Navigating Your Drupal Solr Migration: From Acquia Search to SearchStax
If your Drupal site relies on Acquia Search leveraging Solr, you’re likely facing a migration from Acquia Search to SearchStax. We’ve guided numerous organizations through this transition and want to share our proven approach to help you navigate this change successfully.
Before diving into the migration process, this transition presents an excellent opportunity to reassess your search strategy entirely. While Solr remains a powerful and robust solution, the search landscape has evolved significantly with innovative alternatives now available. For organizations considering broader platform transitions, this moment offers strategic value beyond search improvements. Modern React-based solutions can deliver dramatically faster user experiences. Our recent work with ONS demonstrates this potential—by replacing their Solr solution with Algolia Instant Search, we helped them achieve a 40% improvement in search response times while creating a more intuitive experience for their members.
Why the Move to SearchStax?
Acquia announced earlier this year that they’re sunsetting their Acquia Search offering in 2026, positioning SearchStax as the recommended migration path through their new partnership. This transition offers enhanced search capabilities and more direct control over your search environment through SearchStax’s comprehensive dashboard, providing visibility into Solr server performance, data analysis tools, search preview functionality, and advanced configuration options.
The architectural similarity ensures a seamless end-user experience—Solr remains the foundation, requiring no front-end changes for this migration path while delivering improved administrative control.
Our Proven Migration Framework
Through multiple successful migrations, we’ve developed a structured approach that minimizes risk and ensures smooth transitions. Here’s our step-by-step framework:
Phase 1: Foundation Setup
- Secure access to the SearchStax dashboard for complete environment management
- Install the SearchStax modules, including the critical “Solr to SearchStax Site Search Migration” module
- Configure and commit your basic settings to establish the foundation
Phase 2: Testing and Validation
- Deploy changes to DEV or STAGE environments for comprehensive testing
- Validate search functionality, performance, and user experience
- Identify and resolve any configuration issues before production deployment
Phase 3: Production Implementation
- Push validated changes to production environment
- Execute core migration steps including server migration (Drupal’s SearchStax authentication automatically generates endpoint and token configurations), index migration to transfer existing search indexes, and view switching to activate SearchStax indexes across your site
Phase 4: Configuration Management
- Implement configuration overrides and ignores to ensure environment-specific settings
- Secure sensitive data while maintaining dedicated SearchStax server settings per environment
- Export SearchStax indexes and updated views from production to feature branch
- Commit and deploy changes in your next release cycle
Phase 5: Transition Management
- Maintain Acquia search indexes temporarily for rollback capability
- Monitor performance and user experience during initial transition period
- Complete final cleanup by disabling Acquia search module and migration tools once stability is confirmed
Addressing Technical Challenges
Our experience across multiple migrations has revealed common technical hurdles that require proactive attention. Configuration issues with Boost by Date Processor settings, Highlighted Fields errors during index rebuilding, and Facet configuration mismatches between environments are frequent challenges. The key to success lies in early identification during lower environment testing and leveraging Acquia support resources to resolve issues before they impact production.
Each migration presents unique challenges based on your specific configuration and content structure. Our approach prioritizes thorough testing and validation to surface these issues early, ensuring smooth production deployment.
Strategic Search Optimization
Successful migration extends beyond technical implementation. Understanding your content architecture, user behavior patterns, and business objectives enables you to optimize search effectiveness during the transition. This migration provides an ideal opportunity to evaluate search performance metrics, refine content indexing strategies, and enhance user experience design.
By following this proven framework and preparing for potential challenges, your organization can successfully transition to SearchStax while improving both administrative capabilities and user search experience. The result is a more robust, manageable search solution that positions your site for future growth and enhanced user engagement.
Our comprehensive migration expertise extends beyond search implementations to complete platform transformations, ensuring your digital infrastructure supports your long-term strategic objectives.
Ready to begin your SearchStax migration? Our team has successfully guided organizations through this transition, delivering improved search performance and streamlined administration. Contact us to discuss your specific migration needs and timeline.
