The Google Search Appliance (GSA) was a rack-mounted computer device that provided

document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...

indexing functionality. The GSA

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

was based on CentOS. The software was produced by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

and the hardware was manufactured by Dell. The final 2009 GSA version was based on Dell's

PowerEdge The PowerEdge (PE) line is Dell's Server (computing), server computer product line. Most PowerEdge servers use the x86 architecture. The early exceptions to this, the PowerEdge 3250, PowerEdge 7150, and PowerEdge 7250, used Intel's Itanium pro ...

R710. Google announced the phase out of the GSA in early 2016 and a complete discontinuation by 2019. The GSA was supplied in two models: a 2U model (GB-7007) capable of indexing up to 10 million documents, and a 5U (2U plus 3U storage) model (GB-9009) that was capable of indexing up to 30 million documents. Sales were operated on a licensing scheme which started as a two-year contract for maintenance, support and

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Features

The GSA contained

Google search Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world. The ...

technologies and a means of configuring and customizing the appliance.

Versions

The GSA was first introduced in 2002. Software version 6.0 was released in June, 2009. This software ran on some hardware versions of the GB-1001 model (all units with an "S5" prefix in their "Appliance ID"), and all GB-7007 and GB-9009 models. Google released version 7.0 on October 9, 2012 and version 7.2 on February 11, 2014.

Models

The GSA could be purchased in two separate versions based on the number of documents being indexed. Model G100, a 2U appliance, could index up to 20,000,000 documents. The G500 5U appliance could index up to 100,000,000 documents.

Discontinued versions

Older appliances

Google sold a 2U appliance (GB-1001) capable of indexing up to 5,000,000 documents, a half-rack cluster (GB-5005) of five 2U nodes capable of indexing up to 10,000,000 documents, and a full-rack cluster (GB-8008) of eight and later twelve nodes capable of indexing up to 30,000,000 documents. Some models were based on Dell PowerEdge 2950 2U rackmount servers.

Google Mini

The Google Mini was a smaller and lower-cost solution that occupied 1U of rack space for small and medium-sized businesses to set up a search engine that allowed them to index and search up to 300,000 documents. The hardware was manufactured by Gigabyte Technology then

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. The Google Mini was discontinued beginning July 31, 2012.

Google Search Appliance virtual edition for developers

For a brief period in 2008 Google offered a virtual version of the GSA aimed at developers. The virtual edition could be

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

ed free of charge and index up to 50,000 documents. It was soon discontinued for unknown reasons.

Retirement and shutdown

Early in February 2016, Google sent a confidential letter to its business partners and customers, stating that the GSA would not be available past 2018. It began with the discontinuation of GSA three-year contracts in 2016; in 2017 there would be only one-year renewal contracts and no hardware sales, followed by a complete shutdown in 2018. Customers were expected to migrate to a

cloud-based Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mult ...

solution.

References

External links

Review
at ''SearchTools Analysis''

of Google Search Appliance, ISYS:web 8
Online Example
of a Google Search Appliance at MIT was deprecated as of June 2018.
Analysis
of a second-hand Google Mini Search Appliance. {{Authority control Enterprise search

Search Appliance {{Cleanup bare URLs, date=August 2022 A search appliance (SA) is a type of computer appliance which is attached to a corporate network for the purpose of indexing the content shared across that network in a way that is similar to a web search engin ...

Appliance Server appliance Computer-related introductions in 2002 2018 endings