Speeding up Coveo reindex

Question

I've got a CM server with Coveo for Sitecore installed (free edition) and Coveo Enterprise Search on a separate server. I set up Sitecore with Coveo on CM and reindexed relatively quickly. When I set up CD, I have it point to the CM server's implementation and call the search API/admin service/etc on the CM. I'm running a reindex on CD now to do the initial population, but it's running incredibly slow. Like, I started it two hours ago and it's through 450ish documents of the over 42000 it has to index. And that's just Coveo_master_index, then I have to do Coveo_web_index. Is there any way to speed this up, because this is crazy. Thanks.

UPDATE 10/24: I marked an answer on this one because it answered the specific question, but I've got more coming out of the scaling guide, now posted here: Getting Coveo configured properly in a CD/CM server setup. Thanks.

Answer 1

As JF said in the comments, indexing CD should be avoided at all cost. Also, if you are using several CM, you need to configure them to avoid competition between instances. See: developers.coveo.com/display/SitecoreV4/Coveo+for+Sitecore+Scaling+Guide

Now indexing slowness can be caused by several factors. First of all, on the Sitecore side:

• Heavy processing done by computed fields (avoid web request or queries against the index. Use database calls instead)
• Heavy processing done by processors on the indexing pipelines.
• Way too many fields. Coveo will index all the fields on your templates by default. This is fine in a standard environment, but for a large setup, you might want to start including/excluding fields and templates. See: developers.coveo.com/display/SitecoreV4/Understanding+the+coveoIndexingGetFields+and+coveoIndexingGetTemplates+Pipelines

On the Coveo side, ensure that you have the proper hardware : https://onlinehelp.coveo.com/en/ces/7.0/administrator/coveo_platform_hardware_and_software_requirements.htm

Now if you cleared all the points above and you still have slowness, you might want to look at the Sitecore logs or the Coveo Index Logs (CES7/Logs)