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Fusion 5.9
    Fusion 5.9

    Configure Neural Hybrid Search

    Neural Hybrid Search combines lexical-semantic search with dense vector search.

    This feature is currently only available to clients who have contracted with Lucidworks for features related to Neural Hybrid Search and Lucidworks AI.

    This feature is only available in Managed Fusion 5.9.x for versions 5.9.6+.

    Lucidworks recommends setting up Neural Hybrid Search with Lucidworks AI vector search, however you can instead use Seldon vector search. If using Lucidworks AI, you may use the default LWAI Neural Hybrid Search pipeline.

    Modify Solr managed-schema

    This step is required if you’re migrating a collection from a version of Managed Fusion that does not support Neural Hybrid Search. If creating a new collection in Managed Fusion 5.9.5, you can continue to Configure Hybrid Query stage.

    1. Go to System > Solr Config then click managed-schema to edit it.

    2. Comment out <copyField dest="_text_" source="*"/> and add <copyField dest="text" source="*_t"/> below it. This will concatenate and index all *_t fields.

    3. Add the following code block to the managed-schema file:

      <fieldType class="solr.DenseVectorField" hnswBeamWidth=“200"
    hnswMaxConnections="45” name="knn_DIM_vector" similarityFunction="cosine"
    vectorDimension="DIM"/>
<dynamicField docValues="false" indexed="true" multiValued="false" name="*_512v"
      required="false" stored="true" type="knn_DIM_vector"/>
      This example uses 512 vector dimension. If your model uses a different dimension, modify the code block to match your model. For example, _1024v. There is no limitation on supported vector dimensions.

    Configure Hybrid Query stage

    1. In the same query pipeline where you configured vector search, click Add a new pipeline stage, then select Hybrid Query.

    2. In the Label field, enter a unique identifier for this stage or leave blank to use the default value.

    3. In the Condition field, enter a script that results in true or false, which determines if the stage should process, or leave blank.

    4. In the Lexical Query Input field, enter the location from which the lexical query is retrieved. For example, <request.params.q>. Template expressions are supported.

    5. In the Lexical Query Weight field, enter the relative weight of the lexical query. For example, 0.3. If this value is 0, no re-ranking will be applied using the lexical query scores.

    6. In the Number of Lexical Results field, enter the number of lexical search results to include in re-ranking. For example, 1000. A value is 0 is ignored.

    7. In the Vector Query Field, enter the name of the Solr field for k-nearest neighbor (KNN) vector search.

    8. In the Vector Input field, enter the location from which the vector is retrieved. Template expressions are supported. For example, a value of <ctx.vector> evaluates the context variable resulting from a previous stage, such as the LWAI Vectorize Query stage.

    9. In the Vector Query Weight field, enter the relative weight of the vector query. For example, 0.7.

    10. Select the Use KNN Query checkbox to use the knn query parser and configure its options. This option cannot be selected if Use VecSim Query checkbox is selected. In addition, Use KNN Query is used if neither Use KNN Query or Use VecSim Query is selected.

      1. If the Use KNN Query checkbox is selected, enter a value in the Number of Vector Results field. For example, 1000.

    11. Select the Use VecSim Query checkbox to use the vecSim query parser and configure its options. This option cannot be selected if Use KNN Query checkbox is selected.

      If the Use VecSim Query checkbox is selected, enter values in the following fields:

      • Min Return Vector Similarity. Enter the minimum vector similarity value to qualify as a match from the Vector portion of the hybrid query.

      • Min Traversal Vector Similarity. Enter the minimum vector similarity value to use when walking through the graph during the Vector portion of the hybrid query. The value must be lower than, or equal to, the value in the Min Return Vector Similarity field.

    12. In the Minimum Vector Similarity Filter, enter the value for a minimum similarity threshold for filtering documents. This option applies to all documents, regardless of other score boosting such as rules or signals.

