Reindexing Causes?

Question

Version: 2021.4.2.07064

Beyond this note:

"Alteryx Server uses indexes to improve the performance of the Server UI.  At times the indexing system can stop functioning and require reindexing to resume functioning.  The most common cause for this is an unclean shutdown (hard stop) of the Service."

found here: https://knowledge.alteryx.com/index/s/article/How-To-and-When-to-run-a-manual-reindex

What else causes the need for server reindexing?   Neither of those two things are occurring.

Thanks!

fmvizcaino · Accepted Answer

Hey @DataDynamite ,

Any issues related to the search box, MongoDB upgrades, or performance issue when loading anything in the UI.

If you are having performance issues in your Gallery, reindexing might help speed up your UI. This is one of the things that Alteryx support does when they are trying to solve a strange and unexpected performance issue.

Best,

Fernando V.

Gawa · Accepted Answer

@DataDynamite

We did re-indexing recently on our Alteryx Server.

Searching function did not work properly. Even if we put keywords in search box of workflow, it did not show all of match result. This was because of collapsed indexing in Mongo DB, and re-indexing Mongo DB fixed this issue at that time.

T_Willins · Accepted Answer

Reindexing MongoDB seems to be the equivalent of 'Have you tried turning it off and on again?'  It works (temporarily), but doesn't necessarily identify the root cause  We found version 2021.4 seemed to always need to be reindexed, but clearing obsolete schema data helped as we have upgraded our Alteryx Servers multiple times.  I would not recommend this unless you are very comfortable making changes in MongoDB and you have a good backup of the database before you make these changes.  We have had to reindex less after upgrading (we upgraded to 2023.2) as it no longer uses the Lucene for the index.

DataDynamite · Accepted Answer

Wow, a question of mine generated a response from three different ACEs.  I agree with T_Willins that this is temp fix that doesn't necessarily identify the root cause.  I created a three step chained app that's used 10,000 x per year by 20 different users, approximately $50,000,000 in invoices.  The need to re-index the server often, is causing everyone a bit of stress.