This section documents the main registry parameters for Index Server in alphabetical order. It also gives the defaults and ranges for each parameter plus a brief description of the function.
This section documents the following two registry keys for Index Server:
You can find the bulk of these parameters under the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Control \ContentIndex
Caution Editing the registry incorrectly can cause serious problems, including corruption that may make it necessary to reinstall Windows NT or Microsoft Index Server. Using the Registry Editor to edit entries in the registry is equivalent to editing raw sectors on a hard disk. If you make mistakes, your computer’s configuration could be damaged. You should edit registry entries only for settings that you cannot adjust through the user interface, and be very careful whenever you edit the registry directly.
| CiCatalogFlags REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 0 Range: 0–2 |
| Controls Index Server behavior based on certain flags. Set the value 1 to turn off notifications on all remote UNC paths. Set this flag if Index Server is configured to index documents on a wide area network (WAN) over slow links. Set the value to 2 to turn off notifications on all local paths. When either of these flags is set, Index Server triggers periodic scans for the paths for which notifications have been disabled. The registry parameter ForcedNetPathScanIntervalcontrols the frequency of paths. |
| DaemonResponseTimeout REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Minutes Default: 5 Range: 1–120 |
| Timeout value to determine if the CiDaemon process is looping because of a corrupted file. |
| EventLogFlags REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: BitField Default: 0x00000002 Range: 0–7 |
| Controls the generation of certain event log messages. See Event Log Flags for mask values. |
| FilterContents REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: BOOLEAN Default: 1 Range: 0, 1 |
| If set to 0, contents of files will not be filtered. Only properties will be filtered. When set to a nonzero value, contents and properties will be filtered. |
| FilterDelayInterval REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Seconds Default: 20 Range: 0–600 |
| Determines the number of seconds to wait when the number of documents left to filter equals the setting in FilterRemainingThreshold. This delay prevents Index Server from overusing resources trying to index temporary files created by running applications. Increase this setting if filtering certain files uses more resources than it should. |
| FilterDirectories REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: BOOLEAN Default: 0 Range: 0, 1 |
| When set to a nonzero value, directories will also be filtered for system properties and displayed in query results. |
| FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: BOOLEAN Default: 1 Range: 0, 1 |
| Determines if files with extensions that have not been registered will be filtered or not. Set the value to zero if only registered file types should be filtered. To see how to register a file type, see Modifying Filter Registration. |
| FilterRemainingThreshold REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number of files Default: 2 Range: 0–320 |
| Delays filtering if the number of documents to be filtered is less than the number of files set in this registry key. This delay prevents Index Server from overusing resources trying to index temporary files created by running applications. |
| FilterRetries REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number Default: 4 Range: 1–10 |
| The maximum number of times a file will be retried for filtering if there are failures while trying to filter a file. |
| FilterRetryInterval REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number Default: 30 seconds Range: 2–240 |
| The number of seconds between attempts to filter the contents of a file that is being used by another process. |
| ForcedNetPathScanInterval REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Minutes Default: 120 Range: 10–infinite |
| Time interval between forced scans on directories with no notifications. |
| GenerateCharacterization REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: BOOLEAN Default: 1 Range: 0, 1 |
| Controls automatic generation of characterization (abstract). |
| IsapiDefaultCatalogDirectory REG_SZ |
|---|
| Default content index catalog directory, as it would be entered in the CiCatalog parameter of an .idq file. |
| IsapiMaxEntriesInQueryCache REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 10 Range: 0–100 |
| Maximum number of cached queries |
| IsapiQueryCachePurgeInterval REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Minutes Default: 5 Range: 1–120 |
| Time interval a query cache item will remain alive. |
| IsapiRequestQueueSize REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 16 Range: 0–100000 |
| Maximum number of Web query requests to queue when busy with other queries. |
| IsapiRequestThresholdFactor REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 3 Range: 1–100000 |
| Number of threads per processor beyond which query requests are queued. |
| IsIndexingNNTPSvc REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Boolean Default: 1 Range: 0–1 |
| If 1, the content index catalog will configure itself to work with Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). If set to 0, the catalog is configured to index standard file systems. |
| IsIndexingW3SVC REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Boolean Default: 1 Range: 0–1 |
| If 1, the content index catalog will configure itself to work with IIS. If set to 0, the catalog is configured to index standard file systems. |
| Language SUBKEY |
|---|
| Holds language-specific registry information. |
| MasterMergeCheckpointInterval REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Kilobytes Default: 512 Range: 512–8096 |
| Checkpointing interval for master merge. Determines how much work (data written to the new master index) to redo in case a master merge is paused and restarted. |
| MasterMergeTime REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Minutes Default: 0 Range: 0–1439 |
| Time at which master merge will occur. This is stored as the number of minutes after midnight. |
