Product Selector

Fusion 5.9
    Fusion 5.9

    FAQs

    This section contains a list of frequently-asked questions regarding Managed Fusion.

    Managed Fusion and self-hosted Fusion

    Managed Fusion is similar to self-hosted Fusion in terms of supported features and capabilities, but differs when it comes to day-to-day operations and change promotion procedures. This section details the differences between the two offerings.

    How do I know if Managed Fusion is the right choice for me?

    Generally speaking, Managed Fusion is a great choice if you meet the following criteria:

    • You want help managing your Fusion deployment and infrastructure.

    • You lack experience with Kubernetes or Kubernetes is not available within your organization’s solutions.

    • You want to leverage API-based cloud solutions.

    • You have limited resources to manage the day-to-day backend operations.

    • You want to eliminate server costs, storage costs, or the overhead of managing physical or virtual machines.

    • You want automatic software updates and security patches applied by Lucidworks.

    • You want Lucidworks to promote and manage any changes in production.

    • You want early access to the latest features.

    Alternatively, self-hosted Fusion might be the better choice if you meet the following criteria:

    • You want to host and manage your Fusion deployment.

    • You want to leverage a cloud provider other than GCP to host Fusion.

    • You have limitations on data being hosted on external platforms.

    • You need access to APIs and features that aren’t available in Managed Fusion, such as custom Docker images.

    • You need to implement custom Solr plugins to support custom functionality.

    What are the differences between self-hosted Fusion and Managed Fusion?

    In self-hosted Fusion, you host and manage your own Fusion deployment. In Managed Fusion, Lucidworks handles the backend operations, promotes changes, and performs updates. Some features are only available in self-hosted or Managed Fusion. See Managed Fusion versus Fusion.

    Why are some features only available in self-hosted Fusion and not Managed Fusion?

    Some features, like custom Docker images and custom stages are not supported in Managed Fusion. Limiting the amount of custom configurations in Managed Fusion helps to ensure uptime and improves customer support. Limiting custom components also helps to streamline the upgrade process and simplifies troubleshooting.

    Can I migrate to Managed Fusion from self-hosted Fusion?

    Yes, you can migrate from any self-hosted Fusion version to Managed Fusion. Lucidworks Professional Services can assist with the migration. For more information, contact your Client Success Representative.

    How do the day-to-day operations change when moving from self-hosted to Managed Fusion?

    In a Managed Fusion deployment, there are different environments used for development, staging, and production. You make changes in a development environment, perform tests in a staging environment, and create promotion requests to apply those changes to a production environment. Lucidworks reviews promotion requests and publishes your changes to production within three (3) business days of the request. For more information, see Promotion to production.

    How do you size clusters for different customers?

    Lucidworks sizes clusters based on customer size, but can adjust ranges based on customer needs.

    What is a typical Managed Fusion multi-region Solr deployment?

    Managed Fusion uses a Four 9s (99.99%) availability architecture with primary and secondary clusters.

    In a 4 9s deployment, Region A hosts the primary ("hot") cluster responsible for real-time data indexing and query processing, while Region B hosts the secondary ("warm") cluster, acting as a backup for historical data and disaster recovery. The primary and secondary clusters are automatically kept in sync for proper failover in case the primary cluster becomes unavailable.

    Promotions and environments

    Managed Fusion features a change promotion process to help ensure uptime and multiple environments for testing, staging, and production.

    How many environments are there?

    The number and type of environments you have depends on your setup and agreement. The typical setup includes three environments: Development, Staging, and Production. See Managed Fusion environments.

    Why can’t I have developer access in Production?

    Lucidworks restricts access to production environments to guarantee client SLAs and provide confidence of uptime. Managed Fusion is highly configurable. Guardrails enable uptime and success, and business rules allow modifications while minimizing the risk of errors, failure, and downtime. You can test and promote changes per the process outlined in Promotion to Production.

    What if I need to promote a change sooner than the three day SLA?

    Lucidworks will evaluate the request but cannot commit to timelines outside of the SLA. If you require a shorter turnaround time for promotions requests, contact your Lucidworks Client Success representative.

    How are code changes promoted so that multiple clusters are upgraded without downtime?

    Because clusters have their own config sync branches, Lucidworks promotes the code changes to any or all clusters depending on your needs. For more information, see promotion requests for 4 9s clients.

    For multi-region prod environments, how do both clusters get upgraded without downtime?

    Each cluster has their own config sync branches, so changes can be promoted to any or all branches depending on your needs.

    Monitoring and alerts

    Managed Fusion includes dashboards for monitoring performance data and tracking entitlement usage.

    What is Lucidworks' monitoring and alerting process?

    There are several built-in monitoring tools available in Managed Fusion. Lucidworks and Managed Fusion clients receive alerts for the following:

    • Pod pending and error states

    • Fusion license expiration

    • High CPU and disk usage

    • Solr errors

    • API gateway errors

    • Node errors

    See Monitoring for more information.

    Does Lucidworks capture its own search performance data?

    The data is available through Grafana. You can track all logs in a namespace, or query for specific services, hosts, or errors.

    What usage gets counted against my entitlements (RPY, records, QPS) and how is that tracked?

    To learn more about consumption, see Consumption dashboard.

    How do I monitor Lucidworks cloud performance?

    The data is available through Grafana. You can request the link and credentials to your Managed Fusion Grafana Dashboard from your Client Success Representative.

    How do I access Solr Logs?

    The data is available through Grafana. You can request the link and credentials to your Managed Fusion Grafana Dashboard from your Client Success Representative. These logs contain information about Solr cores, nodes, and overall system performance.

    Upgrades and security

    Upgrading Managed Fusion to the latest version ensures you have access to the latest features and security fixes.

    Can I skip an upgrade?

    No. Managed Fusion is a hosted platform that needs to keep up with vendors' upgrade cadence.

    What is Lucidworks' preference for indexing datasources behind firewalls or other secured areas?

    For most applications, Lucidworks recommends using remote connectors. In some cases, you may prefer to use a VPN.