In order to communicate with FAST Search via its API, we need to know the port on which the QRServer is running.

I followed these steps to locate it:

1. Log into the FAST admin site (http://server:port/admin).
2. Navigate to System Overview.
3. Locate "Search Dispatcher" and click the spyglass icon:

   

    

4. I successfully used the value, 15100 for "Info Name" = "http":

   

Notes:

1. Port 15100 appears to be the default out-of-the-box port number for the QRServer. 

2. Use this code similar to the following to instantiate a connection to FAST:

 ISearchFactory searchFactory;

    NameValueCollection nameValueCollection = new NameValueCollection();

    nameValueCollection.Add("fastsearchengine", "Com.FastSearch.Esp.Search.Http.HttpSearchFactory");
    nameValueCollection.Add("Com.FastSearch.Esp.Search.Http.QRServers", "fastdemoback:15102");
    nameValueCollection.Add("Com.FastSearch.Esp.Search.Http.RequestMethod", "GET");

    searchFactory = SearchFactory.NewInstance(nameValueCollection);

3. If you pick a wildly incorrect port, you get a helpful error message:

4. However, if you pick the port number listed on the overview (15102) you don’t get that helpful error message.  Instead, later when you try to access any data via a search or reference a FAST view, you get an error.  Debugging shows that the searchFactory’s view count is zero.  You’ll be given the message "Failed to fetch Search View List".

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