Azure Cognitive Search is a cloud-based service that allows the building of a rich search experience over private, heterogeneous content in web, mobile, and enterprise applications. It is particularly useful for Azure Cosmos DB solutions as it allows creators to build search applications that provide comprehensive search results from all of your Cosmos DB data.
Azure Cognitive Search works by pulling data from an external data source, indexing it, and making it accessible for a variety of search functionalities.
Setting up Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution involves the following steps:
- Setup the Data Source: You first need to connect your Azure Cognitive Search service to your Azure Cosmos DB data. This involves creating a Data Source in Azure Cognitive Search service that points to your Cosmos DB account.
SearchService service = new SearchService("[Search service name]", new SearchCredentials("[admin key]"));
DataSource cosmosDbDataSource = DataSource.DocumentDb(
"[Data source name]",
"[Cosmos DB connection string]",
collection: "[Collection name]",
useChangeDetection: true);
await service.DataSources.CreateOrUpdateAsync(cosmosDbDataSource);
- Create an Index: Once your data source is setup, you need to create an index. This involves defining the fields in your index and any scoring profiles or corsOptions you would like to include.
Field[] fields = new[]
{
new Field("Id", DataType.String) { IsKey = true, IsSearchable = false, IsFilterable = false, IsSortable = false, IsFacetable = false },
new Field("Name", DataType.String) { IsSearchable = true, IsFilterable = true, IsSortable = true, IsFacetable = true },
//add more fields as per your Cosmos DB data
};
Index index = new Index("[Index name]", fields);
await service.Indexes.CreateOrUpdateAsync(index);
- Create an Indexer: Next, create an indexer that uses the data source and index you just created.
The indexer crawleshoots the data source for changes and updates the index with any new, updated, or deleted data.
Indexer indexer = new Indexer("[Indexer name]", "[Data source name]", "[Index name]");
await service.Indexers.CreateOrUpdateAsync(indexer);
- Run the Indexer: Finally, run the indexer to load data from your Cosmos DB into your Azure Cognitive Search index.
await service.Indexers.RunAsync("[Indexer name]");
Those are just the basic setup steps. There are additional options such as configuring the indexer to run on a schedule, tuning the performance of the indexer, and dealing with errors that may occur during indexing.
Comparison between Azure Cognitive Search and Azure Cosmos DB
| Azure Cognitive Search | Azure Cosmos DB | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Use Case | Full text search, Faceted search, Filters and sorting | Document database, NoSQL database |
| Data Model | Search documents | JSON documents |
| Indexing | Automated, on a schedule | Automatic, Instant |
| Querying | Full Text Search Language (simple syntax) | SQL API, MongoDB API, Gremlin API, Table API |
| Scaling | Resource-based (search units) | Request Unit (RU)-based |
| Geo-Replication | Manual | Automatic |
| Latency | Query: typically <50 ms; Indexing: few minutes to hours | <10 ms at 99th percentile worldwide |
In conclusion, Azure Cognitive Search is an excellent addition to any Azure Cosmos DB solution. It allows for the creation of rich and comprehensive search experiences and ensures that all Cosmos DB data is accessible and searchable. With a straightforward setup process and a range of configurable options, it makes managing and maintaining a search database easier than ever.
Practice Test
True or False: You cannot use Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search provides techniques for working with search data in different ways and it can be used with Azure Cosmos DB solution.
Which of the following resources are required for implementing Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution?
- a) Azure Cosmos DB account
- b) Azure Cognitive Search instance
- c) Azure Storage account
- d) Microsoft Power Automate
Answer: a, b
Explanation: To implement Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution, you need an Azure Cosmos DB account and an Azure Cognitive Search instance.
Can Azure Cognitive Search be used as an indexing service for a document database in Azure Cosmos DB?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search can be used for full text search, geospatial search and filtering for a document database in Azure Cosmos DB.
Which of the following features does Azure Cognitive Search provide when implemented with Azure Cosmos DB?
- a) Search-as-a-service
- b) Text analytics
- c) Facial recognition
- d) Sentiment analysis
Answer: a, b, d
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search provides search-as-a-service, text analytics, and sentiment analysis capabilities. Facial recognition is not a feature of Azure Cognitive Search.
True or False: Azure Cognitive Search cannot handle structured or unstructured data while being used with Azure Cosmos DB?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search can handle both structured and unstructured data when it is used with Azure Cosmos DB to provide full text indexing and advanced search capabilities.
