Limit of 26 Catalogs with Microsoft Index Server (156754)

CAUSE

This error message occurs if you have created more than 26 catalog directories. Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) version 1.0 has a limit of 26 catalog directories. This is a hardcoded limit and is currently viewed and adequate for implementation.

You are discouraged from using multiple catalogs because 26 catalogs take substantially more space than one catalog containing the same data. Both threads and processes are unique to a given catalog. 26 catalogs will be 26 daemon processes (Cidaemon.exe) and over 100 extra threads. This takes a large amount of physical memory (RAM); therefore, it is not the optimal way to operate.

RESOLUTION

Indexing Service

This is not an issue in Windows 2000 Indexing Service. By default, a maximum of 33 catalogs can be created. You can modify this limit by changing the MaxCatalogs registry entry in the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\Control\Contentindex

Note: It is still not recommended to have multiple catalogs.

Index Server

To control the directories that are being searched rather than creating unique catalogs, Microsoft recommends that you use the CISCOPE and the CIRESTRICTIONS flags.

The CiSCope flag indicates the topmost directory (either the virtual root or the physical path) that will be searched in a given query.

NOTE: This parameter is not valid in Administrator pages and should only be used in Queries.

The CiRestrictions flag can be used to limit your scope further and is the query itself that is being processed.

MORE INFORMATION

Use the following information as an example.

In the Internet Service Manager, you have the following virtual directories assigned:

Directory           Alias
--------------------------------
C:\InetPub\WWWroot  <Home>
C:\InetPub\Scripts  /Scripts
c:\MyFiles          /Myfiles
C:\OtherStuff       /OtherStuff

and the following directory structure.

C:\Myfiles\Cats
C:\Myfiles\Dogs
C:\MyFiles\Pigs
C:\MyFiles\Cows
C:\MFiles\Cows\Brown
C:\MyFiles\Cows\Spotted
C:\MyFiles\Cows\Green

To specify the appropriate CISCOPE and CIRESTRICTIONS, you should use the form fields you will find in the sample query HTML document (found under Start, Programs, Microsoft Index Server, Index Server Sample Query Form).

This value will search all virtual roots starting at the topmost level.

If you wanted a search to start at the /Myfiles/Dogs directory, you can use something similar to the following:

<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="CiScope" VALUE="/MyFiles/dogs">
or
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="CiScope" VALUE="/MyFiles/Cows">
or
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="CiScope" VALUE="/MyFiles/dogs/brown">
or
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="CiScope" VALUE="c:\MyFiles\Cown\Green">

The CiRestrictions flag normally contains the query parameters to search for such, as in the following example.

<TD>
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="CiRestriction" SIZE="60" MAXLENGTH="100"
VALUE="">
</TD>

This is the Form Field that the user types their query into and will take the text typed in to pass it to the IDQ file. This allows you to use a particular IDQ for multiple queries by changing the HTML code, and the user can use the appropriate HTML form for a particular scope in the query. Alternatively, you can have the user type in the scope information and pass it similar to the way the example passes the CiRestriction value.

For additional information, please see the documentation in the Online "Users Guide" that outlines these flags and covers the methods described above.