With the 2016 Release of the PROLIN Smart Suite PROLIN has introduced Global Search, a powerful text search functionality in Advanced Find that leverages the Elasticsearch search engine.

Use case: Configuring Global Search to take advantage of this new, powerful capability.

With Global Search you are able to search across multiple entities at once including their history lines and attachments. For this functionality PROLIN Power Server is shipped with a Search module that seamlessly integrates with an Elastic Search service hosted in your environment.

Installation:

As part of the PROLIN Power Server, you now also get an installation for the Elastic Search engine: PROLIN Global Search.

Just install the delivered PROLIN_ES_Setup.msi, preferably on a separate Windows server with a recent CPU and at the very minimum 4 Gb of memory.

You will need a recent JDK8 installed and JAVA_HOME environment variable set before installation.

Open an elevated command box, change directory to where you saved the .msi file, and run the file

• The default installation directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\PROLIN\Search\
• Select appropriate working directories and parameters

For a standard one-box Test implementation, it is recommended to leave the default values.

In other cases:

• select directories on separate disks for optimum performance
• calculate the value for Heap size : ( / 2) – 1
• select an appropriate Postfix for the search cluster name
• use a Host name or IP address that can be reached from the Power Server

>    Next the elastic search program will be installed

>    Last a post installation process is run to configure and install the Windows Service

The service should start automatically, but if it does not then manually start the service using Computer Management>Services>Start: PROLIN Smart Suite Search Engine

Configuration:

Next configure the search service in the PROLIN Server Management Console:

Go to Server Configuration, Select services

Click on the Global Search button,

• enter the server address (network host address where the Elastic Search service is installed, above as 127.0.0.1)
• The default port used is 9200. Make sure that it is not blocked by a firewall
• Select what you want to be indexed:

In the current release the following entities, their history lines (if applicable), and their supported attachments will be indexed:

– Service Requests (a.k.a. Service calls)
– Problems
– Changes
– Incidents
– Work Orders
– Services
– Configuration Items
– E-mail Service Requests

Note that in order to index your attachments you must configure the Attachments Server in the Administration section of PROLIN Smart Client. If the configuration settings are missing or your Attachment Server cannot be reached, none of your attachments will be indexed.

Now click Save Settings (right top)

Startup:

Next you can start the service in the Console:

Go back to the Monitor
Stop the Power Server by clicking on Stop Server, if the Power Server was running.
Now start the Power Server by clicking on Start server.
And before you know it, it is all running:

Monitoring:

You can view Metrics for the Search service and see how the Initial indexing run is progressing by selecting the service and clicking on the Metrics link in the right hand box.

To monitor the Search cluster we have a preferred third party plugin called “Elasticsearch Head”, which can be installed from the command prompt using the following commands

cd \elastichsearch-1.7.3
bin\plugin –install mobz/elasticsearch-head

Next open a browser and go to:

[search engine host]:9200/_plugin/head/

Everything about Elastic Search can be found at https://www.elastic.co/guide/index.html

Using Global Search:

Open the Smart Client
Open Advanced Find

You have a Global Search icon in the top ribbon.

Type in a phrase, click Find Now

The results are sorted/weighted by relevancy.

NOTE: when the Global Search result is an attachment, you can choose between opening the attachment and opening the item it is attached to.

PROLIN makes search completer, and life easier 😉

For more information please consult with your local PROLIN support representative.