Which of the following are indexers supported by Azure Cognitive Search for data ingestion?
- a) Azure Blob Storage
- b) Azure Cosmos DB
- c) Azure SQL Database
- d) Azure Table Storage
Answer: a, b, c, d
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search supports Azure Blob Storage, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Table Storage indexers for data ingestion.
Can Azure Cognitive Search use AI to automatically extract the key phrases from the documents in Azure Cosmos DB?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search uses built-in AI services for tasks like extracting key phrases, detecting language, identifying entities and more.
When implementing Azure Cognitive Search for Azure Cosmos DB, is it necessary for Azure Cosmos DB to be configured as a data source?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search requires the data sources to be configured, either via Azure portal or by the Search service REST APIs, before data can be ingested.
True or False: Azure Cognitive Search automatically updates its index when changes are made in Azure Cosmos DB.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Cognitive Search can automatically update its index when data changes in Azure Cosmos DB by using the Change Feed in Cosmos DB.
Does Azure Cosmos DB support cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) in a solution using Azure Cognitive Search?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Cosmos DB does support CORS, which allows restricted resources on a webpage to be requested from a domain outside the domain from which the first resource was served.
Interview Questions
What does Azure Cognitive Search offer in terms of features?
Azure Cognitive Search offers full-text search, multi-language support, scoring profiles, geospatial search, faceted navigation, filters, and highlights. It indexes data from the sources, making it searchable in a highly efficient and flexible manner.
What is the relationship between Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Cognitive Search?
Azure Cognitive Search can extract searchable text from raw content produced in Azure Cosmos DB. It leverages Cosmos DB Change Feed to automate indexing and ensures that the Azure Cognitive Search index is synchronized with data in Cosmos DB.
What are key factors needed to integrate Azure Cognitive Search and Cosmos DB?
The key factors include a data source which specifies the connection information for Cosmos DB, an index which is the schema definition of searchable data, indexer that loads data from Cosmos DB to Azure Cognitive Search, and the search service itself.
When implementing Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution, what does the indexer do?
The indexer indexes data from the source specified (in this case, Cosmos DB), potentially transforming the data during import based on field mappings. It provides functionality of automatic capturing and indexing of Cosmos DB data into a highly efficient search index.
How are search queries executed in Azure Cognitive Search?
Search queries are executed against the search index created. The results are returned based on relevant matches and potential scoring profiles applied.
How to provide high availability for Azure Cognitive Search?
High availability can be accomplished by creating two or more replicas of the Azure Cognitive Search service. These replicas can be deployed across multiple Azure regions.
Can you modify the index schema once it is set in Azure Cognitive Search?
Once set and populated, the indexes in Azure Cognitive Search are immutable. If index changes are required, a new index needs to be created or recreated.
What is Azure Cosmos DB Change Feed?
Change Feed is a feature of Azure Cosmos DB that captures the database changes, i.e., inserts and updates. It can be consumed by Azure Functions, Logic Apps, or Azure Cognitive Search services for real-time processing, data movement, and analytics.
What happens if we delete some documents from the source Cosmos DB?
The Azure Cognitive Search indexer detects these deletions and automatically removes these documents from your search index.
Is there any security mechanism available in Azure Cognitive Search?
Yes, Azure Cognitive Search provides security through Azure Active Directory, network isolation, and encryption. Furthermore, search services operations can be governed by role-based access control (RBAC).
What token type does Azure Cognitive Search support?
Azure Cognitive Search supports search tokens and api-key tokens, which can be used to authorize requests depending on the number of permissions required by the user.
Is it possible to leverage AI with Azure Cognitive Search?
Yes, Azure Cognitive Search has built-in AI capabilities. The AI enrichment feature uses Azure Machine Learning models for tasks like object detection, translations, entity recognition, etc.
How can we create a synonym map in Azure Cognitive Search?
A synonym map can be created through the Azure portal, REST APIs, or .NET SDK. It is a service-level resource that contains groups of synonymous terms you would want the Azure Cognitive Search to consider.
How often does the Azure Cognitive Search indexer run by default?
The default frequency is every 5 minutes. However, this can be customized according the the data change rate.
What type of data consistency does Azure Cosmos DB provide?
Azure Cosmos DB provides five consistency models including: Strong, Bounded staleness, Session, Consistent prefix, and Eventual. This makes it flexible for various application requirements.
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