1. Integrated Full-Text Search (iFTS) in Microsoft SQL Server ® 2008 Fernando Azpeitia Lopez SQL Server Engine - Program Manager Microsoft ® Corporation

2. “What is exactly full-text search in a DB? Which are its main scenarios and how can it provide value to my solution?” Cover the main concepts and capabilities of our full-text search solution inside SQL Server. Realize how iFTS (SQL Server 2008 integrated FTS) can extract significant value out of unstructured and semi-structured data stored inside the DB. Demonstrate the usage of iFTS and how it solves your daily DB Search needs. Cover iFTS’ best practices and workarounds. Evangelize SQL Server FTS and prove it ready for high level production environments Understanding the future of Search in DBs. Where are we going and why? Session Objectives And Takeaways

3. Session Details 3 Searching at Microsoft: Main Players SQL Server Full-Text Search (FTS) : Overview of Basic Scenarios, Concepts, Features & Architecture (Demo) -The need -The Scenario -The Solution -How do I deploy it? -How do I use it? SQL Server 2008 iFTS (Integrated FTS) - Why did we need a new Search infrastructure? - SQL FTS Roadmap - The new Architecture - Main Improvements (Demo) - Upgrading to iFTS - Best Practices and Workarounds - What is not in iFTS? - Upcoming Future Q&A aria

4.  Bing Search WWW Highly scalable Does not use FTS as provided by SQL Server  MS Search Search information on disk Integrated with OS (e.g: Vista Desktop Search) Used by former SharePoint, SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and Desktop Search …  FAST Search information on your organization (Enterprise Search) SharePoint Server search solution  iFTS in SQL Server 2008 Provides Full Text Search over data in RDBMS Completely redesigned search solution to leverage DB robustness and scalability. Searching at Microsoft: Main Players

5. Full-Text Search (FTS) in SQL Server: Overview “The Need” “How can I extract value out of vast amounts of non-relational data stored in the DB, by leveraging fast filtering mechanisms to get to the information I need ?”

6. Full-Text Search (FTS) in SQL Server: Overview “The Scenario” 1. Heterogeneous data (different types and languages) stored and managed in the DB. Mainly unstructured and semi-structured data (e.g: binary documents, emails, XML, HTML, etc..) 2. Besides leverage DB capabilities, the ability to Search efficiently over this data arises. 1. The creation of special (non-relational) indexes is needed in order to enable Search over these corpuses. 2. Users need to manage the data and its indexes together and consistently. 3. Main Markets: Compliance/E-Discovery, Government/Law Enforcement, eCommerce, Customer Support, Vertical Search (Medical, Media,..Etc….)

7. Full-Text Search (FTS) in SQL Server: Overview “The Solution”  SQL Server Full-Text Search (FTS) FTS is a feature integrated into SQL Server that allows fast and flexible querying of significant words and phrases in: Character-based database columns Documents stored in an binary typed column; varbinary() and binary(), as well as XML data types FTS searches for language aware tokens, keywords or phrases inside the database providing scoring and relevance of the result set.

8. Full-Text Search (FTS) in SQL Server: Overview “How does it work?”  Tokenization The data is parsed by language aware processes (iFilters, stemmer, wordbreaker, etc..)  Indexing FTS uses special indexing mechanism: custom FTIndexes stored in FTCatalogs. Each token (word) is indexed keeping metadata related to it.  Querying Predicates: CONTAINS, FREETEXT Table-valued functions returning relevance base score: CONTAINSTABLE, FREETEXTTABLE Matching semantics: exact or fuzzy Various query options available: i.e : weight, NEAR, Thesaurus, Inflectional, Top_N_by_Rank, prefix, etc..… Wide language support at indexing and querying time.

9. Full-Text Search (FTS) in SQL Server: Overview Demo: “How do I deploy it?” 1. Locate table with textual data (character based or binary raw data). 2. Full-text catalog created in that database. CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG ftCatalog AS DEFAULT; 3. Full-text index (associated with the full-text catalog) on the column/s of the table. CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON HumanResources.JobCandidate(Resume) KEY INDEX PK_JobCandidate_JobCandidateID ; 4. Population of the index that results in scanning and processing of the textual data. 5. T-SQL Queries that use full-text predicates or table valued constructs. 6. A full set of T-SQL DDL available to perform FTS manageability operations.

10. Full-Text Search (FTS) in SQL Server: Overview Demo: “How do I use it?” 1. Populating the FT Index. Keeping up with changes. 2. Querying my data: Understanding CONTAINS and FREETEXT 3. Extending the query to leverage useful features: 1.Thesaurus 2.Prefix search 3.Inflectional Forms 4.Weighted terms 5.TOP_N Etc…

12.  Possible challenges you might have encountered when using SQL Server 2005 Full-Text Search (FTS)  Indexes stored outside SQL Server might lead to manageability challenges  E.g: Backup/Restoring your DB with FTCatalogs might require specific actions  The Mixed query performance suffers from having to pull over the complete full-text result set  E.g: Poor performance when relational side very selective  Possible Scaling issues on big boxes  Many sustained engineering challenges due lack of technology ownership.  E.g: Inability to efficiently support our customers Inability to deliver top features highly requested.  Inability to shape our own roadmap targeting our direct customer needs. Why a new Search Infrastructure?

