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Manage Search indexing

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Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018

You can manage your search extension and indexing status, which include the following actions:

Prerequisites

Manage indexing

Search gets managed by running PowerShell and SQL scripts. All of these scripts are available to download from the Code-Search GitHub repository. You can download all scripts into a local folder on the server. This server runs the database for Azure DevOps Server using the Download ZIP option.

The PowerShell scripts require the SQL script files, so ensure the SqlScripts folder and its contents are present, along with the PowerShell scripts.

Screenshot showing download script files for administration.

Note

When you execute scripts, ensure that you run the appropriate script for your Azure DevOps Server or TFS version:

Check indexing status

For TFS 2018 and Azure DevOps Server, see the next section.

To check the indexing status after Search is configured, or after the extension is installed for a collection, do the following steps:

  1. Execute the CheckIndexingStatus.ps1 script with administrative privileges. You're prompted to enter the following information:

    • The SQL server instance name where the TFS configuration database is.
    • The name of the TFS collection database.
    • The name of the TFS configuration database.
    • The name of the collection.
    • The number of previous days to check indexing status.

  2. Check the following outputs:

Output Description
Collection indexing was triggered successfully Indicates that indexing is in progress. If it's displayed, check the following outputs. If it isn't displayed, go ahead to step 3.
Repositories Indexing Completed The repositories whose indexing has been completed and are now searchable.
Repositories in File Discovery Phase The repositories where files are yet to be discovered. The files are indexed after this stage. Repositories in this state aren't yet searchable. The number of files that are already discovered for indexing in each repository shows. This number increases as more files get discovered.
Repositories Indexing In Progress These repositories are partially indexed and should be searchable, even if the results are only partial.
  1. It takes some time for indexing to complete. Execute the CheckIndexingStatus.ps1 script at intervals to check indexing progress.
  2. If indexing isn't working, or is in progress, but the number of files pending haven't changed for some time, or if you get no results for a search, execute the TriggerCollectionIndexing.ps1 script in a PowerShell window with administrative permission.
  3. If the problem persists, go to the Developer Community for support.

Check indexing status for TFS 2018 and later

To check the indexing status after Search is configured, or after the extension was installed for a collection, complete the following steps:

  1. Execute the ExtensionInstallIndexingStatus.ps1 script with administrative privileges. You're prompted to enter:

    • The SQL server instance name where the Azure DevOps Server configuration database is.
    • The name of the Azure DevOps Server collection database.
    • The name of the Azure DevOps Server configuration database.
    • The name of the collection.
    • The number of previous days to check indexing status.

  2. Check the following outputs.

Outputs Description
Collection indexing was triggered successfully Indicates that indexing is in progress. If it's displayed, check the following outputs. If it isn't displayed, go to the next step.
Repositories completed indexing The number of repositories for which indexing has completed and are searchable.
Status of repositories currently indexing A list of the names of all the repositories that are still being indexed and are partially searchable.
  1. It takes some time for indexing to complete. Execute the RecentIndexingActivity.ps1 script at intervals to check indexing progress. This script takes the same parameters as the ExtensionInstallIndexingStatus.ps1 script.
Outputs Description
Repositories completed fresh indexing The number of repositories for which indexing has completed within the specified time interval.
Count of repositories with fresh indexing in progress The number of repositories for which indexing hasn't yet completed. These repositories are still being indexed and are partially searchable.
Repositories completed continuous indexing The number of commits processed in the specified time interval. The number may not exactly match the total number of pushes to the repository because merges are committed as they're indexed.
Count of repositories with continuous indexing in progress The number of repositories for which the commits are still being processed. These repositories show incomplete results until indexing is completed.
Count of indexing job failures The number of indexing jobs that failed. Repositories associated with these indexing jobs could potentially show incomplete results until later indexing jobs for the same repositories have patched the failed indexing.

Pause indexing

To pause all indexing, execute PauseSearchIndexing.ps1, which is useful if you see spikes in CPU utilization after configuring Search. You're prompted to enter the following information:

  • The SQL server instance name where the Azure DevOps Server configuration database is
  • The name of the Azure DevOps Server configuration database

Resume indexing

If you paused indexing, execute ResumeIndexing.ps1 to start again. You're prompted to enter the following information:

  • The SQL server instance name where the Azure DevOps Server configuration database is
  • The name of the Azure DevOps Server configuration database

Reindex a repository or collection

To reindex a Git or TFVC repository, execute the appropriate version of the script Re-IndexingRepository.ps1 for your Azure DevOps Server version. You're prompted to enter the following information:

  • The SQL server instance name where the Azure DevOps Server configuration database is
  • The name of the Azure DevOps Server collection database
  • The name of the Azure DevOps Server configuration database
  • The type of reindexing to execute, either Git\_Repository or TFVC\_Repository
  • The name of the collection
  • The name of the repository to reindex

To reindex a collection, execute the script TriggerCollectionIndexing.ps1 You're prompted to enter the following information:

  • The SQL server instance name where the Azure DevOps Server configuration database is
  • The name of the Azure DevOps Server collection database
  • The name of the Azure DevOps Server configuration database
  • The name of the collection
  • The entities to reindex, either All, Code, WorkItem, or Wiki

Search limitations

If you do a disaster recovery (DR) operation and move your server back to an earlier snapshot of your SQL database, reindex all your collections.