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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the difference between Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express?
Both Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express offer an enterprise-ready search solution that empowers people to find the information they need to get work done quickly and easily. Key investments across both products include highly simplified evaluation, configuration, and deployment; an easy-to-use administrative dashboard; federation through support for the Open Search standard and new connectors for one- stop search across systems; and general performance enhancements that eliminate the document limits imposed by other entry-level enterprise search solutions today. Available as a free download, Search Server Express provides all the same functionality as Search Server but is limited to a single server installation, while the Search Server multiserver capabilities offers the high availability, load balancing and failover that larger corporate IT policies require.
Customers can evaluate the Release Candidate (RC) (pre-release) version of Search Server 2008 Express today at www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch
Who is the target audience for both products?
Search Server provides a powerful stand-alone search solution to any organisation that needs quick, easy access to a search experience that provides relevant, actionable results and integrates with the variety of business systems they already have. With its potential for multiserver deployment, Search Server will also appeal to companies concerned with high availability.
Search Server Express is a free, stand-alone enterprise search solution for smaller organisations – whether a small business or a department within a larger enterprise – that may not already have a search solution in place. Search Server Express is also for organisations that want a simple and fast way to deploy enterprise search but do not require the high availability, load balancing, and failover capabilities that larger corporate IT policies require. Many companies will find value in using Search Server Express, but our target is companies just getting started with enterprise search. The typical customer who will choose to leverage the search functionality within Office SharePoint Server 2007 uses enterprise search within the context of their larger productivity infrastructure.
Why should you interest customers in a free product?
With Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express, Microsoft is providing more necessary functionality at a lower cost than what is available to customers today. Not only will you have a more satisfied customer, but you are introducing SharePoint Server technology to the customer and building a future opportunity for greater revenue, if the customer decides to buy a licence for the full server solution, based on their experience with Search Server 2008 Express.
What if Search Server consumers decide they want to upgrade to Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Search Server 2008 customers are welcome to upgrade to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 when they may need to grow their search solution(s) to index business system or expertise information, or add enterprise content management, collaboration and other complementary capabilities to their business productivity infrastructure. Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express can be upgraded to Office SharePoint Server 2007 if the company is using a SQL Server® database beyond SQL Server Express Edition, such as SQL Server Workgroup Edition, SQL Server Standard Edition, or SQL Server Enterprise Edition. The same is true for upgrading Search Server 2008 Express to Search Server 2008.
How does Search Server 2008 compare to search in Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Microsoft Search Server 2008 provides a stand-alone enterprise-class search infrastructure that gives companies the right balance of control and simplicity. Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, customers who think of search as a critical component of their broader productivity infrastructure can integrate search with ECM, BI, and collaboration tools out of the box. Search as an integral part of a business productivity platform not only helps people find what they need, but also helps them do something meaningful with what they’ve found. Rich, actionable interfaces in Office SharePoint Server, the Windows operating system, and business productivity applications like Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client make it easy to turn search results into action. Office SharePoint Server also provides additional enterprise search capabilities such as People, Expertise Search, and the Business Data Catalogue for extended integration to structured data sources.
How long will it take customers to deploy Search Server Express and Search Server in their organisations?
Simplified evaluation, configuration, and deployment were key investment areas for the Search Server product line. Customers will be able to download and install Search Server Express in under 30 minutes. A new set-up wizard and prerequisite checker make installation easy. With Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express, we made it quick and easy to download, set up, configure, and maintain, while being powerful enough to meet any company’s search needs – regardless of size. Companies can reduce their risk in choosing a search solution by starting with a free, full application of Search Server 2008 that they can download and set up to meet their needs immediately.
What versions of SQL Server do we support with Search Server Express?
SQL Server Express, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4
How does Search Server 2008 compare to Office SharePoint Server for search?
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Search Standard Edition was limited to a 500,000 document index. Search Server 2008 has an unlimited document index. Additionally, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express are equipped with federation – a feature that enables a one-stop search with results from multiple sources presented in a single user interface.
Would Office SharePoint Server 2007 customers have any need for Search Server or Search Server Express?
There may be situations where a SharePoint Server enterprise customer has a limited, perhaps departmental need for search where Search Server could be a more rapid and lower cost solution than adapting the SharePoint Server enterprise search feature set.
What is federation?
To be accurate, we should call it ‘search query federation,’ though we all say ‘federation’ for short. In general, federation refers to the ability of synchronising the functioning of more than one system. You might have federated identity management to map user identities across multiple identity solutions. With search query federation, you can search more than one pool of searchable data at the same time. In effect, it is a feature that enables a one-stop search with results from multiple sources presented in a single-user interface.
Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express are both equipped with federation. With Search Server and Search Server Express, you can look for information in the data that Search Server has crawled and indexed, but you can also set up the interface to show search results for a query from other sources. For example, you can configure your Search Server user interface to return supplemental search results from Live Search or Yahoo!, as well as a growing number of specialised systems, such as Business Objects. This kind of integrated, holistic searching is something we believe our customers are looking for.
Is federation available in the enterprise search features of Office SharePoint Server 2007?
No, but we are planning to offer search federation as an add-on to Office SharePoint Server 2007 in the future.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
MICROSOFT SEARCH SERVER EXPRESS SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Stand-alone Installation:
Processor: Minimum 2.5 gigahertz (Ghz); dual processors that are each 3 GHz or faster recommended Memory: 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM minimum; 2 GB of RAM
recommended Hard Disk: NTFSw-formatted partition with 3 GB of free space minimum; NTFS-formatted partition with 3 GB of free space and additional free space for the user’s Web sites recommended Operating System and Software Components: Any of the following editions of the Windows Server® 2003 operating system with the most recent service packs: Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacentre Edition, Web Edition; any of the following editions of Windows Server 2008 operating system with the most recent service packs: Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacentre Edition; Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 with ASP.NET 2.0 enabled; Windows SharePoint Services 3.0; Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Components Browser for accessing search through a browser: Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista® with Internet Explorer® 6.0 or later, Firefox 1.5 or later, or Netscape 8.1 or later
For Administration: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista with Internet Explorer 6.0 or later,
Firefox 1.5 or later, or Netscape 8.1 or later; UNIX/Linux with Firefox 1.5 or later or Netscape 7.2 or later; Mac OS X with Firefox 1.5 or later or Safari 2.0 or later
Computer-specific: Refer to capacity planning information at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/fx101678571033.aspx Learn More About Microsoft Search Server 2008: www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch
Download the Free Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express:
www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserverexpress/download.aspx
Learn More About Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: www.microsoft.com/sharepoint Download the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Trial:
www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/trynow.mspx
Licensing:
www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/howtobuy/default.mspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101655351033.aspx