Fredhopper topolgy configuration

Question

Generally in development using Tridion have two server one for Preview and One for Live.

So In order to setup SmartTarget for both Live and Preview environment what topology must be used.

1) ------------------------------------

SmartTargetPreviewIS|localhost|1|-|Indexer for  Preview environment.
SmartTargetPreviewQS|localhost|2|SmartTargetPreviewIS|Query Server for  Preview environment.
SmartTargetLiveQS|localhost|3|SmartTargetPreviewIS|Query Server for  Preview environment.

2)-------------------------------------------

SmartTargetPreviewIS|localhost|1|-|Indexer for  Preview environment.
SmartTargetPreviewQS|localhost|2|SmartTargetPreviewIS|Query Server for  Preview environment.
SmartTargetLiveIS|localhost|3|-|Indexer for Live Environment
SmartTargetLiveQS|localhost|4|SmartTargetLiveIS|Query Server for Live Environment

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Which should be followed? Or is there a better way to implement it?

Answer 1

The second one, as the first option doesn't actually have 2 indexers so it cannot have separate data.

That's really what it boils down to. You can think of the indexer as the one that stores all of the data. The query server just serves the data. So if you need both a Preview and Live environment, with the data being distinct between the two, you'll want two different indexers and at least 2 query servers (one for each indexer).