User Setup

1. Set up Users for SharePoint, SQL Server and FAST

(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662513.aspx). At the minimum,
the following domain users have to be available.
a. Install User in most cases, this will be a regular domain user. This
user must have the following:
i. Local Admin rights to each server involved in the install
ii. Login privileges on the SQL Server instance that will host the
SharePoint and FAST database. Additionally, the user must have
securityadmin and dbcreator roles assigned to it
b. SharePoint Admin User this is the main Server Farm user
c. SharePoint Services User this user will run all the application pools as
well as services like SSAs in SharePoint
d. SharePoint Crawl User this user is optional and runs all crawls to feed
SSAs
e. FAST User the user that will run everything on the FAST Servers.
NOTE: The FAST User must have login permissions and dbcreator in
SQL Server.
2. If necessary, install SQL Server
3. Turn off the following on all the SharePoint servers
a. Windows Firewall
b. Automatic Daylight Savings Time adjustment. Also ensure that the
Time zone is correct.

SharePoint Install
Install SharePoint http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262957.aspx
NOTE: If you want SharePoint 2010 to work with FAST for SharePoint
2010, you must install SharePoint with an Enterprise CAL key.
For a multi-node install, choose Server Farm as the install type, then
Complete as the server type. You will then choose to create a new server farm
when running the configuration wizard after installing. When executing this
process on the central admin/application server, choose create a new server
farm. For all other nodes, you will connect to an existing farm. Regardless of
the role of the node, choose a Complete installation and not Stand Alone.
A install video is available here: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/ff607866.aspx
NOTE: Its important to complete the installation process on the main SP
server, especially if you have a multi-node installation. Choose to be taken to

the central admin site for configuration and then enter the URL and site title on
the option page. This should complete the installation. Keep in mind that you
can always change the site URL and title later, but at least choose something
initially so you can reach the default site.
4. Optional: Install Office Web Apps 2010 (http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/office/ee815687.aspx)
NOTE: If you install the Office Web Apps, they must be installed on
each server in the farm before a successful farm configuration can
occur.
5. NOTE: Certain functions in the SharePoint Central Administration are
only available when Internet Explorer is opened in Run as
administrator mode. So make sure that IE is always opened in Run as
administrator mode.
6. If the Initial Farm Configuration Wizard doesnt start after SharePoint set up
finished, kick it off from the SharePoint Central Administration
a. From the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click on
Configuration Wizards (found on the left hand panel)
b. On the Configuration Wizards page, under Farm Configuration, click on
Launch the Farm Configuration Wizard
c. On the Configure your SharePoint farm page, click on the Start the
Wizard
d. On the first page of the wizard
i. For Service Account, select the Use existing managed
account radio button. This account should be different than the
default farm admin account (such as spadmin)
ii. For Services, most are by default enabled. Select or Deselect the
services appropriate for the install
iii. Click the Next button
e. On the second page of the wizard, select a Title and Template for the
Root (default) site and click the OK button.
7. Add the SharePoint Services User as a Managed Account
a. From the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click on
Security (found on the left hand panel)
b. On the Security page, under General Security, click on Configure
managed accounts
c. On the Managed Accounts page, if the SharePoint Services User
doesnt exist, do the following:
i. Click on Register Managed Account
ii. On the Register Managed Account page, enter the user name
and password for the SharePoint Services User
iii. Click the OK button

FAST for SharePoint Install

8. Install FS4SP (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381267.aspx)
For a multi-node installation, you will need to use a deployment XML file.
Here is the technet article that outlines how to setup this file:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff354931.aspx
An example deployment.xml file appears at the end of this document as a
reference.
a. Install the software prerequisites and then restart the server before
installing FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
b. Enable PowerShell scripts to run
i. Open the Windows PowerShell in Run as administrator mode
ii. At the command prompt, type the following command to enable
scripts to run: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
c. Restart the FAST Server(s)
d. Run the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint installer
i. To install on a non C: drive, follow the steps below.
Copy all files from the FAST Search Server 2010 for
SharePoint CD to a local directory on the FAST server
Open the Windows PowerShell in Run as administrator
mode
At the command prompt, change (cd) to the directory with
the FAST install files
Run the installer with the following command: Msiexec /i
fsserver.msi /q
FASTSEARCHSERVERINSTALLLOCATION="<Drive>:\FASTS
earch" /l msiLog.log - This runs the installer in
unattended mode so you wont see anything. Pay
attention to the msiexec process in the Windows Task
Manager to determine when the installer has completed.
e. Configure the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint server by
running as Administrator the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for
SharePoint Configuration Wizard. NOTE: The FAST Configuration
Wizard requires the FAST User to be in FQDN\user_name
format instead of domain\user_name. Example:
dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com\fastuser
f. Restart the FAST Server(s)
9. Add the appropriate users and/or groups to the FASTSearchAdministrators
local Windows group on the FAST Server(s).

