Switch Sitecore 9 From Azure Search to Solr -- Step-By-Step Instructions

David Ruckman, Senior Consultant

In Sitecore 9 you can use your choice of search providers; Lucene, Solr or Azure Search. When you deploy Sitecore XP to Microsoft Azure using the Marketplace Module, it configures Azure Search for you by default. But, what if you want to switch Sitecore 9 from Azure Search to Solr instead?

Reasons to Switch Sitecore 9 from Azure Search to Solr

1. Azure Search is limited to 1000 fields in the index. This is fine for Sitecore XP out-of-the-box, but if you start adding modules like SXA, Forms, EXM and Commerce, you will exceed the 1000 field limit and you won't be able to rebuild your index.

   You can work around this problem by changing your index configurations to decrease the number of fields being indexed, but this can be complex and there's no documentation on which fields may be excluded. Sitecore says they will address this problem in the 9.1 release.Azure Search can be expensive to operate. 

2. Azure Search service was by far the most expensive component. And, there's no way to turn it off when you're not using it.

3. To my observation, Solr seems to perform much better than Azure Search. Index rebuild times are greatly reduced.

How to Make the Switch

I could find no documentation on how to switch Sitecore 9 from Azure Search to Solr. So, I powered my way through it and made all the mistakes so you don't have to. There were a few challenges along the way, the main ones being that xConnect will not work with Solr if you're using self-signed certs, so you'll need to purchase a domain name and SSL cert from a Certificate Authority. And, the other challenge was poking around all the App Services to find the configs that needed to be updated.

But, now it's up-and-running, and works like a charm. Here's an overview of what I did to make it work.

• Create a new virtual machine in Azure to host your Solr instance

• Install Solr on the VM

• Purchase a domain name and set up an Azure DNS Zone

• Purchase an SSL certificate from a CA and install in Solr

• Update Sitecore config files

• Test connections, populate schemas and rebuild indexes

Ready to get started? This quick start overview should help you to get started on making the switch on Sitecore 9 from Azure Search to Solr, but you can read the full article by clicking here.