---
title: "Installing Acquia Search with Search API"
date: "2024-02-14T06:18:38+00:00"
summary: "Learn how to install Acquia Search with Search API for Drupal 7. Follow our step-by-step guide to set up Solr integration, configure modules, and index your content for powerful site search capabilities."
image:
type: "page"
url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/installing-acquia-search-search-api"
id: "6b4e5d01-4bea-4c3d-83af-4e8ad76b11c7"
---

There are two module ecosystems that can be used for Solr with Drupal 7, Search API and Apache Solr Search. You must pick one of the two module ecosystems for your Acquia Search implementation.

For more information on each of these ecosystems, see [Installing Acquia Search for Drupal 7](/acquia-cloud-platform/features/acquia-search/getting-started/install-search-d7).

Important

A single site should use only one of the preceding options. Enabling modules from both options can cause problems.

Use the following instructions to install Acquia Search using the Search API module for Drupal 7.

Step 1: Prepare your new Drupal project, environment, or code base
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To prepare your Drupal project, environment, or codebase, use your preferred method to copy a remote website configuration to your development environment.

Step 2: Install the Acquia Search Drupal modules
------------------------------------------------

Use the following procedure to install the Acquia Search for Search API module to enable the use of Acquia Search:

1.  Add the following entry to the Drupal settings.php file: `$conf['acquia_search_disable_version_select'] = FALSE;`
2.  Download and install the [Acquia Connector module](https://www.drupal.org/project/acquia_connector).
3.  Install any other required modules as prompted on your website.
4.  Authenticate the [Acquia Connector module](https://www.drupal.org/project/acquia_connector) with Acquia Cloud by using your Cloud Platform credentials.
5.  On the **Modules** page, enable the [Search API](https://www.drupal.org/project/search_api) and [Search API Solr](https://www.drupal.org/project/search_api_solr) modules.
6.  Click **Save Configuration**.
7.  On the **Modules** page, enable the Acquia Agent submodule.
8.  Click **Save Configuration**.
9.  On the **Modules** page, enable the [Acquia Search module](https://www.drupal.org/project/acquia_search).
10.  Click **Save Configuration**.
11.  Navigate to the Search API module configuration page at **Administration** > **Configurations** > **Search and metadata** > **Search API**.
     
     On the **Search API Configuration** page, you see an Acquia Search server and Acquia Search index if you are logged into your Acquia subscription.
     
     If you do not see this index, you can create a new server by clicking **+Add server** with the following settings:
     
     *   In **Service class**, select `Acquia Search`.
     *   In **Acquia Search Solr version**, select `Solr 8 and above`.
     
     After creating the server, click **+Add index** to create a new index. Select the new server you created for your index.
     
     Note
     
     If you see the message “To protect your data, the Search API Acquia module is enforcing read-only mode on the Search API indexes, because it could not figure out what Acquia-hosted Solr index to connect to”, make sure that a [Solr index has been created](/acquia-cloud-platform/features/acquia-search/getting-started/managing-indexes) or an [index override has been specified](../../managing/multiple-cores/override.html).
     
12.  On the **Acquia Search index** page, click **Index Now**.
     
     The content of your Solr index is populated and maintained by Drupal’s cron process. The **Index Now** button forces the indexing process to begin. Depending on the amount of content on your website, the initial indexing process will take some time to complete.
     

Important

Acquia recommends using the Solr Devel module to debug Solr indexing and queries. For the troubleshooting guide, see [Using Solr Devel module to debug Solr indexing and queries](https://acquia.my.site.com/s/article/360004454253-Using-Solr-Devel-module-to-debug-Acquia-Search-indexing-and-queries).

For more information on using the Search API module, see the [Drupal.org Search API documentation](https://www.drupal.org/docs/contributed-modules/search-api).