Updating full text indexes

Question

Do I need to schedule full text indexes to be updated or are they automatically updated when records are inserted/updated/deleted?

Can someone point me some documentation on this please?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Well, that depends on how you setup the Fulltext index. See the BOL for more information about that:

SET CHANGE_TRACKING {MANUAL | AUTO | OFF}

Specifies whether changes (updates, deletes, or inserts) made to table columns that are covered by the full-text index will be propagated by SQL Server to the full-text index. Data changes through WRITETEXT and UPDATETEXT are not reflected in the full-text index, and are not picked up with change tracking.

MANUAL

Specifies that the tracked changes will be propagated manually by calling the ALTER FULLTEXT INDEX … START UPDATE POPULATION Transact-SQL statement (manual population). You can use SQL Server Agent to call this Transact-SQL statement periodically.

AUTO

Specifies that the tracked changes will be propagated automatically as data is modified in the base table (automatic population). Although changes are propagated automatically, these changes might not be reflected immediately in the full-text index. AUTO is the default.

(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188359.aspx)

Jens K. Suessmeyer

Answer 2

By default no. By default they will be automatically update.

 In SQL 2000 and below you would have to kick off populations manually. Change tracking was enabled in SQL 2000  but you would have to configure your full-text indexes for it.

---

looking for a book on SQL Server replication? http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Administration? http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Server-2008-Management-Administration/dp/067233044X looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search? http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Full-Text-Search-Server-2008/dp/1430215941

Answer 3

Thanks guys!

Much appreciated!!