Most Cloudera Search configuration is managed using solrctl, a wrapper script included with Cloudera Search. You can manipulate collections, instance directories, configs, individual cores, and so on.

A SolrCloud collection is the top-level object for indexing documents and providing a query interface. Each collection must be associated with a configuration, using either an instance directory or a config object. Different collections can use the same configuration. Each collection is typically replicated among several SolrCloud instances. Each replica is called a core and is assigned to an individual Solr service. The assignment process is managed automatically, but you can apply fine-grained control over individual cores using the solrctl core command.

A typical deployment workflow with solrctl consists of:

1. Establishing a configuration
   • If using configs, creating a config object from a template.
   • If using instance directories, generating an instance directory and uploading it to ZooKeeper.
2. Creating a collection associated with the name of the config or instance directory.

For a comparison of configs and instance directories, see Managing Configuration Using Configs or Instance Directories.

For more information on managing Cloudera Search, see the following topics:

• Managing Cloudera Search Configuration
• Managing Collections in Cloudera Search
• solrctl Reference
• Example solrctl Usage
• Migrating Solr Replicas
• Backing Up and Restoring Cloudera Search