Migrating from Acquia Search to Site Search

Learn how to plan and execute a migration from Acquia Search to SearchStax Site Search. You'll understand the key decisions involved, what changes after migration, and how to prepare for success.

This migration shifts search relevancy management from Drupal configurations to SearchStax Site Search. This represents a significant change in how you manage search and unlocks more advanced analytics and configuration tools.

Planning Your Migration

Choose Your Migration Approach

Understanding the Impact

After migration, you'll manage search configuration through SearchStax instead of Drupal. This affects:

• Search relevancy: Field weighting, boosting, and ranking rules move to Site Search configurations
• Search navigation: Facets, filters, and sorting options are configured in the Dashboard
• Analytics: Comprehensive search analytics replace basic Drupal search reporting
• Performance tuning: Advanced optimization tools become available

Migration Process Overview

The migration follows these key phases:

1. App creation: Set up your Site Search app configured for Drupal
2. Server migration: Connect Drupal to SearchStax and transfer configurations
3. Index migration: Copy your search data to Site Search
4. Pre-reroute validation: Confirm the intended SearchStax App is ready, connected, and receiving indexed content
5. Routing activation: Switch search requests to use SearchStax
6. Post-reroute validation: Test the live search experience after routing is active

For detailed step-by-step instructions, see Migrating to Acquia Search powered by SearchStax.

Validate the Migration Before You Reroute Search

Before you configure or reroute production search traffic, confirm that the intended SearchStax App has finished provisioning successfully.

Then confirm that Drupal and Site Search are using that same SearchStax App:

• In Drupal, open the migrated Search API server and confirm that its endpoint is the Update endpoint for the intended SearchStax App.
• Confirm that the server and Solr core connections succeed.
• Confirm that each migrated Search API index uses that server.
• Reindex your content and verify that documents appear in that same SearchStax App before you reroute search traffic. Check for a known document or run a representative query against that App so you can confirm the expected content is present.

Validate Languages

If your site uses multiple languages, confirm that each required language is enabled under App Settings > Languages.

Verify that content for each language appears in the Site Search App and returns expected results.

See Configure the Drupal Connector for server connection and endpoint details.

Post-Migration Considerations

Search Management Transition

Your search management workflow changes significantly after migration:

Deciding on UI Upgrades

Your current search interface continues working after migration, but you've got upgrade opportunities:

Keep your current Drupal Views setup if:

• Your current search interface meets your immediate needs and you don't have short-term plans to add advanced features.
• You need a fast initial migration path and have limited development resources.
• You prefer to manage search configuration within Drupal.

Understand Drupal Views limitations:

When using Drupal Views, certain Site Search configurations don't take effect because Drupal overrides them. For detailed information about which features are affected and how to configure SearchStax to control supported Drupal search behavior, see When to Ignore Drupal Settings for SearchStax Site Search.

Use Site Search to get the following:

• UI Kits: Component libraries for React, Angular, and JavaScript frameworks.
• Hosted Search Experience: Rapid deployment with minimal coding.
• Advanced features: Autocomplete, search suggestions, and enhanced user experience.
• Better analytics: Detailed user behavior insights and search performance metrics.

See Develop a search UI with UI Kits for more information.

Common Challenges and Solutions

If Automatic Migration Stops

Missing Migration Control

If the migration flow doesn't show Migrate server now or Next, don't assume the migration is complete. Recheck the preceding server and language migration steps.

Endpoint or Connection Error

If the migration reports a Solr endpoint or connection error, confirm that the complete SearchStax Update endpoint is configured and that the server and Solr core connections succeed.

These checks help narrow the problem, but they don't establish a single cause for every failed migration. If the flow still doesn't advance, contact Support and include the error message plus screenshots or a recording of the migration steps.

Field Mapping Issues

Problem: Drupal field names don't match SearchStax field expectations.

Solution: Review the field mapping during server migration. Drupal machine names translate to SearchStax field names. Verify these mappings align with your content structure.

Search Relevancy Differences

Problem: Search results rank differently after migration.

Solution: This is expected. Plan to spend time tuning relevancy in SearchStax. Your previous Drupal-based relevancy settings don't transfer automatically.

Analytics Tracking

Problem: Analytics data doesn't appear immediately after migration.

Solution: SearchStax analytics update hourly. Verify that track/ API calls appear in your browser's network tab when performing searches. This confirms tracking is active. See Search Analytics Overview for more information.