Solr Installation, I Suck

I’ve tried installing stuff from the Apache Software Foundation before and haven’t had much luck. Today I’m determined to get Solr installed. If I succeed these are the steps I used.

First I downloaded and installed Java SE Development Kit from the Oracle website. I used the default location, but it looks like Apache would prefer you install it in the C:\jdk1.7.0_03 folder, but I installed it in the default folder.

Next I downloaded the ANT thingamajig and unzipped it and placed it in the C:\ANT folder. In order to get it to work we create the user variables in the control panel. The install documents also say you can run the set at the command line, but I’m not quite sure if that works. I did notice that I needed to type

set PATH=%PATH%;%ANT_HOME%\bin

at the command line in order to get ANT to work. If I close the command window I have to retype the string again. I’m sure there has to be a way to have this persist, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Next open the Command Prompt. To do this go to the Start Menu and type run at the Search Programs and Files. Next type CMD to get the command prompt to open. Using cd.. go back a folder location, and then use the folder names to go the direction you want to go to.

You’ll want to end up in the folder location with the example code.

The folder contains the start.jar file. This is what is going to start the example. To start it type

java –jar start.jar

at the command line. This will start Solr using the example that comes with the Solr installation.

If you open a web browser and enter http://localhost:8983/solr/admin/ you can see that the installation is running. So yeah, I was able to figure it out and I have the steps to do it again, with some pictures.

 

Next we need to load the data into the Solr that is running. To do this open a new command window and get to the example docs folder using the method above. Then type java –jar post.jar solr.xml monitor.xml to load the data into the Solr that is running into the other command window. This should load the data.

Still need to figure out how other things work, but at least I got it working.