Spotlight Server - several questions

Question

Spotlight Server - several questions

A small law office that has it's shared documents on an internal and an external usb drive, wants to use Spotlight to find documents. So…

My research suggests that SL Spotlight server is broken and useless. Is that true? If true, then we can stop right here and maybe someone can recommend an alternative solution.
If it will work (even if requiring some effort), where can I find clear information on setting it up to work. My search has not found clear documentation.
If it does work, what are the caveats that I need to be aware of?

Thanks, in advance, for the information.

Posted on May 20, 2011 6:53 AM

Reply

Answer 1

ClassicII

Level 4

1,097 points

May 21, 2011 9:35 PM in response to J. Scott Anderson

Spotlight works in 10.6

Are you trying to use it so clients can search AFP share points?

Reply

Answer 2

May 22, 2011 8:51 AM in response to ClassicII

Hmmm…I realize I didn't give quite enough information (result of being tired while trying to work :-( ). So…

They have a Mac mini with SL Server installed. There are less than ten clients (all Macs) attached to it on the LAN. All of their law documents are stored internally on the server – inside a folder dedicated for it. They expect to be able to enter a search into their client Spotlight and have it search the client document folder, on the server (rightfully so).

It seems that there needs to be some set-up for Spotlight Server on the SL Server. However, when looking for the documentation for setting that up, I came across a large number of posts effectively saying that Spotlight Server is a good idea that does not work – not without significant work-arounds. However, those posts seem to be relatively older and may not reflect the current state of the service - thus my questions.

To answer your question, it is just a folder shared out of SL server – I think that means AFP.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Reply

Answer 3

May 22, 2011 2:31 PM in response to J. Scott Anderson

I believe a volume also needs to be partitioned as HFS+ (OSX partition) to support the correct OSX permissions and ACLs to allow Spotlight Server to function correctly. Most USB drives are sold pre-formatted as FAT32, which may not work. Running all of our drives as native OSX volumes, we have no issues yet with SL Spotlight Server.

Reply

Answer 4

May 22, 2011 5:22 PM in response to J. Scott Anderson

Also, as a followup to my last -- may I ask if the users trying to do the Spotlight search also have the shared folder mounted? Spotlight Server will only deliver results to the client if the client has the folder mounted.

I don't think Spotlight Server or its use is well-documented on Apple's part. So, if it helps, here's what I do:

Enable Spotlight on the share (which is on an HFS volume)
Assign appropriate permissions so the user can mount it
The user mounts the share on their desktop
The user then opens Finder and clicks on the Shared folder underneath of Places on the left.
In the Spotlight search within the Finder window, start typing what's being searched for.
On the Smart Search bar that appears at the top of the Finder window, it will default to This Mac and Contents. Change This Mac to Shared.
Results from mounted network volumes with Spotlight enabled will start to flow in.

Hope this helps a bit.

Reply