Installing and Configuring SharePoint 2010 and FAST Search 2010–Part 4

Let us now install and configure FAST Search 2010 for SharePoint 2010. Since I am out of resources we will be deploying a stand-alone FAST Search 2010, if possible I will add another FAST Search 2010 node to the farm and deploy some services on the same.

Installing FAST Search 2010

1. Insert FAST Server 2010 installation media, you will get a splash screen as shown below
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click on Install software prerequisites–> click Next–> accept License Agreement and click Next
   
   
   
   NOTE: keep an eye on %temp% folder to understand the background processing during the installation step
3. Once the prerequisites installation is done, click Finish
4. Click on Install FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
   
   
   
5. You are greeted by a Welcome screen –> click Next
   
   
   
6. Accept license agreement and click Next
   
   
   
7. Type the location to install FAST binaries, I choose to stick with the defaults
   
   
   
8. Click Next and click Install. The installation will take sometime and click Finish once done.

Configuring FAST Search 2010

1. Enable PowerShell script execution
   1. Click Start–> All Programs–> Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
      
      
      
   2. right click on Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell and click on Run as administrator
   3. type Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned and press Enter
      
      
      
2. Click Start–> All Programs–> Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint–> right click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint configuration wizard and click on Run as administrator
   
   
   
3. You will be greeted by the Welcome screen –> click Next
   
   
   
4. Select the deployment type, since we are doing a Single server installation we will select Single server (stand-alone) and click Next
   
   
   
5. Enter the user name and password of the account we have chosen for FAST Search for SharePoint –> click Next
   
   
   
6. Enter a certificate password. This password will be used to protect the FAST Search certificate –> click Next
   
   
   
7. On the Server settings, enter the fully qualified domain name of the FAST Server–> click Next
   
   
   
8. On the Database settings screen, enter the SQL database information i.e. SQL Server Name and SQL Server Instance. Since I have SQL Server configured with default instance, I will enter SQL Server Name and that should be fine. Click Next
   
   
   
   NOTE: just in case you happen to see the following error
   
   
   
   Verify that the fastuser (the account we added in step 5) has dbcreator role permission on the SQL Server.
   
   
   
9. On the click-through relevancy settings, add the desired relevancy setting. Since I have SharePoint 2010 installed using Server Farm option, I will add the domain user I had added in Step 6 of my earlier post. You can also check for the user who is running the SharePoint 2010 Timer service. Click Next
   
   
   
10. On the Configuration settings summary, review the settings and click Configure
    
    
    
11. Once the post-setup configuration is successful –> click Finish
12. Before you restart the server make sure the account that you will use to administer FAST Search is added in the local FASTSearchAdministrators group.
13. Restart the server
14. To verify if FAST Search modules are running, open the command prompt and type nctrl status, make sure all the modules have status Running.

Next, we will configure Content Search and Query Search application in FAST Search.

Hope this helps,
Vivek Kumbhar

Quote of the day:
There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. - Marshall McLuhan