Background Solr Indexing - Run Drupal Indexing as Daemon

Background Mode

Background mode is the default since v2.5. The indexer automatically runs as a daemon that survives SSH disconnection. Use --no-background for foreground mode.

# Starts in background by default
drush ost --server=my_solr_server

# Check progress anytime
drush oss

# Watch the log file (server-specific)
tail -f /tmp/opensolr_turbo_my_solr_server.log

# Stop when needed
drush osstop

How Background Mode Works

The indexer (default behavior):

1. Starts a daemon process using nohup
2. Detaches from your terminal session
3. Writes progress to a per-session log file instead of stdout
4. Continues running even if you disconnect

Monitoring Background Jobs

Check Status

Use drush oss to see current progress:

drush oss

=== INDEXING STATISTICS ===

  Server: my_solr_server
    my_solr_index          [##########..........] 52.3%
      156,432 / 299,123 (remaining: 142,691)

  Background indexer running (PID: 12345)
  Log: /tmp/opensolr_turbo_my_solr_server.log

  Active workers: 10

Watch the Log

For detailed real-time progress (use the server-specific log):

tail -f /tmp/opensolr_turbo_my_solr_server.log

The log shows updates every 5 seconds with:

• Current time and elapsed duration
• Number of active workers
• Progress percentage for each index
• Indexing rate (items/second)
• Estimated time remaining (ETA)

Stop Background Indexing

drush osstop

This stops both the master daemon and all worker processes cleanly.

Process Management

Find Running Processes

# Find master process for a specific server
cat /tmp/opensolr_turbo_my_solr_server_master.pid

# List all master PIDs
ls /tmp/opensolr_turbo_*_master.pid

# List all worker processes
ps aux | grep 'opensolr:worker'

# Count active workers
ps aux | grep 'opensolr:worker' | grep -v grep | wc -l

Emergency Stop

If drush osstop doesn't work:

# Kill all master processes
for f in /tmp/opensolr_turbo_*_master.pid; do kill $(cat "$f") 2>/dev/null; done

# Kill all workers
pkill -f 'opensolr:worker'

# Clean up PID files
rm -f /tmp/opensolr_turbo_*_master.pid /tmp/opensolr_turbo_*.pids