We are using Zookeeper with Sitecore 8.1 Update 2, and as per the documentation here: https://zookeeper.apache.org/doc/r3.1.2/zookeeperAdmin.html we are using 3 instances. This is the minimum required.
Three ZooKeeper servers is the minimum recommended size for an ensemble, and we also recommend that they run on separate machines.
This works really well for us and ensures no downtime when indexes are being rebuilt.
This is an excellent blog post that we followed to set this up:
http://www.chrissulham.com/sitecore-on-solr-cloud-part-2/
A note of caution though as pointed out by Grant Killian in the comments below:
Note: SolrCloud setups are under experimental support starting from
Sitecore XP 8.2, meaning some issues are possible. In case of related
issues, Sitecore Support will help with troubleshooting, while there
is no guarantee that a fix will be available. In earlier versions of
Sitecore CMS/XP only standalone Solr setups are supported.
more info here: kb.sitecore.net/articles/227897
We carried out the following process to install this on our 3 Solr Search Servers in Production:
- Download Solr 5.2.1 (i'd recommend Solr 5.1 though as Sitecore support will help with issues for Sc 8.2: kb.sitecore.net/articles/227897)
- Prepare Solr configuration for Sitecore Indexes - Steps 1, 2, 3 and 4.
- Configuring ZooKeeper ensemble - Steps 1-5
- Configuring SolrCloud with ZooKeeper ensemble - All Steps
- Upload index configuration into ZooKeeper - All Steps
- Create collections
Here are some commands you might find useful:
Registering Config:
zkcli -zkhost localhost:2181 -cmd upconfig -confdir D:\Solr\server\solr\configsets\sitecore_configs\conf -confname scbasic
Creating a Collection:
solr create -c sitecore -d D:\Solr\server\solr\configsets\sitecore_configs -n scbasic -shards 1 -replicationFactor 1 -p 8983
Add replica to collection:
http://localhost:8983/solr/admin/collections?action=ADDREPLICA&collection=sitecore&shard=shard1&node=172.16.128.32:8983_solr
Remove replica from collection:
http://localhost:8983/solr/admin/collections?action=DELETEREPLICA&collection=collection1&shard=shard1&replica=core_node1
I wrote some PowerShell scripts to do most of the above for me so I could run them on Staging and Production and I found this easier than calling the API manually.
The script loops round an array of the sitecore index names. The Core is created on one of the Solr Servers and then 2 replica cores are created on the other two Solr servers.
$SitecoreIndexNames = @('sitecore_core_index', 'sitecore_master_index', 'sitecore_web_index', 'sitecore_analytics_index', 'sitecore_marketing_asset_index_master', 'sitecore_marketing_asset_index_web', 'sitecore_marketingdefinitions_master', 'sitecore_marketingdefinitions_web', 'sitecore_testing_index', 'sitecore_suggested_test_index', 'sitecore_fxm_master_index', 'sitecore_fxm_web_index', 'sitecore_list_index', 'social_messages_master', 'social_messages_web')
Here are the key functions:
function Create-SolrCore($solrBaseUrl, $coreName, $configSet, $solrCollectionName, $solrConfigSetName) {
$restUrl = "{0}/admin/collections?action=CREATE&name={1}&property.name={1}&collection={1}&collection.configName={3}&numShards=1&shard=shard1" -f $solrBaseUrl, $coreName, $solrCollectionName, $solrConfigSetName
Write-Host "adding core: $restUrl"
$result1 = Invoke-WebRequest $restUrl -Method GET -UseBasicParsing
Write-Host "Created Solr core $coreName."
}
function Create-Replica($solrBaseUrl, $coreName, $configSet, $solrCollectionName, $solrConfigSetName, $replicataIP) {
$restReplicaUrl = "{0}/admin/collections?action=ADDREPLICA&collection={1}&property.name={1}&numShards=1&shard=shard1&node={2}" -f $solrBaseUrl, $coreName, $replicataIP
Write-Host "adding replica: $restReplicaUrl"
$result2 = Invoke-WebRequest $restReplicaUrl -Method GET -UseBasicParsing
Write-Host "Created replica for $SolrCollectionName."
}
function Create-Replicas($indexNames, $nonSwitchOnRebuildIndexNames, $coreNamePrefix, $baseUrl) {
$SitecoreIndexNames | % {
$index = Convert-SitecoreIndexNameToCoreName($_)
try {
Create-Replica $SolrBaseUrl $index $SolrConfigSetName $SolrCollectionName $SolrConfigSetName $ReplicataIP
} catch {
Write-Warning "Unable to add replica for core $index. $_"
}
}
}
function Create-SolrCores($indexNames, $nonSwitchOnRebuildIndexNames, $coreNamePrefix, $baseUrl) {
$SitecoreIndexNames | % {
$index = Convert-SitecoreIndexNameToCoreName($_)
try {
Create-SolrCore $SolrBaseUrl $index $SolrConfigSetName $SolrCollectionName $SolrConfigSetName
} catch {
Write-Warning "Unable to create core for $index index. This probably means it already exists. $_"
}
}
}
I based these on Kam's Solr Cannon Scripts:
http://kamsar.net/index.php/2016/03/The-Solr-Cannon/
Once you have done this you can point Sitecore at the Solr ensemble like so:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
<sitecore>
<settings>
<setting name="ContentSearch.Solr.ServiceBaseAddress">
<patch:attribute name="value">http://{ipofinstance}:8983/solr</patch:attribute>
</setting>
</settings>
</sitecore>
</configuration>
