agreed! the backends + directory providers + executors makes up for a complex mix.

But this is something I think we should solve with a larger collection of _IndexManager_ implementations: an IM is able to setup the different moving parts automatically, so significantly simplifying the configuration (and understanding) needed.

The next mayor release is mainly about Lucene 4 and we can certainly improve on this as well, but I'd rather improve on this ASAP so when working on 5 we have a better idea of what exactly needs to be improved: this is why I've spent a huge amount of time on HSEARCH-882 recently as it would provide a *single configuration line -> fully automated cluster setup* .. still that work was delayed because of complexities with Infinispan.

This backend is one of the "expert level" moving parts, and while at this stage the purpose is to allow expert users to try it I definitely intend to wrap it up in simpler configuration or some fully working example, but also this is a step needed as a requirement to be able to wrap it up in something easier to consume.

Thanks for the comments, going to rewrite most of this part.