Installing on Windows

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Important Note

• SearchBlox installation process does not allow for in-place upgrades due to the complexity of the search configuration and data mapping involved between different version upgrades.

• To avoid any issues or downtime, we recommend installing and testing the latest version in a development or staging environment before installing on a production instance. We can provide a license key to set up a similar production environment with the new version so you can switch over without any downtime.

• To upgrade from one version of SearchBlox to another, we recommend doing a clean uninstallation when upgrading from one version of SearchBlox to another since the presence of files from the previous installation can cause errors. So to remove another version of SearchBlox, please follow the steps given in the Uninstall section of this page, delete the SearchBlox folder, and restart the Windows instance.

• Once restarted, please install the latest SearchBlox version.

Installation on Windows

• Download SearchBlox for Windows.
• Run the SearchBlox setup file, then follow the installer wizard to install the application on your C:\ drive. C:\ drive is the default installation drive for SearchBlox.
• The installer will install SearchBlox, Elasticsearch, and the Analytics server for this application.

Prerequisites

• After installation please set JAVA_HOME and environment path variable for Java.

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Please Note

If there are other Java versions installed in the system, please remove the references from the path variable.

To set the environment variable:

1. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties and click Advanced System Settings.
2. On the Advanced tab, select Environment Variables.
3. Create a new System Variable JAVA_HOME with value C:\SearchBloxServer\jre

4. Select Path under System Variable and add %JAVA_HOME%\bin as a new path.

5. Verify if Java is installed correctly by running the command: java -version

Start Elasticsearch Service

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator. Go to C:\SearchBloxServer\elasticsearch\bin and run the following command:
   elasticsearch-service.bat install

2. You can start the service from the Control Panel > Administrative Services > Services.

3. Verify the Elasticsearch access by opening the browser and going to the URL:
   https://localhost:9200/

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Note

You can find the Elasticsearch login credentials in the searchblox.yml file, found in the following file path:
\SearchBloxServer\webapps\searchblox\WEB-INF

5. You can make the service Startup Type as Automatic in the Services, so Easticsearch service starts automatically on restart.

Stop Elasticsearch Service

To stop Elasticsearch service, please run the following command in the folder C:\SearchBloxServer\elasticsearch\bin:
elasticsearch-service.bat stop

Start SearchBlox Service

1. Go to the C:\SearchBloxServer\services\bat\ folder within the SearchBlox installation.
2. Right-click the installService.bat file and run as Administrator. This will install the service.
3. You can start the SearchBlox service manually from the Control Panel > Administrative Services > Services.

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Note

• Restart the Windows Server if you are not able to start SearchBlox.
• Check if Elasticsearch service is running. If not, start the Elasticsearch service before starting SearchBlox.
• SearchBlox service will start automatically upon server restart.

• After you start the service, wait for 30 seconds then open the link: https://localhost:8443/searchblox/admin/main.jsp in your browser to access the SearchBlox Admin Console.

Stop SearchBlox Service

You can stop the SearchBlox service from the Control Panel > Administrative Services > Services.

Start Analytics Server

• Start the Analytics server to display search query data on the Analytics page within SearchBlox Admin Console.
• The Analytics Server will use default port 8444.

1. Go to the folder C:\SearchBloxServer\analytics
2. Run cubejs.bat as Administrator

Stop Analytics Server

• To stop the Analytics service, please terminate the process using Control+C or close the Command Prompt.
• As an alternative, terminate the process using the Task Manager.

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Note

To learn about Windows Analytics Service, visit: SearchBlox Analytics as a service in Windows

Verify Installation

• You can verify if SearchBlox has started successfully by viewing the status.log file in the C:\SearchBloxServer\webapps\searchblox\logs folder.
• Please confirm the message "Started Successfully" is shown in the log.
• In case of any errors, this log will provide additional information for troubleshooting.

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Note

• To learn about Troubleshooting visit: Logging and Troubleshooting
• To learn about using SearchBlox Admin Console visit: Overview of SearchBlox
• To learn about tuning for high-performance visit: Installation Tuning

Change SearchBlox Server Port

• SearchBlox Server runs on port 8443 by default.

You can change the port by following the steps as shown here:

• Stop SearchBlox service
• Update C:\SearchBloxServer\start.d\https.ini file and add the below line to set the required port number:
  jetty.ssl.port=8444
• Save the https.ini file
• Start SearchBlox service

SearchBlox Installation on alternate drive or path

You can install SearchBlox from a different drive or path using these steps:

• Edit the file ..\SearchBlox Server\services\conf\wrapper.conf and change the value for searchblox_home=C:\\SearchBlox Server\\ to the deployed location. Use the double slash in the path.
• Set the Java Environment variable for the location (example: D: drive or E: drive).
• Set the SearchBlox Environment variable using the following steps(This may be required in few systems)
  1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security
  2. Select Advanced System Settings
  3. Select Environmental Variable
  4. Under System, Variables Select Path and click Edit
  5. Click New to add a new path
  6. And add D:\SearchBloxServer\services\bat
• Update Elasticsearch installation path in <SEARCHBLOX_INSTALLATION_PATH>\webapps\searchblox/WEB-INF/searchblox.yml

searchblox.elasticsearch.url: https://localhost:9200/
searchblox.basic.username: xxxxxx
searchblox.basic.password: xxxxxxxxxxx
es.home: D:\SearchBloxServer\elasticsearch

• To start Elasticsearch using D:\ drive, please edit the D:\SearchBloxServer\elasticsearch\bin\elasticsearch-env.bat file to update the JAVA_HOME path to D:\SearchBloxServer\jre
• Go to D:\SearchBloxServer\elasticsearch\bin folder and run the command
  elasticsearch-service.bat install
• Run installService.bat from D:\SearchBlox Server\services\bat to install SearchBlox service.
• Run the Elasticsearch and SearchBlox services.
• Wait for 30 seconds.
• Check the status.log to verify if SearchBlox has started successfully.
• To remove the SearchBlox service, please stop Elasticsearch and SearchBlox and then run uninstallService.bat

Uninstall

To uninstall SearchBlox:

1. Stop the Elasticsearch service, SearchBlox service and Analytics server/service
2. Open the Command Prompt as Administrator
3. Go to C:\SearchBloxServer\elasticsearch\bin and uninstall Elasticsearch service by running the command:
   elasticsearch-service.bat remove
4. Go to the C:\SearchBloxServer\services\bat\ and uninstall SearchBlox service by running the command:
   uninstallService.bat
5. Run C:\SearchBloxServer\uninstall.exe to uninstall the application.
6. Delete C:\SearchBloxServer folder for clean uninstall.

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Note

After the uninstallation, it is required to restart the machine when prompted. This action will terminate all the existing background services if any.