Setup Sphinx Search Server

sphinx is the search server we first used on industrycortex.com manual: http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/2.0.1/installing.html

install sphinx

install required linux utilities
- sudo yum install gcc-c++ ( install c++ compiler )
- sudo yum install make ( installs some more compiler stuff )
- sudo yum install mysql-devel ( installs sphinx mysql dependencies )
download .tar file from site http://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/beta/
unzip tar ( tar xzvf sphinx-2.0.1-beta.tar.gz )
cd to folder everything just unzipped into ( cd sphinx )
configure the install utility ( sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/sphinx )
- rerun this after you fix any errors it encounters on the first try
make sphinx ( sudo make )
- execute this in the directory files just unzipped to ( should be in this directory already )
- this must be run before make -j4 install
- this outputs lots of gobbledygook, then runs with no output for a few minutes, then finishes.
sudo make -j4 install
- execute this in the directory files just unzipped to ( should be in this directory already )
- this outputs lots of gobbledygook, then runs with no output for a few minutes, then finishes.
everything should be working in /usr/local/sphinx

change permissions so ec2-user can launch sphinx ( sudo chown -R ec2-user:ec2-user /data/sphinx )
launch sphinx ( /data/sphinx/bin/searchd )

move sphinx to /data where we typically attach EBS drives - sudo mv /usr/local/sphinx /data ( move /usr/local/sphinx to /data/sphinx ) - sudo ln -s /data/sphinx /usr/local/sphinx ( create a symlink to the new location )
move sphinx config data to www ( code must be checked out to /data/www for symlink to work )
- create a symlink from /usr/local/sphinx/etc to /data/www/directory/configs/sphinx/etc/

we've had lots of problems with the sphinx server running in production on industrycortex.com TBJ has been unable to solve these issues

###server keeps crashing with message 'FATAL: accept() failed: Too many open files' in searchd.log

###increase linux ulimits

use ulimit to check max open files allowed ( eg. ulimit -a )
increase this value ( eg. ulimit -n 4096 )
- sometimes the system won't let me go past 2048 ... weird!!!
- this has to be redone on a reboot.
- this doesn't seem to do anything useful ( see the edit to /etc/security/limits.conf below )
see here: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-increase-the-maximum-number-of-open-files/

###increase max open files allowed

sysctl -w fs.file-max=10000000
sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf
- add the line - fs.file-max = 10000000
sudo sysctl -p ( to reload the new configurations )
sudo vim /etc/security/limits.conf
- how to: http://posidev.com/blog/2009/06/04/set-ulimit-parameters-on-ubuntu/
- adding these and logging out without rebooting can cause the system to lock ec2-user out ( maybe the cause )
- add these lines, then reboot:

ec2-user soft nofile 65536
ec2-user hard nofile 65536

TBJ was unable to resolve the sphinx / linux issue that was causing sphinx to crash *