoint issues:
  • When you perform a crawl for a Lotus Notes content source in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, the crawl enters an infinite loop and is not completed.
  • The value in the teaser field is duplicated when you crawl a .html web page from the FAST Search Content Search Service Application.
  • Many documents are not indexed in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. This issue occurs because the schema update job does not function correctly.
  • When you perform a refinement based on a managed metadata column that contains parentheses in its name, no search results are returned.
  • The incremental crawl for a Lotus Notes content source does not delete the documents that are already deleted.
  • When you configure the Lotus Notes Connector in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint and perform a crawl for a Lotus Notes content source, the crawl enters an infinite loop and is not completed.
  • Introduces a new procedure that enables you to add or remove an index column with minimal search downtime. Please see this whitepaper for info on this

October 2011 CU:

• 2596505 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint):  The CU resolves multiple FAST Search for SharePoint issues:

             -- FAST search issues related to refiners.
             -- This Fix introduces a parameter "FASTMaxNumberOfFilters"  in the refiners web part.
             -- Searching PDF document issues
             --  For details, see the KB article.

August 2011 CU:

• 2553040 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): This CU is cumulative to SP1, and includes all fixes and improvements included in SP1. The CU resolves multiple FAST Search for SharePoint issues:
  • If the user performs a search for a keyword on a team site instead of using a Search Center, then synonyms and promotions defined for that keyword will not be applied.
  • If you add many new managed properties to the index, then the indexer will not be able to index more items.
  • Assume that you set the Locale option to United Kingdom on the Regional Settings page on a FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint system. When you perform an advanced search for a datetime managed property, no search results are returned.
  • Multiple issues related to the FAST Search Database Connector. For details, see the KB article.

Service Pack 1:

• Summary of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint SP1 improvements and fixes

April 2011 CU:

• No updates for FAST Search Server.

February 2011 CU:

• 2504136 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): This fix resolves another backup/restore issue, related to using SQL Server authentication on the SQL Server that has the FAST Search admin database.

December 2010 CU:

• 2459257 (SharePoint Server 2010): This is a SharePoint CU, but resolves an important issue for FAST Search document previews. If your FAST Search Center is configured to use HTTPS, apply this fix to be able to display document previews in the search results. (Note that the referenced KB article may not yet provide info about this fix, but the fix is included in the CU)

October 2010 CU:

• 2449730 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): This CU resolves multiple FAST Search for SharePoint issues:
  • Issue related to using multiple content distributors for fault tolerance. If you use such a configuration, you should definitely apply this CU.
  • This CU resolves a major issue related to full backup of a FAST Search Server farm. If you plan to use the full backup feature in FAST Search for SharePoint, we strongly recommend that you apply this fix.
  • If you add a large number of managed properties using a PowerShell script, and use Get-FASTSearchMetadataCrawledProperty cmdlet to retrieve the crawled property name, this may lead to an unnecessary amount of individual updates to the index configuration, and the cmdlet will take very long to finish. This may have substantial performance impacts to the indexing and query matching. The fix resolves this issue, and also adds wildcard support for -Filter cmdlet parameter.
  • Resolves an issue related to numeric query refiners. After applying the fix, numeric refiners will handle the value '0' properly.

August 2010 CU:

• 2276339 (SharePoint Server 2010): This is a SharePoint CU, but resolves an important issue for FAST Search scopes. This CU enables you to create FAST Search scopes via the UI in addition to the PowerShell cmdlets. This also means that site collection admins are able to create FAST Search scopes. The documentation is updated to reflect this CU, see Create and view search scopes.
• 2276336 (SharePoint Server 2010): This is a SharePoint CU, but resolves an issue related to FAST Search crawling of content using the NOINDEX meta tags (to exclude parts of web pages from the crawl). For more info on this feature, see Prevent indexing of irrelevant content.
• 2308915 (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint): Resolves an issue related to post-setup configuration failing when installing FAST Search Server in a disjoint network environment.