Administration: Index Administration

RavenDB indexes can be administrated easily by the user with the Studio or via maintenance operations in the Client API.

Stop & Start

Stopping the indexing for a database will result in pausing all indexes. You can do that using the Studio or the Client API. The same way you can resume it (the operation to start indexing can be found here).

You can also stop and start a single index. The Client API operations are StopIndex and StartIndex.

Operation scope: Local node

Disable & Enable

Disabling an index can be done via the Studio or the Client API operations: DisableIndex, EnableIndex.

Operation scope: Local node

Reset

An index usually needs to be reset once it reached its error quota and its state was changed to Error. Resetting an index means forcing RavenDB to re-index all documents matched by the index definition (can be a lengthy process on large databases).

You can reset an index using the Studio or the Client API.

Operation scope: Local node

Delete

You can delete an index by using the Studio or the Client API.

Operation scope: Cluster

Lock Mode

This feature applies to changing the index definition on a production server.

An index can be in one of the following locking modes:
* Unlocked - Any change to the index defintion is applied.
* LockedIgnore - Modifications to the index definition will not be applied. Changes are ignored and no error is thrown.
* LockedError - Modifications are ignored but an error is raised.

A typical flow can be:

1. Update the index definition on RavenDB server (from studio or from a new application version),
   and then set the index Lock Mode to LockedIgnore or LockedError.

2. A side-by-side index is created on the server. It indexes your dataset according to the new definition.

3. While the original index is locked, if any instance of your previous application version (that has the older definition) is restarted, calling IndexCreation.CreateIndexes() on start up, this will not have any effect on the new index definition.
   Note: If 'LockedError' was set, then an error will be raised.

4. Once the side-by-side index is done indexing, the original index will be replaced and you can safely deploy your new application to production.

To lock the index you can use the Studio or the Client API.
Note: This is not a security feature, an index can be unlocked at any time.

Operation scope: Cluster

Priority

Each index has a dedicated thread that handles all the work for the index. RavenDB uses thread priorities at the operating system level to hint what should be done first. You can increase or lower the index priority and RavenDB will update the indexing thread accordingly:

You can change the index priority by using the Studio or the Client API.