An Introduction to Query Health Reports in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2013 can collect a lot of information on user query usage that can help us to develop a search environment. These monitoring functions are configured in the Monitoring section in Central Administration.

We can use the following procedure to enable query data collection:

1. On the Monitoring page, in the Reporting section, click Configure usage and health data collection.
2. On the Configure usage and health data collection page, in the Usage Data Collection section, select the Enable usage data collection check box.
3. In the Event Selection section, select the check boxes of the events that you want to log.
4. In the Usage Data Collection Settings section, type the path of the folder to which you want usage and health information to be written in the Log file location box. The path that you specify must exist on each server in the farm.

The query health reports provide report information on:

• Query latency trend
• Overall query latency
• Default SharePoint flow query latency
• Federation Query Latency
• Local SharePoint Search Flow Query Latency
• People Search Flow Query Latency
• Index Engine Query Latency

To view query health reports, use the following procedure:

1. In Central Administration, under Application Management, click Manage service applications.
2. On the Service Applications page, click the Search service application.
3. On the Search Administration page, in the Quick Launch, in the Diagnostics section, click Query Health Reports.
4. On the Search Service Application: Query Latency Trend page, click the query report that you want to view.

The following query health reports are available:

• Trend (Query Latency Trend). This report shows the query latency by percentile. A graph is produced that shows the query rate during the time period you select. By default, the graph displays data for all result pages in the Search service application.
  
• Main Flow (Default SharePoint Flow Query Latency). This report shows how fast the system processes a query and returns result sets to a web server.
  
• Federation. This report shows the query latency for all result source types, such as Local SharePoint Provider, Exchange Search Provider, or OpenSearch Provider. By default, the graph shows data for all result pages in the Search service application.
  
• SharePoint Search Provider (Local SharePoint Search Flow Query Latency). This report shows the query latency for all queries that are processed by the local SharePoint search provider. It breaks down the query processing activities, including keyword parsing, security trimming and result type processing
  
• People Search Provider (People Search Flow Query Latency). This report shows the query latency for queries processed by the local people search provider. It breaks down the query processing activity in the same way as the SharePoint Search Provider.
  
• Index Engine (Index Engine Query Latency). This report shows the query latency for each index server that you filter on. By default, the graph shows data for all result pages in the Search service application.

Query logging is enabled by default and it is usually advisable to maintain query logs. There may be circumstances in which you wish to disable query logging for a short period.

Use the following procedure to enable or disable query logging:

1. In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.
2. On the Manage Service Applications page, click the Search service application for which you want to configure query logging.
3. On the Search Administration page, in the System Status section, locate Query logging.
4. The Query logging status displays as OffEnable or OnDisable.
5. By default, query logging is turned On. Click Disable to turn off query logging or click Enable to turn on query logging.