Use SeaSearch as search engine (Pro)

New features

SeaSearch, a file indexer with more lightweight and efficiency than Elasticsearch, is supported from Seafile 12.

For Seafile deploy from binary package

We currently only support Docker-based deployment for SeaSearch Server, so this document describes the configuration with the situation of using Docker to deploy Seafile server.

If your Seafile Server deploy from binary package, please refer here to start or stop Seafile Server.

For Seafile cluster

Theoretically, at least the backend node has to restart, if your Seafile server deploy in cluster mode, but we still suggest you configure and restart all node to make sure the consistency and synchronization in the cluster

Deploy SeaSearch service

SeaSearch service is currently mainly deployed via docker. We have integrated it into the relevant docker-compose file. You only need to download it to the same directory as seafile-server.yml:

wget https://manual.seafile.com/12.0/repo/docker/pro/seasearch.yml

Modify .env

We have configured the relevant variables in .env. Here you must pay special attention to the following variable information, which will affect the SeaSearch initialization process. For variables in .env of SeaSearch service, please refer here for the details. We use /opt/seasearch-data as the persistent directory of SeaSearch:

For Apple's Chips

Since Apple's chips (such as M2) do not support MKL, you need to set the relevant image to xxx-nomkl:latest, e.g.:

SEASEARCH_IMAGE=seafileltd/seasearch-nomkl:latest

COMPOSE_FILE='...,seasearch.yml' # ... means other docker-compose files

#SEASEARCH_IMAGE=seafileltd/seasearch-nomkl:latest  # for Apple's Chip
SEASEARCH_IMAGE=seafileltd/seasearch:latest

SS_DATA_PATH=/opt/seasearch-data
INIT_SS_ADMIN_USER=<admin-username>  
INIT_SS_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<admin-password>

Modify seafile-server.yml to disable elasticSearch service

If you would like to use SeaSearch as the search engine, the elasticSearch service can be removed or noted in seafile-server.yml, which is no longer used:

services:
    #elasticsearch: # remove or note the whole `elasticsearch` section
        #... 

Modify seafevents.conf

1. Get your authorization token by base64 code consist of INIT_SS_ADMIN_USER and INIT_SS_ADMIN_PASSWORD defined in .env firsly, which is used to authorize when calling the SeaSearch API:

   echo -n 'username:password' | base64
   
   # example output
   YWRtaW46YWRtaW5fcGFzc3dvcmQ=
   

2. Add the following section in seafevents to enable seafile backend service to access SeaSearch APIs

   SeaSearch server deploy on a different machine with Seafile

   If your SeaSearch server deploy on a different machine with Seafile, please replace http://seasearch:4080 to the url <scheme>://<address>:<prot> of your SeaSearch server

   [SEASEARCH]
   enabled = true
   seasearch_url = http://seasearch:4080
   seasearch_token = <your auth token>
   interval = 10m
   

3. Disable the ElasticSearch, as you can set enabled = false in INDEX FILES section:

   [INDEX FILES]
   enabled = false
   ...
   

Restart Seafile Server

docker compose down
docker compose up -d

After startup the SeaSearch service, you can check the following logs for Whether SeaSearch runs normally and Seafile is called successfully:

• container logs by command docker logs -f seafile-seasearch
• /opt/seasearch-data/log/seafevents.log

After first time start SeaSearch Server

You can remove the initial admin account informations in .env (e.g., INIT_SS_ADMIN_USER, INIT_SS_ADMIN_PASSWORD), which are only used in the SeaSearch initialization progress (i.e., the first time to start services). But make sure you have recorded it somewhere else in case you forget the password.