Configuring MOSS Enterprise Search step by step

MOSS Enterprise Search setting are done thru Shared Services Provider(SSP).

Enterprise Search Enables Search in
· Install and Configure iFilters, Content Sources, File Shares, Crawl Rules and Search Scopes
· People Search
· BDC Search
Step 1: We can have separate Index server and Search Server. This Security settings is done at Index server and Search Server.

Farm Search Service Account to from Admin group and WSS_ADMIN_WPG group

Step 2: Start Index Service in Index Server. Check the option "Use this Server for Indexing Content"

Step 3: Enable Office SharePoint Server Search. Check the Option "Use this Server for Serving Search queries"

Step 4: Start Windows SharePoint Services Search. This enables help to Enterprise search.

Step 5: Create an SSP (shared Services Provider).

Step 6: Navigate to newly created SSP and then click Search Settings.
· Configure content Sources. It may be Sites, SQL Server DB etc.
· Add Crawl Rules.
· Add file types if required. You can add pdf files here by installing iFilter pdf. Also u can set Image Icons.

Step 7: If any crawl rule is added,go to Content Sources and do "Start full Crawl". Optional Step.

Step 8: Metadata property Mappings to map crawl property and Data. This is also an optional step.

Step 9: You can define new search scopes and configure the Target Search Page and rules.

Step 10: At the site Collection level, we can add Search Keywords and Best bets

Step 11: We can add tabs for Search Page

Step12: To get the Search Related web parts, Office SharePoint Server Search Web Parts feature should be activated in MOSS site collection features.