Examine Index sometimes not replicating on CD in Load Balanced Setup (Umbraco 13 on Azure)

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Hi everyone,

We’re running an Umbraco 13 solution in a load-balanced environment on Azure, with a standard setup:

  • CM (Content Management) Web App for backoffice/content
  • CD (Content Delivery) Web App for public-facing frontend
  • Indexes are stored on a shared network location (Azure Files)
  • Examine is configured with SyncTempEnvDirectoryFactory per the Umbraco documentation on load balancing (Umbraco in Load Balanced Environments | Umbraco CMS)

Although the CM node updates the Examine indexes correctly and writes them to the shared location, we sometimes find that the CD node doesn’t pick up or replicates the index correct after a machine switch / reboot. This results in stale or missing search data on the frontend, even though the index files exist and are updated on disk (CM is okay, as is the other deployment slot).

I know it’s not ideal for load balanced environments, but according to the documentation it should just work. And if it doesnt, I don’t even have a way to “force” the refresh on the CD other than to reboot and hope the replication takes place.

Thanks in advance for any insights or best practices from the community!