GSA Unification > Host Configuration

Use the GSA Unification > Host Configuration page to enable the unified environment feature on a Google Search Appliance and set parameters for the unified environment node to which you are currently logged in. You can also use this page to export a unified environment configuration file for backup purposes or to import such a file to restore a configuration.

Warning: Do not create both a unified environment and GSAⁿ configurations on a set of search appliances. Configure either a unified environment or GSAⁿ configurations.

This page contains the following topics:

• Before Starting these Tasks
• Enabling GSA Unification on a Google Search Appliance
• Configuring GSA Unification Settings
• Setting Host Configuration
• Exporting a Configuration
• Importing a Configuration
• Disabling GSA Unification
• Subsequent Tasks
• For More Information

Before Starting these Tasks

Google strongly recommends that you do not use the default certificate that is supplied with the search appliance. Before you configure a unified environment, navigate to the SSL Settings page and install a new certificate.

Determine which search appliance in the unified environment will be the primary node and which search appliances will be secondary. The primary appliance, or node, is the node that fetches results from all search appliances in the unified environment and merges those results. The primary search appliance's search front end is used for searching all document corpora in the unified environment. The secondary nodes are all other nodes.

Determine the unified environment network IP addresses and secret token for each search appliance in the unified environment.

The unified environment network IP addresses are used for communication among the search appliances in the unified environment. You can assign or change the private IP addresses at any time. The following guidelines apply to the private network IP addresses:

• The search appliance must able to reach another search appliance's public IP address on port 10999.
• The private IP addresses you choose must conform to the private address space as defined in RFC 1918 and must not overlap with the private address space used by the subnet to which the appliances are connected. For example, if the subnet where the search appliances are deployed uses 10.0.0.0/8, choose the private IP addresses from the 192.168.0.0/24 network. If the 192.168.0.0/24 network is used by the subnet, try the 192.168.1.0/24 range or the 172.16.0.0/12 range.
• Do not use the private IP address from the 192.168.255.0/24 network.
• Do not use 127.0.0.0/8.
• Do not use non-private address space such as 1.0.0.0/8 or 216.239.43.0/24.

The nodes in a unified environment use the secret tokens to authenticate to each other. The secret token can be any alphanumeric string. Each search appliance in a unified environment has its own associated secret token. The token for each search appliance is entered on the Admin Console of each of the nodes. When you view the Host Configuration page the secret token is not visible. When you edit an existing unified environment configuration, the secret token is replace by asterisks on the Admin Console. The primary node must know the secret tokens for each secondary node. Each secondary node must know the secret token for the primary node. The secondary nodes do not need to know the secret tokens for the other secondary nodes.

Enabling GSA Unification on a Google Search Appliance

You must enable GSA Unification on each node in a search appliance unified environment, whether that node is the primary node or one of the secondary nodes.

To enable GSA Unification on the current search appliance:

1. On the Admin Console, navigate to GSA Unification > Host Configuration.
2. Click Enable. The GSA Unification Settings checkboxes and Host Configuration fields are displayed.
3. Continue to Configuring GSA Unification Settings.

Configuring GSA Unification Settings

Your choices for the GSA Unification Settings checkboxes determine how authorization works in the unified environment and which front end filters are used.

Delegated authorization means that the primary search appliance in a unified environment delegates result authorization to the secondary nodes. If Use delegated authorization is checked, each search appliance, including the primary, authorizes results returned from its index before sending the results to the primary node. If Use delegated authorization is cleared, the primary search appliance authorizes results after receiving the results from the secondary nodes.

The Use host front end filters instead of primary front end filters checkbox determines which search appliance's filters are applied to search results. By default, the checkbox is not checked. When search results are returned from a particular search appliance, the frontend filters effective on that appliance are applied before the results are returned to the users. When the checkbox is cleared, search results are returned to the primary search appliance, filtered on the primary, and served to the user.

To change the GSA Unification settings:

1. On the Admin Console, navigate to GSA Unification > Host Configuration.
2. To disable delegated authorization, clear the selection in Use delegated authorization.
3. To use the front-end filters in effect on the primary search appliance, clear the selection in Use host frontend filters instead of Primary frontend filters.
4. Click Save.

Setting Host Configuration

Perform these steps on each search appliance in the configuration, whether that search appliance is the primary node or a secondary node.

To configure the current search appliance:

1. On the Admin Console, navigate to GSA Unification > Host Configuration.
2. Under Host Configuration, click the Edit link. The search appliance ID and IP address are displayed.
3. To identify the search appliance within the unified environment by a host name, type a host name in the Appliance host name field.
4. Type in the GSA Unification Network IP address.
5. Type in a Secret Token. The token is a string of characters that each search appliance in a unified environment uses to authenticate to the other appliances in the unified environment.
6. Select a value for Scoring Bias. The Scoring Bias value is used to changing the weight assigned to search results served from the current search appliance.
7. Click Save, Reset, or Cancel.
8. Click Apply Changes. The unified environment service on the search appliance restarts while applying the new settings.

Exporting a Configuration

Use these instructions to create a backup copy of the unified environment settings.

Note that importing a configuration file on the Administration > Import/Export page overwrites unified environment settings. Use the import and export functions on the GSA Unification > Host Configuration page to export or import only unified environment settings.

To export a unified environment configuration:

1. On the Admin Console, navigate to GSA Unification > Host Configuration.
2. Click Export.
3. Navigate to the location on the local computer where you want to save the configuration file.
4. Click Save.

Importing a Configuration

Use these instructions to import an existing backup copy of the unified environment settings. Note that importing a configuration file on the Administration > Import/Export page overwrites unified environment settings. Use the import and export functions on the GSA Unification > Host Configuration page to export or import only unified environment settings.

Import a unified environment configuration file only on the search appliance from which you exported the file.

To import a unified environment configuration:

1. On the Admin Console, navigate to GSA Unification > Host Configuration.
2. Click Choose File.
3. Navigate to the location on the local computer where the backup file is saved. The default name is fed_network.xml.
4. Click Open.
5. Click Import.

Disabling GSA Unification

Use the Disable button to disable the unified environment feature on the current search appliance. If you decide to delete an entire unified environment, disable GSA Unification on each search appliance in the unified environment.

When you disable unified environment, settings you entered for Use delegated authorization are preserved on the current host. If you enable GSA Unification again, those settings are displayed in the GSA Unification Settings section of this page.

To disable GSA Unification:

1. On the Admin Console, navigate to GSA Unification > Host Configuration.
2. Click Disable.

Subsequent Tasks

If you are in the process of setting up a unified environment, continue to the Node Configuration and Index > Composite Collections pages and complete the required fields on those pages.

For More Information

For more information on unified environments, see "Configuring Unified Environments," which is linked to the Google Search Appliance help center.