| MaxActiveQueryThreads REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Threads Default: 2 Range: 1–1000 |
| Maximum number of query threads. This establishes the maximum number of concurrently processed asynchronous queries. |
| MaxActiveRequestThreads REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Threads Default: 2 Range: 1–1000 |
| Maximum number of threads to process incoming requests to the Content Index service. Request types include queries, query result retrieval, administrative operations, and so on. |
| MaxCachedPipes REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number of instances of named pipes Default: 3 Range: 0–1000 |
| Maximum number of unconnected instances of named pipes that the Content Index service should keep cached. Because instances of named pipes take up system resources, cache only as many as are needed in a short period of time. |
| MaxCharacterization REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number of characters Default: 320 Range: 20–500 |
| Number of characters in the automatically generated characterization (abstract). |
| MaxFilesizeFiltered REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Kilobytes Default: 256 Range: 0–infinite |
| Maximum size of a single file to be filtered using the default filter. If the default filter is used for a file bigger than this number, only properties will be filtered. Please note that this limit does not apply for registered file types. |
| MaxFilesizeMultiplier REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number Default: 8 Range: 4–0xFFFFFFFF |
| Maximum amount of data which can be generated from a single file, based on its size. This value is a multiplier. A value of 4 means that a file can generate up to 4 times its size in content index data. |
| MaxFreshCount REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Documents Default: 5000 Range: 1000–40000 |
| Maximum number of files whose latest indexed data is not in the master index. When this limit is reached, a master merge will be started. |
| MaxIdealIndexes REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Indexes Default: 5 Range: 2–100 |
| Maximum number of indexes considered acceptable in a well-tuned system. When the number of indexes climbs above this number and the system is idle then an annealing merge will take place to bring the total count of indexes to this number. |
| MaxIndexes REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Indexes Default: 50 Range: 10–150 |
| Maximum number of persistent indexes in the catalog. If this number is exceeded, a shadow merge will be performed to bring the total below this number. |
| MaxMergeInterval REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Minutes Default: 10 Range: 1–60 |
| Sleep time between merges. Index Server activates this often to determine if a merge is necessary. Usually an annealing merge, but may be a shadow or master merge. |
| MaxPendingDocuments REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Documents Default: 32 Range: 1–50000 |
| The number of pending documents to be filtered before considering CI out-of-date for property queries. |
| MaxQueryExecutionTime REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Milliseconds of CPU time Default: 10000 Range: 50–infinite |
| Maximum execution time of a query. If a query takes more than this amount of CPU time, processing of it will be stopped and an error status indicated. |
| MaxQueryTimeslice REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Milliseconds of CPU time Default: 50 Range: 1–1000 |
| Maximum amount of time to execute a query in a single time slice. If more asynchronous queries are active than allowed query threads, then a query is put back on the pending queue after this time interval. Time slicing is done only after a matching row is found, but for some queries, many rows may be examined before a match is found. When many rows are examined, the time slice may be exceeded before the time is checked. |
| MaxQueueChunks REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number of chunks Default: 20 Range: 10–30 |
| Maximum number of in memory buffers for keeping track of pending documents. The higher the number, the less frequently does it have to be written to disk. |
| MaxRestrictionNodes REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number of nodes Default: 16000 Range: 1–4,000,000,000 |
| If query normalization creates a query restriction greater than the number of nodes set in this registry entry, the query fails with the status of QUERY_E_TOOCOMPLEX. This status message means the query was too complex to be completed because the limit imposed in this registry key has been reached. This key keeps a user from overloading the server’s capacity with an overly large query. |
| MaxRunningWebhits REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 20 Range: 1–200 |
| Specifies the maximum number of concurrent instances of Webhits. When this value is exceeded, the following error message is generated, and the user is asked to try again later. Increase this value for computers with more memory or processors. |
| MaxShadowFreeForceMerge REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Percentage of free disk space Default: 20 Range: 5–4,000,000,000 |
| Specifies the percentage of free disk space occupied by shadow indexes on a catalog drive. If this percentage exceeds the value set for this parameter and if the total free disk space falls below the minimum set in the MinDiskFreeForceMerge, a master merge begins. For example, if this parameter is set to 500, the amount of free disk space is 10 megabytes and the amount of space occupied by shadow indexes is 40 megabytes, no master merge takes place (40*100/10 is less than 500). However, if the value of this parameter is set to 300, a master merge begins because 40*100/10 is greater than 300. |
| MaxShadowIndexSize REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Percentage of disk space Default: 15 Range: 5–infinite |
| If the disk space occupied by the shadow indexes exceed this percentage of the catalog drive, a master merge is started. |
| MaxSimultaneousRequests REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Number of connected named pipe instances Default: 100 Range: 1–20000 |