13.  Provide foundation to address future needs  Extend the FTS feature set  customizable proximity operator  property level search  snippets with hit-highlighting  field weighted relevance  customizable tokenizing  etc…..  Compelling search platform for others to build on  Eventually, offer Search within all data inside the database. Why a new Search Infrastructure?

14. Search: SQL Server Full-Text Search Roadmap  FTIndexes into the database Seamless administration, manageability and high availability experience for search indexes  Integration with Query Processor Efficient and scalable query processing over search to query continuum  Enabling search in semi-structured and unstructured DB storage solutions (e.g:Filestream, Sparse Columns, XML, etc..)  Feature set comparable to what they see in web and desktop search space Snippets, field scoped search, weighted relevance, customizable NEAR, etc…  Massive Scale-up and performance enhancements. Becomes the fast DB search engine in the market.  Facilitate Scale-out and manageability enhancements. e.g: Remote indexing, etc..  Enabling finding of ad-hoc information inside the DB without prior knowledge of its schema.

15. MSFTESQL (FT Search Engine) Wordbreakers SQL Query compilation FTS 2008 New Architecture FTS Query compilation SQL Query Execution FTS Query Execution SQL Server process FTS Engine Crawl Gatherer STOPLIST iFilters Protocol Hander SQL Query Procesor Filter Daemon Host (FDHost) DB Data Filtered Text Data to be Indexed Keyword and occurrence information Shared Memory Shared Memory Full-Text Index Doc_table iddoc_typedocument Indexer

16. MSFTESQL (FT Search Engine) Wordbreakers SQL Query compilation Wordbreaking of query terms Thesaurus FTS 2008 New Architecture FTS Query compilation SQL Query Execution FTS Query Execution SQL Server process FTS Engine STOPLIST SQL Query Procesor Filter Daemon Host (FDHost) Full-Text Index Query

17.  Full-Text Indexes are stored and maintained inside SQL Server. Full integration with other unstructured and semi-structured solutions.  Manageability features like Backup/Restore, Attach/Detach, Mirroring and Log shipping work for FT indexes just as any other DB objects or regular indexes.  Indexing and specific cases of query performance have been improved dramatically.  (Demo) Access to Full-Text Indexes raw Data. Provides access to search corpus and statistical information. Useful for troubleshooting scenarios. sys.dm_fts_index_keywords() sys.dm_fts_index_keywords_by_document() Main Improvements KeywordDisplay_termCol_idDoc_idOcc_count

18.  ( Demo) Query Input Parser : sys.dm_fts_parser  Better supportability: understanding a given WB behavior. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_fts_parser('"This is test“ AND “This also"',1033,0,0) Group_idkeywordoccurrenceSpecial_termDisplay_ term Expansion_ty pe Source_term 10x007400680069 0073 1Noise WordThis0This is test 10x006900732Noise Wordis0This is test 10x007400650073 0074 3Exact Matchtest0This is test 20x007400680069 0073 1Noise Wordthis0This also 20x0061006C0073 006F 2Noise Wordalso0This also Main Improvements

19.  Full-Text Query is integrated with SQL Query Processor  Mixed query performance has been improved for significantly different cardinality scenarios  Overall Query performance scales better in most scenarios  Resource utilization is managed (mostly) as part of SQL Server Main Improvements

20.  Thesaurus improvements  Stored in internal tables (in tempdb) in XML form instead of being parsed from external files  Instance level thesaurus sys.sp_fulltext_load_thesaurus_file (lcid) Loads all the data specified in the Thesaurus XML corresponding to the language with specified lcid. Main Improvements

21.  (Demo) New STOPLIST support: Simplified noise words utilization and manageability. DB object associated with the FT index. CREATE FULLTEXT STOPLIST stoplist_name [ FROM {[database_name.] source_stoplist_name} | SYSTEM STOPLIST] [AUTHORIZATION owner_name] ALTER FULLTEXT STOPLIST stoplist_name { | ADD LANGUAGE language_term | DROP { | LANGUAGE language_term | ALL LANGUAGE language_term | ALL } Main Improvements

22.  New family of Word-Breakers (WB):  WBs are components responsible of parse the textual data in a given language and pass the tokenized result to the Full-Text Index.  51 languages/WBs out of the box  Improved quality and supportability in most word- breakers Main Improvements