    13. Click Save.

    Make sure the Hybrid Query stage is ordered before the Solr Query stage. See Reorder Query Pipeline Stages.

    Perform hybrid searches

    After setting up the stages, you can perform hybrid searches via the knn query parser as you would with Solr. Specify the search vector and include it in the query. For example, change the q parameter to a knn query parser string.

    The Hybrid Query stage will encode user queries using the specified model and modify the q parameter to use the knn query parser, turning the query into a vector search.

    XDenseVectorField is not supported in Managed Fusion 5.9.5. Instead, use DenseVectorField.

    Troubleshoot inconsistent results

    Neural Hybrid Search leverages Solr semantic vector search, which has known behaviors which can be inconsistent at query time. These behaviors include score fluctuations with re-querying, documents showing and disappearing on re-querying, and (when SVS is configured without Hybrid stages) completely unfindable documents. This section outlines possible reasons for inconsistent behavior and resolutions steps.

    NRT replicas and HNSW graph challenges

    Lucidworks recommends using PULL and TLOG replicas. These replica types copy the index of the leader replica, which results in the same HNSW graph on every replica. When querying, the HNSW approximation query will be consistent given a static index.

    In contrast, NRT replicas have their own index, so they will also have their own HNWS graph. HNSW is an Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) algorithm, so it will not return exactly the same results for differently constructed graphs. This means that queries performed can and will return different results per HNWS graph (# of NRT replicas in a shard) which can lead to noticeable result shifts. When using NRT replicas, the shifts can be made less noticeable by increasing the topK parameter. Variation will still occur, but should be lower in the documents. Another way to mitigate shifts is to use Neural Hybrid Search with a vector similarity cutoff.

    For more information, refer to Solr Types of Replicas.

    In the case of Neural Hybrid Search, lexical BM25 and TF-IDF score differences that can occur with NRT replicas because of index differences for deleted documents can also affect combined Hybrid score. If you choose to use NRT replicas, then it is possible that any lexical and semantic vectors variations can and will be made worse.

    Orphaning (Disconnected Nodes)

    Solr’s implementation of dense vector search depends on the Lucene implementation of HNSW ANN. The Lucene implementation has a known issue where, in some collections, nodes in the HNSW graph become unreachable via graph traversal, essentially becoming disconnected or “orphaned.”

    Identify orphaning

    Run the following command to identify orphaning:

    curl -sS -u 'USERNAME:PASSWORD' 'https://EXAMPLE_COMPANY.b.lucidworks.cloud/api/solrAdmin/default/COLLECTION_NAME/select'\
  --form-string 'fl=id,vecSim:$vecSim' \
  --form-string 'rows=1' \
  --form-string 'q=(*:* -{!knn f=VECTOR_FIELD topK=999999 v=$vec})' \
  --form-string 'vecSim=vectorSimilarity(VECTOR_FIELD,$vec)' \
  --form-string 'vec=COMPATIBLE_VECTOR'
    If the collection doesn’t have a vector for every document, include a filter so only the documents that have vectors are included. Filter on the boolean vector, as in this example: --form-string 'fq=VECTOR_FIELD_b:true' \

    Construct a KNN exclusion query where topK is higher than the number of vectors in your collection If the number of vectors in your collection exceeds 999,999 then increase the value to be at least equal to that value.

    If any are documents returned, there are orphans, and the ids you see are the orphans. Proceed to Resolving orphans. If no documents are returned, there are likely no orphans. You can try a few varying vectors to be certain.

    Resolving orphans

    To resolve orphans, do the following:

    1. Increase the HNSW Solr schema parameters hnswBeamWidth and hnswMaxConnections per the Suggested values below.

    2. Save the schema.

    3. Clear the index.

    4. Re-index your collection.

    Suggested values
    Orphaning rate hnswBeamWidth hnswMaxConnections

    5% or less

    300

    64

    5% - 25%

    500

    100

    25% or more

    3200

    512