05e. Index Schedules

Last modified by Tom Jardine on 06/11/2025, 14:23

Index schedules allow administrators to specify a time and frequency for individual Index refreshes. Refreshing an Index will rebuild its content to accommodate for any new data that may have been added or for any data that has been removed. The up-to-date data is then made available to the relevant users when the process has been completed.

Creating a New Schedule

Click Search Engine then Index Schedules to access the configuration options.

Click New to create a new schedule. Enter a name in the Name textbox and specify the build type using the relevant radio button.

Build Types

Build Type

Description

Build

Results in an Index build based on the Index Method selected at Index-level.

 

With Dependants

Builds the Index and any associated Indexes, such as aggregated Indexes.

 

Coalesce

Used to optimise the Index data structures for all non-complete build types, including incremental, cumulative and timeline indexes. To maintain a high level of performance, a weekly Coalesce build is recommended for each relevant Index.

 

Complete

Overrides the Index-level Index Method and instead builds a complete Index.

 

Auto Export

Used when exporting to a remote server. When selected, specify the target server from the resulting Remote Server dropdown list. Please refer to the Remote Servers chapter for more information.

Build Options

Use the Items drop-down list to select an associated Data Source Group or Collection, and specify when the schedule will take place using the Frequency of Execution drop-down list.

Selecting Dependant as a frequency allows the schedule to be triggered once a specific Index or report schedule is run. Select individual dependencies from the Dependant Index Schedules and Dependant Report Schedules drop-down lists, or click All to add every created schedule. Remove individual selections using the relevant X icon, or click None to remove all selected schedules.

Selecting Monthly Working Days as a frequency, once the Working Days and Holidays options have been specified in the System Settings, specifies the working day of the month that the schedule will run. If the specified day falls on a holiday or a non-working day, the schedule will be run the next working day. For example, setting the Days option to 1 will trigger the schedule on the first working day of the month. With UK Bank Holidays set as Holidays and Working Days set as Monday-Friday in the System Settings, for the month May 2021 the schedule will run on 04/05/2021. This is due to 1st and 2nd May being Saturday and Sunday, and 3rd May being a Bank Holiday. Specify the time the schedule will execute in Hours and Minutes .

Specify the Start Time and End Time options to configure when the schedule will run and activate the schedule with the Enabled checkbox.

Click Create Schedule to complete the process of creating a new schedule, or Modify Schedule to save any changes made to an existing schedule. Alternatively, click Cancel to discard any changes made.

Managing Created Schedules

Created Index schedules are displayed when the Index Schedules screen is accessed.

Use the checkboxes in the Enabled column to manually disable an Index schedule from executing, or click the top checkbox to disable all Index schedules.

The Name column will display the name given to the schedule when created, and the Data Source Group column will denote the associated Data Source Group that the schedule applies to.

The Schedule column displays the time and frequency of execution and the Action column denotes the selected Build Option for Index schedules or the system process for system schedules.

The number of failed executions is displayed in the Schedule Failures column and the length of time the schedule ran for is displayed in the Duration column. The date and time of the previous execution is displayed under the Last Run column and the date and time of the next execution is displayed under the Next Run column. 

Click the Run icon to execute the schedule immediately or the Edit icon to modify the Index schedule. Click the X icon to remove the schedule. Please note that system schedules cannot be deleted, but they can be disabled.

System Schedules

There are a number of system schedules that are enabled by default that can be modified to optimise their efficiency. When modifying a system schedule, the Build Type is automatically assigned.

Please note that these are not new additions to the solution, rather they have now been made visible. If updating from a previous version, the default behaviour will remain consistent.

The following system schedules are available:

Schedule Name

Description

CXAIR Configuration

Integral to the solution is a configuration database that contains information on users, permissions, versioning and system configuration settings. The Index refresh schedule will ensure that the most recent changes are accounted for and Indexed for the most efficient access.

GC

The Garbage Collection functionality will scan for unreferenced objects, such as unused entries, relating to Indexes and remove them to reclaim the memory they occupy. This deallocation of memory results in more efficient resource allocation across the system.

SCRIPT

The Backup DB script will automatically create backups of the configuration database at a defined interval. The backup files are stored in the following location:

CXAIR/sys/databasebackup

To restore the database from a backup, stop the CXAIR service and navigate to the following location:

CXAIR_Database/databases/cxair

Rename the cxair.script file to cxair.script.old and copy a backup file into the folder, renaming it to cxair.script. Restart the CXAIR service and the system will run using the previously backed-up database.

TIDYINDEX

The Tidy Index schedule scans the system Crosstab cache, export cache and Index directories to remove old, unused versions and free disk space.

UPDATE_CURRENCY_RATES

The currency rates across the system are updated to reflect the latest online exchange rates.

UPDATE_GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_METADATA

The Google Analytics metadata across the system is updated to reflect the latest online changes, affecting the available options in the Google Analytics Wizard.

It is recommended that all system schedules remain enabled and execute using their default values to for the system to remain as optimised as possible. However, as with any other Index task, system resources are consumed when they are running. Therefore, the system tasks should be scheduled for when little or no other activity is expected.