No Indexes showing in Index Manager on Azure CM AppService

Question

We have created our Sitecore production environment (Sitrecore 8.2 Update 5, EXM + XDB Cloud) using ARM templates. This means we have CM, CD, Reporting, Processing and DDS (Data Distribution Server) all set as individual PaaS App Services.

This works well and the templates will reliably create the infrastructure and install Vanilla Sitecore. However, by default it configures Azure search for the default search provider. The developers have been using Solr and we want to switch to using this as the default.

In order to set up a Solr Server I have created a VM in Azure opened port 8983, installed Solr and added all the necessary Cores. I have updated the config on our local Sitecore instance to point to this VM for testing and I can see in the Sitecore index manager all the indexes with the option to rebuild. When I click, rebuild all and view the Solr admin panel it clearly shows that the indexes are being updated.

So now it’s working locally I’m now trying to get it working initially on my CM server. So to begin I have added “.disabled” to all lucence and Azure search config files and removed “.disabled” on all the Solr configs. After some trial and error with yellow screens, Sitecore came back and the site was working. The issue I have now is when I view the index manager on my Azure CM instance, no indexes are showing and I cannot rebuild any. I have tried temporarily opening all ports and disabling the firewall on the VM but still nothing.

At present, I have called “/sitecore/admin/ShowConfig.aspx” on both my local and CM App service and are using a comparison tool to try and spot any differences which may cause this.

There are some defferences to the index configurations in the index section…

Localhost – works and connects to Solr VM

<configuration type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.ContentSearchConfiguration, Sitecore.ContentSearch" patch:source="Sitecore.Social.Solr.Index.Web.config">
  <indexes hint="list:AddIndex" patch:source="Unified.Project.EvansHalshaw.Indexing.config">
    <index id="sitecore_analytics_index" type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrSearchIndex, Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider" patch:source="Unified.Foundation.Contact.Facet.config">
      <param desc="name">$(id)</param>
      <param desc="core">$(id)</param>

Azure CM AppServices – Doesn’t work

<configuration type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.ContentSearchConfiguration, Sitecore.ContentSearch" patch:source="Foundation.Indexing.config">
      <indexes hint="list:AddIndex" patch:source="Foundation.Indexing.config">
        <index id="sitecore_analytics_index" type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrSearchIndex, Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider" patch:source="Unified.Foundation.Indexing.config">
          <param desc="name">$(id)</param>
          <!--<patch:attribute name="type" value="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SwitchOnRebuildSolrSearchIndex, Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider"/>-->
          <param desc="core" patch:source="Unified.Foundation.Indexing.config">unified_analytics_index</param>

Any help is most appreciated

JGilmartin

Answer 1

There are no indexes showing because the App Service and Solr VM have no connection. To establish connection between the two:

1. Create two virtual networks. One for solr and the other for the App Service
2. Create connection between their virtual gateways. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-howto-vnet-vnet-resource-manager-portal
3. Allow Inbound Security Rules and Solr Firewall for Port 8983
4. In Sitecore.ContentSearch.Solr.DefaultIndexConfiguration.config, search for Service Base address and change it to the IP address of the Solr Windows Server VM (https://IP:8983/solr)