[TECK]

Originally Posted by amcd

this will not work in a multi-server setup.

True, I'm not there yet with multiple servers.
Use this instead:

$cl = new SphinxClient();
$cl->SetServer($sphinx_server, $sphinx_port);
$cl->SetLimits(0, $vbulletin->options['maxresults']);
$cl->SetMatchMode(SPH_MATCH_ALL);
...
$res = $cl->Query($vbulletin->GPC['query'] , $sphinx_index);
...
if (!is_array($res))
{
	$sphinxerror = $cl->GetLastError();
	if ($sphinxerror)
	{
		// server not running
	}
}

I run a failsafe on my server... if searchd is crashing, vbulletin search will take over automatically.

Edit: Let me dig into this more... I think that searchd will still spit an error, even if it's running, something like (no error).
I will post at sphinx site to ask Andrew how exacly the last error works.