---
title: "Distributed search"
sidebarTitle: "Distributed search"
description: "How LanceDB Enterprise distributes index execution and table-data reads."
icon: "network-wired"
availability:
  oss: unavailable
  enterprise: available
  summary: >-
    LanceDB Enterprise distributes index execution and table-data reads across
    plan executors. Embedded LanceDB executes searches in the application process.
---

Distributed search spreads index execution, table-data reads, and caching across
multiple serving machines in LanceDB Enterprise. Query nodes plan queries and
combine results. Plan executors cache index structures and table data and execute
the remote work. See [Enterprise architecture](/enterprise/architecture).

## Embedded search {#embedded-search}

LanceDB OSS runs inside your application process. It searches indexes and reads
table data using that process's resources, including its index cache. Reading a
table from object storage does not by itself distribute query execution across
machines.

## Search interfaces {#search-interfaces}

The shared search guides describe the query APIs and index settings:

- [Vector search](/search/vector-search) and [vector indexes](/indexing/vector-index).
- [Full-text search](/search/full-text-search) and [FTS indexes](/indexing/fts-index).
- [Filtering](/search/filtering) and [scalar indexes](/indexing/scalar-index).
- [Query plans](/search/explain) for inspecting execution and runtime measurements.