Cloud Hybrid Search in SharePoint Server 2013/2016 and Office 365 allows a unified search experience of content from SharePoint online and on-premises sites. This is an important search feature to allow users to easy find their information without having to know if the site is on-premises or in the cloud.
The following prerequisites in SharePoint 2013/2016 and Office 365 environment need to be setup.
- A public domain has been registered with Office 365.
- A UPN prefix that matches the public domain has been added to the Local AD.
- An Active Azure Subscription is available.
- Office 365 AD is manageable from Azure.
- Synchronize Local Active Directory with Office 365 Directory.
Cloud hybrid search configuration can be completed with two steps:
- Create a Cloud Hybrid Search Service Application.
- Connect your Cloud Search Service Application to your Office 365 tenant.
Microsoft has provided the two scripts. Both scripts will be downloaded as shown below.

From the Manage Service Applications page, create the Cloud Search Service Application.
Go to the list of Service Application page and the newly created Cloud Search Service Application will appear.
Clicking on it will take you to the Cloud Search Administration page, where we can create content sources and configure other search related settings.
As shown in the above search configuration setup, SharePoint search architecture is made up of the below components.
- Crawl and content processing
- Index
- Query processing
- Search administration
- Analytics
Connect your cloud Search service application to your Office 365 tenant.
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In order to run the script, some prerequisites that need to be completed. Download and install the modules.
Download and install the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant.
Install Azure Active Directory Module.
Click Finish to complete the setup of Azure Active Directory.
In order to complete the onboarding of Cloud Search Service Application and Office 365 on to Cloud hybrid search, run the Onboard-CloudHybridSearch.ps1 script.
Required parameters for input.
- Portal URL
Specify the SharePoint Online URL of the organization.
- Administrator Credentials
It will also ask for the Office 365 global administrator credentials
If asked, enter the Cloud Search Service Application name.
This will complete the Onboarding process and will register the Cloud hybrid search.
Final step in configuring the Cloud hybrid search, create a content source and run a full crawl in SharePoint 2013/2016 On Premise Server.
Click Create New Content Source.
Run a full crawl.