Knowledgebase

Usually, you need 1 license to run SpaceObServer and DataCentral on a server + n licenses of UltraSearch Professional for n people that can search the DataCentral indexes.

The amount of data in the indexes and the number of searches is unlimited.

Please open UltraSearch, navigate to the DataCentral connection configuration settings and press the button "Test connection". If the connection check fails, please continue with these options:

1. Verify service availability and network connectivity
   Make sure the "SpaceObServer DataCentral" service is running on the SpaceObServer host system.
   Open https://hostname:port/healthz or http://hostname:port/healthz. The endpoint must return "Healthy".
   Make sure the DataCentral connection is not blocked by a firewall. The default port is 5149.
   In SpaceObServer, open Options > Index Service and verify that the DataCentral server is enabled and uses the same port that is configured in UltraSearch.

2. Verify the certificate used by DataCentral
   In SpaceObServer, under Options > Index Service, check which certificate is currently configured for the DataCentral service.
   Compare the certificate thumbprint shown there with the certificate or fingerprint configured in UltraSearch.
   In UltraSearch, certificate settings can only be changed in administration mode.
   If UltraSearch was installed without explicit certificate parameters, it validates the DataCentral certificate by fingerprint by default and stores the fingerprint from the first connection for later communication.

3. Verify authentication and SPN configuration
   Try out connection to the IP adress of the SpaceObServer DataCentral host in UltraSearch. If the connection works with the IP address but not with the server name, the problem is typically related to Kerberos/SPNs. UltraSearch uses NTLM when connecting by IP address and Kerberos when connecting by host name.
   If the connection check with the hostname returns something like "the user is not authenticated" / "cannot access the resource", you can
   1) use NTLM (use the IP address) as authentication method (not recommended because of security reasons)
   2) making Kerberos work by adding the required SPNs to the user account running the DataCentral service (via your ActiveDirectory).
   If DataCentral runs under a dedicated domain account, register the HTTP SPNs on that service account (not on the computer account).
   Use setspn -L <account> to review the current SPNs. Typical examples are HTTP/servername and HTTP/servername.domain.tld.
   Modifying SPNs requires the appropriate permissions on the account object.
   Use setspn -S <SPN> <account> to add a missing SPN.
   
   

If the connection check works, please follow these steps:

1. Scan/Index existence
   If the search returns no results, verify that the folder you are searching in has already been scanned and indexed by SpaceObServer/DataCentral.
   For content searches, verify that the full text index is enabled for the scan.
   Check whether an UltraSearch exclude filter is active.

2. Check the logs on the DataCentral server
   Check the Windows Event Log for errors from SpaceObServer Agent and SpaceObServer DataCentral.
   If a file should be searchable but is not, the file might not have been indexed because of an indexing problem shown in the Event Log.

The speed of DataCentral depends on many factors.

The speed of the indexing of documents depends on:

• the number of actually indexable files (xlsx and txt are indexable, but exe not)
• the size of the files
• the type of the files (txt files are usually faster than xlsx/pdf)
• the hardware (RAM and CPU, incl. the number of cores)

For a small drive, DataCentral can be done within minutes, for larger ones, it can take hours and for very large drives with multiple TB of indexable files (exe files, images, ... don't count), it can even take days. Smaller scans lead to smaller indexes, which can usually be searched through faster.

SpaceObServer shows a progress and an estimation for the remaining time of the indexing in the "Configure scans" window in the "State" column of the scan.

The performance of a search is usually faster than without DataCentral and depends on:

• the number of the files found by the search
• the search term and its frequency in the index
• the network between the UltraSearch client and the DataCentral server

We aim to execute most of the searches within a few seconds.

If the search results are coming from DataCentral, UltraSearch shows the words "via DataCentral" at the bottom left.

If something does not work and search results cannot be loaded via DataCentral, UltraSearch attempts a "fallback" search, which searches the target folder manually.

For all we know so far, this issue seems to be caused by defects in the system itself. It might affect other applications as well.

To fix it, you might try to (please check the installation after each step):

1. Restart the system.
2. Check for pending/available Windows updates
3. Download and run the Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool
4. Download and reinstall .NET Framework 4.8
5. Open a command line prompt (Win+R -> CMD -> Ok) and run
   DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
6. Open a command line prompt (or use the same as before) and run
   sfc /Scannow
7. Uninstall KB5011048 from the system (how to)
8. Check for updates again or install KB5011048 manually again

Please find more information on DISM and SFC here.

The easiest way to see and possibly change the registered preview handler or IFilter (used for the file content search) for PDF files is to install the free version of PDF-XChange Editor which comes with a lightweight separate tool for this exact purpose.

You can find it under "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\XCShInfoSetup.exe" when using the default installation path.

TreeSize and UltraSearch both use the preview handler and IFilter that is registered as default in the system, which is what you can see and adjust in this small tool.

Text-based file types can generally be searched right away and should not cause any issues if the used syntax is correct.

Other file types often require an IFilter to be searched.

Our software uses the corresponding IFilter that is installed and registered within Windows. If the content search does not find any results or gets stuck at some point, the currently used IFilter is the most likely culprit; we see this especially often with PDF files.

For PDF files, we recommend installing the Adobe IFilter as it has been the most reliable one. This does not require installing Adobe Acrobat, it is a separate installer.

It is possible that a new IFilter is installed and automatically registered when installing a new PDF software (or other relevant software for other file formats) on the system. In this case, it is necessary to register the working IFilter again if there are any issues with the new one. This can be done by reinstalling it. For PDF files, there is an alternative way described here.

This is a known error that has been resolved already, but it requires downloading a new installer. You can find it linked in this FAQ entry: https://knowledgebase.jam-software.com/7670

There are different reasons why a search path cannot be accessed.

• The folder does not exist or has been renamed.
• The current user does not have access rights to the folder.
• The folder is located on a network drive that is currently not available.
• The folder is on a portable drive or USB stick that is not plugged in.

This error code indicates that the root certificate is not trusted on the system. We just recently updated the certificate we used to sign our applications, so it still seems to be the case that this root certificate is not yet up to date.

These certificates are usually being updated and installed online and/or along with Windows updates. These updates might be disabled manually though.

Please check for pending or available Windows updates first.

If this doesn't work, please try to download and install the updated certificates manually. They are issued from GlobalSign and should therefore be considered safe:

Root certificate https://secure.globalsign.com/cacert/codesigningrootr45.crt

Intermediate certificate https://secure.globalsign.com/cacert/gsgccr45evcodesignca2020.crt

Please ensure to install the root certificate to the correct store (root certificates). Having Windows select the store automatically, it might select the wrong store for this certificate.

To install the root certificate, proceed as follows:

1. Download the certificate. If the browser reports that the file could damage the system, confirm this message with "Keep".
   As the certificate comes from a trusted source (GlobalSign), this warning is not relevant in this case.
2. Right-click on file and select "Install certificate" in the context menu.
3. A Windows dialog opens. First select the storage location "Local computer" and "Next".
4. On the following page, select "Save all certificates in the following location" -> Browse -> "Trusted root certification authorities" for this certificate.
5. Click on continue/next until the import process is complete.

Proceed in the same way to install the intermediate certificate, but select the "Intermediate certification authorities" folder in step 4.