| Maximum number of simultaneous connections that the Content Index service will support. This value should be at least as large as IsapiMaxEntriesInQueryCache, because IDQ cached queries keep a connection open. Note that connection limits in Windows NT Workstation prevent more than about 50 simultaneous request from being established. |
| MaxWebhitsCpuTime REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Seconds Default: 30 Range: 5–7200 |
| Specifies the timeout value for Webhits in CPU seconds. If Webhits does not process a document in the stipulated amount of time, it will return an error message that the allowed time has been exceeded. |
| MaxWordLists REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: WordLists Default: 20 Range: 10–30 |
| Maximum number of word lists that can exist at one time. |
| MaxWordlistSize REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: 128K Default: 14 Range: 10–infinite |
| Maximum amount of memory consumed by an individual word list. When this limit is reached, only the document being filtered will be added. Additional documents will be refiled and later placed in another word list. Each unit is 128 kilobytes (K) (for example, 20 = 2.5 megabytes). |
| MinDiskFreeForceMerge REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Percentage of disk space Default: 15 Range: 5–25 |
| On the catalog drive, if the free space falls below MinDiskFreeForceMerge and the disk space occupied by the shadow indexes exceeds MaxShadowFreeForceMerge, a master merge is started. |
| MinIdleQueryThreads REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 1 Range: 0–1000 |
| Minimum number of idle threads kept alive to process incoming queries. |
| MinIdleRequest Threads REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Threads Default: 1 Range: 0–1000 |
| Minimum number of idle threads kept alive to process incoming requests to the Content Index service. Request types include queries, query result retrieval, administrative operations, and so on. |
| MinMergeIdleTime REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Percentage of CPU Default: 90 Range: 10–100 |
| If average system idle time for the last merge check period is greater than this value, then an annealing merge can be performed. |
| MinSizeMergeWordlists REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Kilobytes Default: 1024 Range: 1024–10240 |
| Minimum combined size of word lists that will force a shadow merge. |
| MinWordlistMemory REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Megabytes Default: 5 Range: 1–10 |
| Minimum free memory for word-list creation. |
| NNTPSvcInstance REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 1 Range: 1–0xffffffff |
| The instance of the NNTP server whose virtual directories are indexed by the catalog. Different virtual servers are identified by different numbers. |
| PropertyStoreBackupSize REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Bytes Default: 1024 Range: 32–500,000 |
| Determines the number of system pages held in memory to back up the property cache. Page size is 4K on 486 (and higher) computers and 8K on Alpha computers. The larger this file, the less often the property cache needs to be written to disk. The fewer times you write the cache to disk, the faster indexing proceeds. You can add this parameter in the ContentIndex key for all catalogs, and you can add it under a specific catalog to override the the setting in the ContentIndex key. Setting this parameter allows the Propstor.bkp file to range in size from about 128 K (256 K on Alpha computers) to about 2 gigabytes (4 gigabytes on Alpha computers). |
| PropertyStoreMappedCache REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: 64K pages Default: 16 Range: 0–infinite |
| Maximum size of in memory buffers for the property cache. |
| RequestTimeout REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Units: Milliseconds Default: 10000 Range: 0–1,000,000,000 |
| The amount of time a query client should wait before failing to connect to a named pipe instance in the Content Index service. Note that if the Content Index service is not running, the client fails to connect immediately. |
| ThreadClassFilter REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: Idle Priority Class Range: 20, 40, 80, 100 |
| Priority class of the CiDaemon process. The value 20 is Normal Priority Class, 40 is Idle Priority Class, 80 is High Priority Class, and 100 is Realtime Priority Class. Values are in hexadecimal. |
| ThreadPriorityFilter REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: Above normal Range: Lowest – Above Normal |
| Priority of the filtering thread within the CiDaemon process. |
| ThreadPriorityMerge REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: Normal Range: Lowest – Above Normal |
| Priority of the merge thread. |
| W3SvcInstance REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 1 Range: 1–0xffffffff |
| The instance of the WWW server whose virtual directories are indexed by the catalog. Different virtual servers are identified by different numbers. |
| WebhitsDisplayScript REG_DWORD |
|---|
| Default: 1 Range: 0, 1, or 2 |
| Determines whether scripting code is returned in hit-highlighting results when a query searches a virtual directory that has read access and contains script files. If you set this parameter to 0, no hit highlights are returned. If you set this parameter to 1, only files written in scripts with recognized filters are displayed. For example, the HTML filter allows hit highlights to be displayed for .asp files. However, no content is displayed for script files written in Perl. If you set this parameter to 2, hit highlights are returned for all scripts searched. Because of a new feature in Webhits.dll, only the HTML portion of a script file is returned, and the raw code remains unavailable to hit highlighting. |
This key contains more parameters and can be found in the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Control \ContentIndexCommon
| DefaultColumnFile REG_SZ |
|---|
| The full physical path and name of the file that is to be read for column definitions in .asp files and in .idq files. The file format is the same as for column definitions in an .idq file or for the DefineColumn method. Blank lines and lines introduced with a number sign (#) are ignored. If this value is not set, Index Server formats query results with a default set of column definitions. See List of Property Names for information about default column settings. |