Account Setup & Index Creation - Opensolr Drupal Docs

Account Setup

After installing the module, setup happens in two steps: connect your Opensolr account, then pick your search index — either a brand-new one or an index that already exists in your account.

What you need

Your Opensolr email — the email you registered with at opensolr.com
Your API key — find it in your Opensolr Dashboard under Account Settings

Step 1 — Connect your account

Go to Configuration > Search > Opensolr Search (/admin/config/search/opensolr)
Enter your Opensolr email and API key in the Opensolr Account section
Click "Save Credentials" — the module validates them against the Opensolr API and saves them. Your search index is not touched.

Need to change the email or API key later? Click "Reconfigure Credentials" in the same section.

Opensolr Search Settings tab showing connected account and the Search Index section with Use an existing index and Create a new index options — Settings tab — account connected

Opensolr Plan card showing disk space, bandwidth, crawled pages, and crawl traffic usage bars with plan limits — Plan card — usage & limits

Step 2 — Pick your search index

Once credentials are saved, the Search Index section appears with two options:

Create a new index — the classic flow: pick a region, get a fresh, fully configured vector index
Use an existing index — attach this site to any index already in your Opensolr account

Option A — Create a new index

Select "Create a new index"
Pick a Region from the dropdown — choose the one closest to your web server (not your users) for the lowest latency between Drupal and Solr
Click "Create New Index"

The module runs through an automatic setup process with a progress dialog:

Step 1 — Creates a new search index (named drupal_XXXXXXXX__dense) in your selected region
Step 2 — Downloads and uploads the correct Solr configuration for the web crawler
Step 3 — Reloads the Solr core, verifies it works, and registers your sitemap with the crawler
Step 4 — Enables Query Elevation (lets you pin/exclude results later)

✅ All automatic!

You don't need to create indexes manually, upload config files, or configure Solr. The module handles everything.

💡 Your previous index is never deleted

Creating a new index only switches this site over to it. The previous index stays in your Opensolr account — other sites may still be using it. Remove it from the Opensolr dashboard if you no longer need it.

Option B — Use an existing index

Select "Use an existing index" and start typing in the search box — it lists every index in your account, tagged VECTOR or LEXICAL. Pick one, then decide on two optional actions:

Reset index — erases all data currently in the index. Use it when repurposing an old index for this site.
Re-configure index (recommended) — applies the Opensolr schema and configuration this module needs. Leave it unchecked if the index is already configured for the module, or if you manage a custom schema yourself.

Click "Save Settings" — the module runs only what you ticked, then verifies the index, registers your sitemap and enables Query Elevation, exactly like the create flow.

⚠️ Sharing an index between sites?

If other Drupal sites already ingest into the index you're attaching, leave both boxes unchecked — resetting erases their content too, and re-configuring overwrites any config customizations.

🌐 Multi-site search, one shared index

This is how you build one search across several Drupal sites: install the module on each site, create the index on the first one, then point every other site at the same index with Use an existing index. Document IDs are derived from page URLs, so sites never collide. Pick a VECTOR index to keep semantic search and AI features across all of them.

💡 Available regions

The region dropdown is populated directly from the Opensolr API based on your account plan, with country flags. Need a dedicated web crawler server in your own region? Contact us — we can deploy one wherever you need it.

Opensolr Plan card

After connecting, the Settings page shows your Opensolr Plan card with:

Plan name and usage limits
Documents indexed — how many pages are in your search index
Storage used — disk space consumed on the Solr cluster
Crawled pages — progress bar showing crawler activity vs. your plan limit

📦 Module version

The two-option index picker (existing index + multi-site support) ships with module version 4.1.0. On older versions the Settings page creates a fresh index automatically when you connect.

Next step

Once connected, head to Content Types to choose what the crawler should index.