Invision Community Elasticsearch Setup Guide

To set up a search server for Invision Community, you can use either Elasticsearch or Solr as the search engine. Both are popular choices to improve search performance and scalability. Below is a detailed guide to setting up Elasticsearch, which is the recommended search server for Invision Community.

Invision Community Search Server Setup (Using Elasticsearch)

Step 1: Install Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is an open-source search and analytics engine that Invision Community supports. Below are the steps to install it on Ubuntu/Debian systems. If you're using a different Linux distribution, the commands may vary.

1. Update your server’s package list:

   bash

   sudo apt update

2. Install Java (Elasticsearch requires Java to run):

   bash

   sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre

   Verify Java installation:

   bash

   java -version

3. Add the Elasticsearch repository to your package manager:

   bash

   wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -

4. Add the Elasticsearch repository to the system’s sources list:

   bash

   sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/8.x/apt stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-8.x.list'

5. Update the package list again:

   bash

   sudo apt update

6. Install Elasticsearch:

   bash

   sudo apt install elasticsearch

7. Start and enable Elasticsearch:

   bash

   sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch sudo systemctl start elasticsearch

8. Check the Elasticsearch status:

   bash

   sudo systemctl status elasticsearch

   You should see something like:

   arduino

   Active: active (running)

Step 2: Configure Elasticsearch

1. Modify Elasticsearch’s configuration if necessary. Open the Elasticsearch config file:

   bash

   sudo nano /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml

   Look for the line network.host and set it to 0.0.0.0 to allow Elasticsearch to be accessed remotely:

   yml

   network.host: 0.0.0.0

2. Restart Elasticsearch to apply changes:

   bash

   sudo systemctl restart elasticsearch

Step 3: Verify Elasticsearch Installation

To verify if Elasticsearch is working properly, run:

bash

curl -X GET "localhost:9200/"

You should see a response similar to:

json

{ "name" : "your_server_name", "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch", "cluster_uuid" : "your_cluster_uuid", "version" : { "number" : "8.x.x", "build_hash" : "random_hash", "build_date" : "yyyy-mm-dd", "build_snapshot" : false, "lucene_version" : "x.x.x", "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "x.x.x", "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "x.x.x" }, "tagline" : "You Know, for Search" }

This confirms that Elasticsearch is running properly on your server.

Step 4: Integrate Elasticsearch with Invision Community

1. Log in to the Admin Control Panel of your Invision Community site.

2. Navigate to System > Search.

3. Select Elasticsearch from the list of search engines.

4. Enter the Elasticsearch server's URL (e.g., http://localhost:9200) in the corresponding field.

5. Click on Test Connection to verify that Invision Community can connect to your Elasticsearch server. If successful, save the settings.

Step 5: Rebuild Indexes

1. After connecting Elasticsearch to Invision Community, you need to rebuild the search index. This will index all your content for search.

2. To do this, go to System > Search in the Admin Control Panel and click on the Rebuild Index option.

3. The process may take some time depending on the size of your community.

Step 6: Test the Search

Once Elasticsearch is set up and the index is rebuilt, test the search functionality on your site to make sure it’s working as expected.

Conclusion

You’ve now successfully set up Elasticsearch for your Invision Community site. This setup significantly improves search performance and scalability, especially for large communities.