Config patch/hack to temporarily disable index update

Question

Is there some easy config patch or hack I could make which would disable all indexing activities? I want to do this for things like package installation and also deletion of large content branches which seem to take a very long time.

Ideally I'd like to be able to drop a single config file into the App_Config\Include folder and then remove it when I'm finished.

Answer 1

You could create a patch file that sets all the indexes strategies to manual, that would effectively disable any automated updates that might happen as a result of installing a package or other content updates.

Something like this should give you a start. NOTE: I have not tested the patches or patched all the required indexes, but this should give you a good starting point:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/" xmlns:set="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/set/" xmlns:role="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/role/"  xmlns:search="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/search/">
    <sitecore role:require="Standalone or ContentManagement" search:require="lucene">
      <contentSearch>
        <configuration type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.ContentSearchConfiguration, Sitecore.ContentSearch">
          <indexes hint="list:AddIndex">
          <index id="sitecore_core_index">
            <strategies hint="list:AddStrategy">
              <strategy set:ref="contentSearch/indexConfigurations/indexUpdateStrategies/manual" />
            </strategies>
          </index>
          <index id="sitecore_master_index">
            <strategies hint="list:AddStrategy">
              <strategy set:ref="contentSearch/indexConfigurations/indexUpdateStrategies/manual" />
            </strategies>
          </index>
          <index id="sitecore_web_index">
            <strategies hint="list:AddStrategy">
              <strategy set:ref="contentSearch/indexConfigurations/indexUpdateStrategies/manual" />
            </strategies>
          </index>
          <!-- Rinse and repeat for all indexes -->
          </indexes>
        </configuration>
      </contentSearch>
    </sitecore>
</configuration>

Here is a list of index ID's for Sitecore 9.0.1:

• sitecore_core_index
• sitecore_master_index
• sitecore_web_index
• sitecore_marketingdefinitions_master
• sitecore_marketingdefinitions_web
• sitecore_marketing_asset_index_master
• sitecore_marketing_asset_index_web
• sitecore_testing_index
• sitecore_suggested_test_index
• sitecore_fxm_master_index
• sitecore_fxm_web_index

ref: Search Index Descriptions