Move SharePoint 2013 search server in one go

There are many posts about how to move search components from one server to another. But I cannot find a complete version to do that in one go.

It's frustrating to keep "waiting" for the current step to complete, so we can start next step. That's why I build one as below. This one assumes that the farm only has one search server which hosts all search components. And it moves all search components from the current server to a new SharePoint server.

The whole process may take more than 20 minutes.

Most of these PowerShell scripts are copied from here, thanks for the hard work of Matt Milsark.


function MoveSPSearchComponents([string]$SearchServerNameOld, [string]$SearchServerNameNew)
{
    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - All 6 Search components are going to be moved from server '$SearchServerNameOld' to '$SearchServerNameNew'" -f DarkYellow
    # START THE SEARCH SERVICE ON THE NEW SERVER
    $ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
    $active = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa –Active
    $clone = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Clone –SearchTopology $active

    $instances = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SearchServerNameNew | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Online"})
    if ($instances.Count -eq 0)
    {
        Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SearchServerNameNew
     
        do
        {
            $instances = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SearchServerNameNew | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Online"})
            Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
            Start-Sleep -s 1
        } until ($instances.Count -gt 0)
        Write-Host "Search instance on server '$SearchServerNameNew' is Online now" -f DarkGreen
    }

    $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameNew})
    $SearchComponents
    $SearchComponents | Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone -confirm:$false
    Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $clone

    do
    {
        Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
        Start-Sleep -s 1
        $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameNew})
    } until ($SearchComponents.Count -eq 0)
    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - Search components on server '$SearchServerNameNew' is cleaned up" -f DarkGreen
 
    # CREATE NEW SEARCH COMPONENTS ON THE NEW SEARCH SERVER
    $active = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Active
    $clone = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Clone –SearchTopology $active
 
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $clone -SearchServiceInstance $SearchServerNameNew
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchAnalyticsProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $clone -SearchServiceInstance $SearchServerNameNew
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchContentProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $clone -SearchServiceInstance $SearchServerNameNew
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -SearchTopology $clone -SearchServiceInstance $SearchServerNameNew
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $clone -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $SearchServerNameNew

    Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $clone

    do
    {
        Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
        Start-Sleep -s 1
        $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameNew})
    } until ($SearchComponents.Count -eq 5)
    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - 5 Search components are created on server '$SearchServerNameNew' in the clone topology" -f DarkGreen

    # REMOVE COMPONENTS FROM ORGINAL SEARCH SERVER
    $active = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Active
    $clone = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Clone –SearchTopology $active

    $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameOld -and $_.Name -NotMatch 'AdminComponent'})
    $SearchComponents | Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone -confirm:$false
 
    Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $clone
 
    do
    {
        Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
        Start-Sleep -s 1
        $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameOld -and $_.Name -NotMatch 'AdminComponent'})
    } until ($SearchComponents.Count -eq 0)
    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - Search components on server '$SearchServerNameOld' are removed (except the admin component)" -f DarkGreen
 
    # START AN ADMIN COMPONENT ON THE NEW SERVER
    $active = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa –Active
    $clone = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Clone –SearchTopology $active

    #$NewServer = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SearchServerNameNew
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchAdminComponent -SearchTopology $clone -SearchServiceInstance $SearchServerNameNew
    Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $clone
 
    do
    {
        Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
        Start-Sleep -s 1
        $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameNew -and $_.Name -match 'AdminComponent'})
    } until ($SearchComponents.Count -eq 1)
    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - Search Admin components on server '$SearchServerNameNew' is created" -f DarkGreen
 
    # DELETE THE OLD ADMIN COMPONENT
    $active = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Active
    $clone = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Clone –SearchTopology $active

    $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameOld -and $_.Name -match 'AdminComponent'})
    $SearchComponents | Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone -confirm:$false
    Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $clone

    do
    {
        Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
        Start-Sleep -s 1
        $SearchComponents = @(Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $clone | Where-Object {$_.ServerName -eq $SearchServerNameOld -and $_.Name -match 'AdminComponent'})
    } until ($SearchComponents.Count -eq 0)
    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - Search Admin components on server '$SearchServerNameOld' is removed" -f DarkGreen

    Write-Host "$(get-date -UFormat '%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S') - All 6 Search components are moved from server '$SearchServerNameOld' to '$SearchServerNameNew'" -f DarkYellow
}

$SearchServerNameNew = $env:COMPUTERNAME
MoveSPSearchComponents "OldSearchServerName" $SearchServerNameNew