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

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

indexing functionality. The GSA

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

was based on

CentOS CentOS (, from Community Enterprise Operating System; also known as CentOS Linux) is a discontinued Linux distribution that provided a free and open-source community-supported computing platform, functionally compatible with its upstream (softw ...

. The software was produced by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and the hardware was manufactured by

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

. The final 2009 GSA version was based on Dell's PowerEdge 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

software updates A patch is data that is intended to be used to modify an existing software resource such as a program or a file, often to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities. A patch may be created to improve functionality, usability, or performance. A pa ...

Features

The GSA contained

Google search Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...

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.

Other versions

Older appliances

Google sold a 2U appliance (GB-1001) capable of indexing up to 5 million documents, a half-rack cluster (GB-5005) of five 2U nodes capable of indexing up to 10 million documents, and a full-rack cluster (GB-8008) of eight―and later 12 nodes―capable of indexing up to 30 million documents. Some models were based on Dell PowerEdge 2950 2U rack mounted servers.

Google Mini

The Google "Blue" Mini was a smaller and lower-cost search solution that occupied 1U of rack space for small and medium-sized businesses to set up an

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

that allowed them to index and search up to 300,000 documents. The hardware was manufactured by

Gigabyte Technology GIGA-BYTE Technology Co., Ltd. (commonly referred to as Gigabyte Technology or simply Gigabyte) is a Taiwanese manufacturer and distributor of computer hardware. Gigabyte's principal business is motherboards, It shipped 4.8 million motherboards i ...

then Super Micro Computer, Inc. Manufacture and sale of the Google Mini were discontinued beginning in July 31, 2012.

GSA 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 systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

ed free of charge and index up to 50,000 documents. It was 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 "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

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 Appliance Server appliance Computer-related introductions in 2002 2018 endings