Create Enterprise Search Service Application in SharePoint 2013 with Powershell

This note have the intent to give you a shortcut for a typical Enterprise Search Topology in SharePoint 2013 Small Farm.

This is basically a PowerShell script that help you to create from scrach an Enterprise Search Service Application (and its related Proxy) with following Topology:

Here's the script:

$PSSnapin = Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
#SET THIS PARAMETERS TO MEET YOUR Environement
$hostA = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "applicationserver"
$hostB = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "frontendserver1"
$hostC = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "frontendserver2"
$serviceAppName = "Enterprise Search Service Application"
$dbServer = "SQLSERVERALIAS"
$searchServer = $serverName
$searchDBName = "SP2013_EnterpriseSearch"
$svcAppPoolName = "SharePoint Web Services System"
$indexLocation = "E:\SPSData\Index"
$searchCred = "DomainSearchServiceAccount"
$searchPwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'DomainSearchServicePassword' -AsPlainText -Force
#END OF PARAMETER SECTION

Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostA
Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostB
Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostC

$hostA.DefaultIndexLocation = $indexLocation

$hostB.DefaultIndexLocation = $indexLocation

$hostC.DefaultIndexLocation = $indexLocation

 

#Wait for service OnLine on Every Host
$ss1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostA
while ($ss1.Status -ne "Online")
{
    Start-Sleep 10
    $ss1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostA
}
$ss1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostB
while ($ss1.Status -ne "Online")
{
    Start-Sleep 10
    $ss1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostB
}
$ss1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostC
while ($ss1.Status -ne "Online")
{
    Start-Sleep 10
    $ss1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostC
}

$cred = Get-Credential $searchCred
$searchSvcAccount = Get-SPManagedAccount $cred.UserName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

if ($searchSvcAccount -eq $null)
{
    $searchSvcAccount = New-SPManagedAccount $cred
}
$searchSvc = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Local
if ($searchSvc -eq $null)
{
    throw "Unable to retrieve search service"
}

#Set Search Service parameter
$searchSvc | Set-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance

if ($searchSvc.Status -ne "Online")
{
$searchSvc | Start-SPServiceInstance
}
$svc = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchService
Set-SPEnterpriseSearchService `
      -Identity $svc `
      -ServiceAccount $searchSvcAccount.UserName `
      -ServicePassword $searchPwd `
      -ContactEmail "contactemail@domain.com" `
      -ConnectionTimeout "60" `
      -AcknowledgementTimeout "60" `
      -ProxyType "Default" `
      -PerformanceLevel "PartlyReduced"
  
  
$searchApp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication $serviceAppName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($searchApp -eq $null)
{
    $saAppPool = Get-SPServiceApplicationPool | where { $_.Name -eq $svcAppPoolName }
    $searchApp = New-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -Name $serviceAppName -ApplicationPool $saAppPool -DatabaseServer $dbServer -DatabaseName $searchDBName
}
#Declare New Topology
$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
$newTopology = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa
#Define all required components
New-SPEnterpriseSearchAdminComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA
New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA
New-SPEnterpriseSearchContentProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA
New-SPEnterpriseSearchAnalyticsProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB -IndexPartition 0
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostC -IndexPartition 0
New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB
New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostC
#Apply New Topology
Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $newTopology
#Create Proyx for Service Application
$searchProxy = New-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplicationProxy -Name "$serviceAppName Proxy" -SearchApplication $searchApp

Or you can download the ps1 script here.