If you’ve managed to get the opportunity to mess with the newly released SharePoint 2016 Preview, and have been messing around with Search, you may have run in to an issue with not being able to create the search topology.
Thankfully, the errors in 2016 seem to be quite informative. What it’s saying is that the topology can’t be activated without the “Search” or “Single Server Farm” or “Custom” role enabled. My VM was configured using the “Application” role, hence the error.
Worry not! This is an easy fix to resolve the issue.
Just browse to Central Admin – System Settings – Convert Server Role in this Farm.
From the drop-down select “Search” and click Apply.
Voila!
Hope this helps!
Sharepoint Admin Stuff 