Highlight: "VolumeConfiguration.plist" lacking. Is it required, and find out how to modify?

I’m seeing inconsistency in how Highlight is engaged on Shared Volumes and it seems the presence, or lack of, and the content material of
/Volumes/GodzillaClone/.Highlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
could be implicated in these inconsistencies.

I’ve a number of SMB volumes mounted. One in every of them was a neighborhood quantity however has now been copied to a Mac mini server and I’ve it regionally mounted: smb://192.168.5.1/Godzilla

The opposite two, regionally mounted SMB volumes, had been freshly created on the server.

Whereas logged in on the Mac mini server I’ve eliminated the highlight listing and re-enable highlight on two volumes:
smb://192.168.5.1/PlexMedia_1
smb://192.168.5.1/PlexMedia_2

and after being reactivated there isn’t a longer a .Highlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist

smb://192.168.5.1/Godzilla does have a VolumeConfiguration.plist

This analysis began after I tried to take away the native highlight cache utilizing mdutil -p on one of many mounted volumes after making a brand new Highlight database on the server. When my instructions failed I started to examine every quantity and see the variations.

mdutil -p  /Volumes/PlexMedia_1         
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/PlexMedia_1:
    Error: datastore publishing not applied.

mdutil -i on  /Volumes/PlexMedia_1
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/PlexMedia_1:
Error: unable to carry out operation.  (-403)
    Server search enabled.

mdutil -i on  /Volumes/PlexMedia_2
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/PlexMedia_2:
Error: unable to carry out operation.  (-403)
    Server search enabled.

mdutil -i on  /Volumes/Godzilla   
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/Godzilla:
    Indexing enabled.

mdutil -s  /Volumes/PlexMedia_1     
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/PlexMedia_1:
    Server search enabled.

mdutil -s  /Volumes/PlexMedia_2     
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/PlexMedia_2:
    Server search enabled.

mdutil -s  /Volumes/Godzilla   
/System/Volumes/Knowledge/Volumes/Godzilla:
    Indexing enabled.

tree -L 2 /Volumes/Godzilla/.Highlight-V100 /Volumes/PlexMedia_1/.Highlight-V100 /Volumes/PlexMedia_2/.Highlight-V100 
/Volumes/Godzilla/.Highlight-V100
├── Retailer-V2
│   └── 6501AE1D-13CE-4787-9786-2AEBA0D5E3C5
└── VolumeConfiguration.plist
/Volumes/PlexMedia_1/.Highlight-V100
└── Retailer-V2
    └── D3AD2234-1A3A-46E1-919D-019D01D859B8
/Volumes/PlexMedia_2/.Highlight-V100
└── Retailer-V2
    └── 5E345843-A537-4A5D-A986-DE5B6EE0FBED

9 directories, 1 file

I do not keep in mind explicitly selecting to allow "Server search"

How is the plist created? I’m hazarding a guess that this can be a "defaults" setting for highlight that may be modified utilizing a "defaults…" command, however I do not know the command.

I’m additionally curious why there isn’t a plist created when highlight is turned off after which on for these two volumes. Possibly it is determined by whether or not sharing is turned on or off when it is initially listed?

I add the rhetorical questions for key phrase looking out and to supply context, and in case it helps others, not essentially to be answered.

No replies so I’m including extra particulars to this query.

I did a bit extra poking round and that is what I do know.
Highlight has not been engaged on PlexMedia_1.
Highlight is working appropriately on PlexMedia_2

I ran diff on the VolumeConfiguration.plist file on each of these volumes and curiously discovered they differed.
Media_2 plist has PolicyProcess = mdutil
Media_1 plist has PolicyProcess = STORE_ADD

I ran a fast seek for the string "highlight PolicyProcess = STORE_ADD" and located zero hits.

Media_1 is an 18TB quantity
Media_2 is a 6TB quantity

plistbuddy /Volumes/Media_1/.Highlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist -c print > ~/Paperwork/media_1plist.txt

plistbuddy /Volumes/Media_2/.Highlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist -c print > ~/Paperwork/media_2plist.txt

diff /Customers/john/Paperwork/media_2plist.txt /Customers/john/Paperwork/media_1plist.txt |colordiff | $(brew --prefix git)/share/git-core/contrib/diff-highlight/diff-highlight

3c3
<         16D4F012-5E09-4D3B-ACD4-6768C0DA2048 = Dict {
---
>         502C691E-AEE5-4729-B540-722F1C681B19 = Dict {
5,6c5,6
<             PolicyProcess = mdutil
<             PolicyDate = Thu Jul 25 10:07:47 CST 2024
---
>             PolicyProcess = STORE_ADD
>             PolicyDate = Tue Aug 27 19:30:08 CST 2024