FAST for SharePoint Configuration

10. Perform post-installation configuration steps for F4SP by running the
configuration wizard. Help with this process is at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381240.aspx
The following substeps explain how to configure multi-node installations.
Configure F4SP as Admin Node
i. Choose Admin Node and enter the FAST user and password. This user
should have local administrative privileges on each machine in the F4SP
farm. NOTE: The FAST Configuration Wizard requires the FAST User
to be in FQDN\user_name format instead of domain\user_name.
Example: my.domainname.com\fastuser
ii. Choose a certificate password. The certificate will eventually allow the
F4SP nodes to successfully communicate as well as allow the SharePoint
2010 nodes to communicate with the F4SP nodes. The certificate
password doesnt have to be complicated, but you definitely need to
remember what it is.
iii. Enter the FQDN for the current node. Leave the base port as default
(13000). Choose the location for your deployment XML file (link to guide
for creating this file is above). The current deployment XML for your
installation is included at the end of this document. Adding a row or
column is as simple as making the correct entry for a new node in this file.
Its important that you get this file correct before you run the
configuration utility on the admin node. If its not correct, it will cause
configuration of non-admin nodes to fail.
iv. SQL Server selection is potentially flaky based on environment. It is
supposed to require a server FQDN \instance format, but it may not work
correctly unless the short name is used. In addition, if you chose the
default MS SQL Server instance name when setting up the SQL Server
(MSSQLSERVER), it will not need to be specified in the wizard. The port
and database name should be the default value. However, if you are
rebuilding an admin node and havent cleaned up the SQL Server, you will
need to delete the FASTSearchAdminDatabase first.
v. In most instances you will want to enable click-through relevancy. The
user specified here should be the user that runs the timer service (usually
an admin account) in SharePoint 2010. Remember to use FQDN\user
format.

vi. Review the configuration and run. If it fails, check the logfile. Some
common problems include an incorrect deployment XML file and
preexistence of the FASTSearchAdministrators group on the local machine.
If this group exists before configuration, delete it. The wizard wants to
create that group.
Configure F4SP as Non-Admin Node
i.

Choose Non-Admin Node and enter the FAST user and password. This
user should have local administrative privileges on each machine in
the F4SP farm. NOTE: The FAST Configuration Wizard requires
the FAST User to be in FQDN\user_name format instead of
domain\user_name. Example: jhimms.win.ad.jhu.edu\fastuser

ii. Enter the farms certificate password that was chosen during
configuration of the admin node.
iii. Enter the FQDN for the current non-admin node, the FQDN for the
admin node and the default admin node port of 13000.
iv. Review the configuration and run.
11. You will need to put the SharePoint certificate on the FAST Query node(s)
before you can enable SSL :
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381253.aspx
OPTIONAL: Enable HTTPS if this is required for your installation.
NOTE: When installing the security certificates, make sure the user that is
specified at the powershell command line is eventually the same user that
runs the SharePoint SSA. If not, SharePoint wont be able to talk to the FAST
Content Distributor.
12.OPTIONAL: Enable the Advanced Filter Pack for F4SP. This might be useful for
clients that are crawling websites, especially image-heavy websites. If this
option is disabled (default), crawl warnings may show up for certain file
types.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff383314.aspx

