Configure crawl settings for a ManageEngine external content connector

Delimit the set of knowledge articles you want your ManageEngine external content connector to retrieve. Define inclusion or exclusion filters to specify which articles the crawl retrieves and feeds to AI Search for indexing.

Before you begin

A connector administrator must have already created the ManageEngine external content connector that you want to configure crawl settings for. To learn about this procedure, see Create a ManageEngine external content connector.

Role required: sn_ext_conn.xcc_admin

About this task

This task is optional. By default, the ManageEngine external content connector crawls all knowledge bases from its specified source system and sends all public-domain knowledge articles and attachment binary files with all supported file extensions to AI Search for indexing. Only perform this task if you want the connector to use any of the following non-default settings:

• Filter knowledge articles by ID, author, modification date, or category when running content crawls
• Filter attachment binary files by extension when running content crawls

Content is only retrieved from the source system if it passes all of your configured crawl setting filters. If any crawl setting filter excludes a content item, the external content connector doesn't retrieve it.

Important:

By default, each external content connector can index up to one million (1,000,000) content items from its source system. When a connector exceeds this limit, it continues to crawl the source system, but only sends content item deletions and updates to AI Search for indexing, ignoring new content items. The connector logs an error message for every 10,000 content items it crawls beyond the indexing limit.

When a connector's indexed content item count exceeds 800,000, a warning message appears in the connector's UI to indicate that it's approaching the indexing limit. If the connector reaches the indexing limit, an error message appears in its UI.

External content connectors that support user permissions crawls can handle permissions for up to five hundred thousand (500,000) users and their groups. If a connector retrieves users in excess of this limit, user and group permissions may not be correctly applied to the connector's retrieved content. As a result, the content may not be searchable.

If one of your connectors reaches the content indexing limit, you can update its crawl settings and file inclusion/exclusion filters to reduce the number of content items it retrieves. Alternatively, if you need a connector to index more than 1,000,000 content items, you can create a Customer Service and Support case at https://support.servicenow.com/now to request a limit increase for the connector.

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > External Content Connectors > External Content Admin Home.
2. In the Connectors list, select the record for the ManageEngine external content connector whose settings you want to modify.
3. In the connector editor's Settings tab, select Crawl settings.
4. In the Articles section, select one of the following article options:
   • To retrieve all knowledge articles found while crawling, select Crawl all articles.

   • To retrieve only a specified set of knowledge articles, select Include only these articles, then use the Add article URL or ID to include field and Add button to enter URLs or IDs for knowledge articles that you want the connector to include when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter IT FAQ 2026 and Troubleshooting to retrieve only knowledge articles with the specified IDs.

   • To retrieve all but a specified set of knowledge articles, select Exclude only these articles, then use the Add article URL or ID to exclude field and Add button to enter URLs or IDs for knowledge articles that you want the connector to exclude when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter hfuzf762gh173 to exclude the knowledge article with the specified ID.

   Note:

   Article URLs and IDs can be specified as prefixes, with the wildcard character * at the end of the URL or ID matching any string. As an example, specifying article ID Troubleshoot* includes or excludes articles with IDs Troubleshooting and Troubleshooting guide.
5. In the Articles section, select one of the following author options:
   • To retrieve knowledge articles from all authors, select Crawl all authors.

   • To retrieve only knowledge articles from a specified set of authors, select Include only these authors, then use the Add author name to include field and Add button to enter names for authors whose knowledge articles you want the connector to include when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter Abel Tuter and Beth Anglin to retrieve only knowledge articles by the specified authors.

   • To retrieve knowledge articles from all but a specified set of authors, select Exclude only these authors, then use the Add author name to exclude field and Add button to enter names for authors whose knowledge articles you want the connector to exclude when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter Test user to exclude knowledge articles from the specified author.

6. In the Articles section, select one of the following modification date options:
   • To retrieve knowledge articles modified within the last year, select Modified last year.
   • To retrieve knowledge articles modified within the last quarter, select Modified last quarter.
   • To retrieve knowledge articles modified within the last month, select Modified last month.
   • To retrieve knowledge articles modified within the last week, select Modified last week.
7. In the Articles section, select one of the following category options:
   • To retrieve knowledge articles from all categories, select Crawl all categories.

   • To retrieve only knowledge articles from a specified set of categories, select Include only these categories, then use the Add category name to include field and Add button to enter names for categories you want the connector to include when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter Guide and Wiki to only retrieve knowledge articles in the specified categories.

   • To retrieve knowledge articles from all but a specified set of categories, select Exclude only these categories, then use the Add category name to exclude field and Add button to enter names for categories you want the connector to exclude when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter Confidential to exclude knowledge articles from this category.

8. Select one of the following Attachments options:
   • To retrieve all attachments with supported file extensions from the source system, select Crawl all attachments.

   • To retrieve only attachments with specified file extensions from the source system, select Include only these file extensions, then use the File extensions to include field to enter attachment file extensions you want the connector to include when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter .docx to retrieve only attachments with the Microsoft Word file format.

   • To retrieve all attachments except those with specified file extensions from the source system, select Exclude only these file extensions, then use the File extensions to exclude field to enter attachment file extensions you want the connector to exclude when crawling.

     As an example, you might enter .csv to exclude attachments with the Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file format.

   For details on the supported attachment file extensions, see Binary file extensions supported in External Content Connectors.
9. Optional: If you want AI Search to automatically generate captions for content in attachments and files retrieved by the connector, select the Multimodal captions option.
   When you select this option, the Platform Multimodal Service automatically generates descriptive captions for images, tables, charts, and other visual elements found in retrieved attachments and files. You can discover these retrieved attachments and files by searching for terms from their generated captions.

   This option is only available when the Platform Multimodal Service plugin is activated on your instance.

   • For details on activating the plugin, see Activate the Platform Multimodal Service plugin.
   • To learn how to select the VLM (visual learning model) provider and model used for the Platform Multimodal Service, see Configure multimodal captioning for AI Search.
10. Select Save and validate.

Result

The ManageEngine external content connector is updated with your modified crawl settings.

What to do next

To retrieve content from your ManageEngine source system using your modified crawl settings, create and run a one-time content crawl for your ManageEngine external content connector. To learn about creating and running one-time content crawls, see Create a content crawl for an external content connector.