Full-text catalogs and database servers

Full-text catalogs group together full-text indexes, which are used to search character data in a database.

If your database server is an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services, full-text catalogs are automatically created with every new geodatabase created on the database server. These geodatabases are set to use the full-text catalog and its indexes for all XML columns. Permission to use the full-text catalog is automatically granted to any user who has at least read/write permissions on the geodatabase.

If you are using SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services, the full-text catalog is a folder and set of files. The folder's name is the same as the geodatabase with "_CAT" appended to the name. The folder is created in the same directory as the database file (the .mdf file).

If you are using SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services, the full-text catalog is not a separate folder containing files. Instead, it is part of another database file, the .ndf file.

Note:

If you move the geodatabase from one server to another by detaching the geodatabase from the first server and attaching it to the second server, be sure to move the full-text catalog or the .ndf file with the database file to the new server.

If you upgraded your SQL Server Express instance from SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 to SQL Server 2005 or 2008 Express with Advanced Services, full-text catalogs cannot be added to existing geodatabases. If you have existing data for which you want to create an XML column, create a new geodatabase on the SQL Server Express with Advanced Services instance, and copy the existing data from the old geodatabase and paste it into the new geodatabase, or export the data from the old geodatabase to the new geodatabase.

Be aware that when data is pasted or imported into a geodatabase, it is owned by the user who is logged into the geodatabase at the time. Therefore, to make sure the data has the same owner in the new geodatabase as in the old geodatabase, have the owner of each dataset import or copy and paste his or her data to the new geodatabase. Also, be sure all versioned edits have been reconciled and posted to the DEFAULT version and that all other versions have been deleted before you move the data to the new geodatabase. If you do not, edits could be lost.