SharePoint Configuration
13.Create the SSAs in SharePoint. The file Install_Info.txt on the F4SP nodes
will give all URIs that will need to be entered on the SharePoint GUI SSA
creation screens. Help with this process is at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381261.aspx

a. FAST Content SSA

i. Name: FAST Content SSA
ii. Type: FAST Search Connector
iii. Search Service Account: Use the SharePoint Services user
account
iv. Application Pool for Search Admin Web Service
Application Pool Name: FASTContentApplicationPool
Application Pool User: Use the SharePoint Services user
account
v. Content Distributor: the install_info.txt file on the F4SP admin
node will provide the needed detail, but in most cases the CD
URL and port will resemble this example:
dtechpocf4sp00.dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com:13391
The default collection for SharePoint is sp
vi. Dont forget to Configure SSL enabled communication (the user
should be the SharePoint Admin user account unless another
user was set up to run the SharePoint Server Search 14
(OSearch14) service) (http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/ff381261.aspx#BKMK_Configure_ssl_enabled_commun
ication)
b. FAST Query SSA
Helpful steps: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/ff381251.aspx
i. Name: FAST Query SSA
ii. Search Service Account: Use the SharePoint Services user
account
iii. Application Pool for Search Admin Web Service
Application Pool Name: FASTQueryAdminApplicationPool
Application Pool User: Use the SharePoint Services user
account
iv. Application Pool for Search Query and Site Settings Web Service
Application Pool Name: FASTQueryApplicationPool
Application Pool User: Use the SharePoint Services user
account
v. After the FAST Query SSA has been created, make sure that the
SharePoint Admin and SharePoint Services user accounts are
part of the FASTSearchAdministrators group on the FS4SP
server(s).
14. Set up SharePoint to use FAST as the search engine
a. From the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click on
Application Management
b. Under Service Applications, click on Configure service application
associations
c. For the SharePoint 80 web application, click on the default
Application Proxy Group

d. Check the box next to the FAST Query SSA and also make it the
default (click on set as default link)
e. Uncheck the box next to Search Service Application (this will disable
the use of the SP Search which we wont be using any more since we
are using the FAST Query SSA)
f. Click OK to save the settings
15.Set up administrators for the User Profile Service Application. This ensures
that administrators can set up FAST Search user context since the
permissions for the User Profile Service Application are not the same as farm
administrator permissions.
a. From the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click on
Application Management
b. Under Service Applications, click on Manage service applications
c. Select User Profile Service Application by clicking on its row on the
page not its link
d. Click on the Administrators icon on the toolbar
e. On the Administrators for User Profile Service Application dialog, add
the users and/or groups who have rights to manage the application
and assign the proper permissions
16.Ensure that the Alternate Access Mappings are set up properly
a. From the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click on
Application Management
b. Under Web Applications, click on Configure alternate access
mappings
c. Ensure that there is a public mapping in the default zone for the FQDN
as well as the non-FQDN versions of the internal URL. For example,
there should be an entry for
http://dtechdevsp1400.dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com as well
as http://dtechdevsp1400 both of which map to
http://dtechdevsp1400.dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com
17.Set up the Site collection features
a. From the Root (Default) Site, click the Site Actions dropdown on the top
left of the page and choose Site Settings
b. On the Site Settings page, under Site Collection Administration click on
Site collection features
c. Activate the following features if not currently active
i. Search Server Web Parts
ii. SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features
iii. SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure
iv. SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features
18.Set up the SharePoint Site Settings
a. From the Root (Default) Site, click the Site Actions dropdown on the top
left of the page and choose Site Settings
b. On the Site Settings page, under Site Actions click on Manage site
features
c. Active the following features if not currently active
i. SharePoint Server Enterprise Site features

ii. SharePoint Server Publishing

iii. SharePoint Server Standard Site features
19.Create the Search Sub-site
a. From the Root (Default) Site, click the Site Actions dropdown on the top
left of the page and choose Site Settings
b. On the Site Settings page, under Site Administration click on Sites
and workspaces
c. On the Sites and Workspaces page, click on Create
d. On the New SharePoint Site page
i. For the Title, enter a title for the search page (Example: Search)
ii. For the Web Site Address, enter the sub-site URL name
(Example: search)
iii. Template Selection under the Enterprise tab, select the FAST
Search Center template
iv. Go with the default for Permissions and Navigation Inheritance
v. Click the Create button to create the sub-site
20.Configure the Root Site to use the Search Site
a. From the Root (Default) Site, click the Site Actions dropdown on the top
left of the page and choose Site Settings
b. On the Site Settings page, under Site Collection Administration choose
Search settings
c. On the Search Settings page
i. For Site Collection Search Center, select the radio button to
Enable custom scopes
ii. Use the URL name from step 11.e.ii above to enter a value for
Site Collection Search Center using this format: /<URL
name>/pages. For Example, if you entered search as the URL
name, the value you enter for Site Collection Search Center
would be /search/pages
iii. Choose Show scopes dropdown for Collection Search
Dropdown Mode
iv. For Site Collection Search Results Page, go with the default
value of /_layouts/OSSSearchResults.aspx
21.Ensure that Root Site admins are set up properly
a. From the Root (Default) Site, click the Site Actions dropdown on the top
left of the page and choose Site Settings
b. On the Site Settings page, under Users and Permissions choose Site
collection administrators
c. On the Site Collection Administrators page, add the users who will be
the site admins. Note: Groups are not allowed. Only users are allowed.
22.OPTIONAL: Set up anonymous access to the site
a. Central Admin Settings
i. From the SharePoint Central Administration home page, under
Application Management, click on Manage web applications
ii. On the Web Application Management page, select the
SharePoint 80 site and then click on the Authentication
Providers icon on the toolbar

