# Scores in ferret **URL:** \ **Category:** Ferret\ **Created:** [June 27, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/scores-in-ferret/141586 "2008-06-27T12:00:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![icottee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@icottee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/icottee)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/scores-in-ferret/141586/1 "2008-06-27T12:00:13Z")
Hi, Are scores an absolute calculation or relative to what is in a given index? I ask because I wanted to look into distributing my index over a few servers. The idea being that I could get 10 results for a couple of servers, do an in memory merge and return the results faster than it would be possible with just the one index server. Would this work? Has anyone tried this type of ghetto map-reduce like deployment with ferret? – Regards, Ian C. ---
**Author:** ![icottee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@icottee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/icottee)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/scores-in-ferret/141586/2 "2008-06-27T14:49:17Z")
Hi, the scores are relative to the contents of the index, so this won’t be _that_ easy. However it is possible to have a distributed index in terms of multiple physical indexes on the same machine (this is done by having one IndexReader instance using several underlying IndexReader instances), with consistent scores. What’s missing is the possiblity to access remote indexes this way (Lucene has this feature afair). Cheers, Jens On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 05:59:45AM -0400, Ian C. wrote: > – > Regards, > > Ian C. > > * * * > > Ferret-talk mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk) – Jens Krämer webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH Schnorrstraße 76 | 01069 Dresden Telefon +49 351 46766-0 | Telefax +49 351 46766-66 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid | [www.webit.de](http://www.webit.de) Amtsgericht Dresden | HRB 15422 GF Sven Haubold ---
**Author:** ![icottee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@icottee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/icottee)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/scores-in-ferret/141586/3 "2008-06-27T16:10:11Z")
I am hoping to index many GB of data. It is cheaper hardware wise to have a few machines with 8GB of RAM instead of one large machine. Has anyone had success with large data sets? In my case the full MEDLINE data ([pubmed.gov](http://pubmed.gov)). My initial performance tests is to index 100k articles and it seems 10x faster when RAM is used compared with disks. I am still trying to figure out the bottlenecks in terms of CPU/IO/etc. Once the index is built, I am impressed with the read speeds. On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 8:16 AM, Jens K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What’s missing is the possiblity to access remote indexes this way > > > index? I ask because I wanted to look into distributing my index over > > Ian C. > > Telefon +49 351 46766-0 | Telefax +49 351 46766-66 > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid | [www.webit.de](http://www.webit.de) > > Amtsgericht Dresden | HRB 15422 > GF Sven Haubold > > * * * > > Ferret-talk mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk) – Regards, Ian C. 82 Fellsway W #2 Somerville, MA 02145 Direct Line: +1 (978) 6333372 Call Center Phone: +1 (714) 239 3875 (24 hrs) Mobile Phone: +1 (312) 218 3209 Fax: +1(770) 818 5697 Suisse Phone: +41 (0) 22 548 1664 Skype: ian.connor