23.  WBs available in SQL Server 2008: Arabic Bengali Brazilian Bulgarian Canadian Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Hong Kong) Chinese (Macau) Chinese (Singapore) Croatian Cyrillic Danish Dutch English English UK French German Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Icelandic Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Malay Malayalam Marathi Neutral Norwegian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Latin Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Languages present but disabled by default New languages supported in SQL Server 2008 Existing in SQL Server 2005, and being replaced by new WBs in SQL Server 2008 Unchanged language/WB from SQL Server 2005 Main Improvements

24.  The indexing performance has improved in most scenarios 2005 Crawl2005 TotalIFTS CrawlIFTS Total 20M rows 1k text data 02:0602:2501:2201:28 5M rows 8k text data 02:1002:4102:2202:32 20M rows 1k nvarchar data 01:3701:5501:2001:26 For some HW configuration and data types, specific best practices are recommended to improve indexing performance (i.e: capping SQL Server’s memory, etc…) Measured on 4 processor AMD64 2793 MHz, 8G RAM. Numbers are in HH:MM format. Total time is combining time to crawl and time of merge into index Main Improvements

25.  Due a new Full-Text Index architecture, former Full-Text Indexes are not compatible in SQL Server 2008 anymore. Solution…: The Full-Text Catalog Upgrade Option  Import: (default) Faster method although performance and semantic implications are possible.  Rebuild: Slower method although ideal final state of new FTCatalogs guaranteed.  Reset : Faster Upgrade method although your Search app will not have the FTCatalogs available afterwards. You need to rebuild them when possible.  Possible Upgrade methods:  In place Upgrade: User will be prompted for what Upgrade Option to choose for existing FTCatalogs.  Restore/Attach : Instance level setting will be applied to former Full-Text Catalogs brought up with the former DB. Upgrading to iFTS

26.  Full-Text key type: Use Integer.. When so, no internal mapping table required  we avoid an extra internal JOIN at query time.  To limit results and increase performance, use the top_n_by_rank option with FREETEXTTABLE and CONTAINSTABLE.  Use CONTAINSTABLE or FREETEXTTABLE when you only require Full-Text Key or rank information.  Keep your FTIndexes de-fragmentated when possible  Reorganize the Full-Text catalog by using ALTER FULLTEXT CATALOG REORGANIZE. Best Practices and Workarounds

27.  Prefix queries Issues? The issue Possible Query perf degradation with non-deterministic enough prefix queries (i.e: ‘a*’). Recommended best practice/s -Try to narrow down your search when possible. - If the query plan has a nested loop with the fulltext STVF, you should try hinting a merge join. Best Practices and Workarounds

28. Issues with Complex queries ? A. Several ANDs + ORs within a single CONTAINS() The issue  QO plan and compilation complexity might cause blocking  Multiple FT logical operators adds extra cost when relational predicate is pushed into the FTIndex  When kept as relational, the QO chosen plan might be not ideal, causing costly executions. Recommended best practice  Implement app. level max # of terms.  Leverage Thesaurus capabilities when possible. B.Several CONTAINS linked by ORs conditions The issue  QO plan and compilation complexity might cause blocking Recommended best practice  Combine multiple CONTAINS predicates into one CONTAINS predicate Best Practices and Workarounds

29.  Blocking issues due high DML + FT query workloads The issue  … High DML workload (+100 DMLs/sec) +  …Plus AUTO being specified as the change tracking mechanism for the Full-text index …. might cause the query load to suffer blocking. Recommended best practice/s  A Trace Flag exist to solve this issue (7646)  There are documented best practices in the SQL Server 2008 White Paper to mitigate this issue. (e.g: manual change tracking, REORGANIZE, etc..)  Install latest PCU for latest fixes in this area.

30.  Best resources for additional information: SQL Server 2008 BOL SQL Server 2008 iFTS Internals and Enhcancements (White Paper): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721269.aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721269.aspx Fernando Azpeitia Lopez : fernlope@microsoft.com Program Manager.SQL Server Full-Text Search. Best Practices and Workarounds

31.  No document property level search (i.e: search ‘foo’ on doc.’title’)  Some of the customer wish list items: Snippets, column weights, language detection, customizable wordbreakers and proximity operators, etc..  Non support for remote FTIndexing. Currently, iFTS can only index data stored directly in the DB or in the file system using Filestream integration.  No partitioned full-text indexes. No support for SWITCH partition on tables that are FT indexed.  Non support for remote FTIndexing. Currently, iFTS can only index data stored directly in the DB or in the file system using Filestream integration. What is not yet in IFTS?

32.  What are we working on for our next major release/s?  Improve dramatically our overall query performance by reengineering key components in our architecture.  i.e: Early estimations point we will become the fastest DB Engine in the market.  Address as many developer features as time permits (e.g: customizable NEAR, property search, etc..)  Improve our overall scale story to support large corpuses under an impressive query performance. Upcoming Future

33. Summary  iFTS adds significant value  Implementation -> straightforward  Management -> straightforward  Improved overall Performance, Integration and Robustness  iFTS 2008 is the beginning of an ambitious upcoming plan to become the fastest and easier to use DB Search solution in the world.

34. Thank you