iii. On the Authentication Providers dialog, click on zone you want

to modify. This is typically the default zone
iv. On the Edit Authentication dialog, check the Enable
anonymous access checkbox and click the Save button
b. Site Settings
i. From the Root (Default) Site, click the Site Actions dropdown on
the top left of the page and choose Site Permissions
ii. On the Permissions page, click on the Anonymous Access icon
on the toolbar
iii. On the Anonymous Access dialog, click on the Entire Web site
radio button and then click the OK button
23.That should be it. Now, you should set up your content sources for the FAST
Content SSA. More than likely, you will also need to create Scopes (especially
around content sources) for the FAST Query SSA for the content you are
feeding through the FAST Content SSA.

TROUBLESHOOTING
1. If crawling in your Content SSA seems to miss the full complement of
documents and you see Event Log errors for SharePoint Search regarding
Unable to resolve ContentDistributor, check your certificate store for the local
computer. Multiple certificates issued by the F4SP Admin node (named
FASTSearchCert.pfx) with different thumbprints are most likely confusing the SSA
when it tries to communicate with F4SP. Remove all certificates, reissue a new
certificate from the F4SP Admin node and reinstall. You may need to replace the
certificate with a new, self-signed certificate:
http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/ff381244.aspx#BKMK_ReplaceTheSelfSignedCertificateWithA
NewSelfsignedCertificate
2. Event log contains event ID 1000:
Description:
FST-01: Admin error occurred during loading of keyword data. The keyword
cache may be stale. Exception Message:Failed to communicate with the WCF
service
http://blogs.like10.com/2011/01/06/fast-search-for-sharepoint-2010-event-id1000/
Solution:
The resolution to this error was to create the local group
FASTSearchKeywordAdministrators (It is not necessary to add any users at
this time) on the FAST Search Node (FST-01 in our case) and stop and start the

FAST Search service by running the following commands from the PS command
prompt:
PS C:\FASTSearch\bin>nctrl stop
NOTE: Wait for 1 to 2 minutes for the FAST Search service to stop completely.
PS C:\FASTSearch\bin>nctrl start
The error in the FAST Search event logs should now be gone

3. If you encounter a site youre trying to crawl where you see 1 success and 1
error, possibly also seeing http response codes of 500 using fiddler. I was able to
resolve this by slowing down the crawler using a crawler impact rule to slow
requests to the server to once every 2 seconds in my case. This allowed the source
time to respond and completed crawling of the content.

APPENDIX
F4SP example deployment.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<deployment comment="3 node FAST Search farm configuration"
xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch">
<instanceid>FASTforSharepointPOCConfig</instanceid>
<!-NOTE: Host names "fastserver1.contoso.com", "fastserver2.contoso.com"
and "fastserver3.contoso.com"
must be changed to the actual server names in use
-->
<connector-databaseconnectionstring>
<!
[CDATA[jdbc:sqlserver://dtechpocsql00:1433;DatabaseName=FASTSearchAd
minDatabase]]>
</connector-databaseconnectionstring>
<host name="dtechpocf4sp00.dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com">
<admin />
<indexing-dispatcher />
<content-distributor />
<webanalyzer server="true" link-processing="true" lookup-db="true" />
<document-processor processes="2" />
</host>
<host name="dtechpocf4sp01.dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com">
<searchengine row="0" column="0" />
<query />
</host>
<host name="dtechpocf4sp02.dev.internal.discovertechnologies.com">
<searchengine row="1" column="0" />
</host>
<searchcluster>
<row id="0" index="primary" search="true" />
<row id="1" index="secondary" search="true" />
</searchcluster>
</deployment>