The quickest way to get started with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is to install it on a single server computer. This allows you to set up a small scale installation to host several Web sites, without performing a lot of steps. When you install Windows SharePoint Services on a single server, you can choose between the following options:

• Using the default options during Setup, you can install Windows SharePoint Services and publish a working Web site (based on WMSDE) in minutes.

• When you install Windows SharePoint Services using the default settings, the Setup program automatically installs Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) (WMSDE) and uses it to create the database for your Web sites. You don’t have to perform any other configuration steps to create the database.

This installation scenario offers you the ability to host several Web sites without a lot of overhead.

• Using the remotesql=yes property, you can install Windows SharePoint Services to work with an existing installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 or later.

This installation scenario allows you to support a larger set of Web sites. When you use this method, you must perform additional steps to configure SQL Server and Windows SharePoint Services to work together. Consider using SQL Server instead of WMSDE if you anticipate supporting more than 10 active and large Web sites.

You can also use SQL Server on a remote server to handle larger scale installations. For more information about installing Windows SharePoint Services with a separate SQL Server computer, see Remote SQL Server Deployment.

Note: The database size required for Windows SharePoint Services depends on the number and size of the Web sites your server supports.

Preparing the Server
Before you install and configure Windows SharePoint Services, you should check to make sure you meet the hardware and software requirements. The following sections help you review the requirements.

Hardware and Software Requirements

To be able to set up Windows SharePoint Services on a single server, you must meet the following criteria:

• A computer running Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, or Web Edition). Note that the hardware requirements for Windows SharePoint Services are the same as the Windows Server™ 2003 installation requirements.

• The computer must be configured as a Web server (running Internet Information Services (IIS) in IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode)

• and must be running ASP.NET. For more information about installing and configuring IIS and ASP.NET, see the Windows Server™ 2003 documentation.

• The computer must be using the NTFS file system.

Microsoft Windows includes a conversion utility (Convert.exe) that you can use to convert an existing file allocation table (FAT) volume to NTFS — without losing data.

• The client computers must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later (best results with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later) or Netscape Navigator 6.2 or later to use Windows SharePoint Services features.

For a complete list of hardware and software requirements, see Hardware and Software Requirements.

Configuring the Server as a Web Server

IIS is not enabled by default in Windows Server™ 2003. To make your front-end server into a Web server, you must enable IIS.

Enable IIS and configure it to use IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode

1.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Manage Your Server.

2.
On the Manage Your Server page, click Add or remove a role.

3.
In the Preliminary Steps pane, click Next.

4.
In the Server Role pane, click Application server (IIS, ASP.NET), and then click Next.

5.
In the Web Application Server Options pane, accept the default of ASP.Net and then click Next.

6.
In the Summary of Selections pane, click Next.

7.
Click Finish.

8.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

9.
In Internet Information Services manager, click the plus sign (+) next to the server name, and then right-click the Web Sites folder and select Properties.

10.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Service tab.

11.
In the Isolation mode section, clear the Run WWW service in IIS 5.0 isolation mode check box, and then click OK.

Note: The Run WWW in IIS 5.0 isolation mode check box is only selected if you have upgraded to IIS 6.0 on Windows Server™ 2003 from IIS 5.0 on Windows 2000. New installations of IIS 6.0 use IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode by default.

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Installing Windows SharePoint Services with WMSDE
Because you are installing to a single, stand-alone server, you can run the Setup program as is, accepting all the defaults. In the default installation, WMSDE is installed as part of the Setup program.

Caution: During Setup, in a default installation, Windows SharePoint Services extends the default virtual server (Default Web site in IIS) with Windows SharePoint Services. If you have a Web site running on the default Web site in IIS, that Web site will be taken over by Windows SharePoint Services during installation. Also, before installing Windows SharePoint Services, verify that FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions from Microsoft are not running on the virtual server on port 80. If FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions are running on the default virtual server, the virtual server will not be extended when you install Windows SharePoint Services. (If you upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows Server” 2003, FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions were installed by default to port 80.) For more information, see Installation Considerations for Windows SharePoint Services.

Install Windows SharePoint Services with default settings

1.
Download STSV2.exe to your computer.

You can download STSV2.exe from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

2.
Run STSV2.exe to extract the installation files and start the installation.

3.
On the End-User License Agreement page, review the terms, and then select the I accept the terms in the License Agreement check box, and then click Next.

4.
On the Type of Installation page, click Typical Installation, and then click Next.

5.
On the Summary page, click Install.

6.
Setup runs and installs Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and WMSDE.

Install Windows SharePoint Services specifying the location of the WMSDE database

If you want to specify the location to install the WMSDE database, use the /datadir= option with the setupsts.exe command line tool.

The syntax is as follows:

setupsts.exe /datadir=”path\\”

For example, to install the WMSDE database to the d:\program files\wmsdedata\ directory, type the command:

setupsts.exe /datadir=”d:\program files\wmsdedata\\”

Download and install Windows SharePoint Services, specifying the location of the WMSDE database

1.
Download STSV2.exe to your computer.

You can download STSV2.exe from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

2.
Run STSV2.exe to extract the installation files.

3.
When the Windows SharePoint Services installation starts, click Cancel.

4.
Click Start, and then click Run.

5.
In the Open box, type c:\program files\STS2Setup_\setupsts.exe /datadir=” \\” (where “LCID” is the locale ID for the version you installed, and “path” is the path where you want to install WMSDE).

For example, if you installed the US English version of STSV2.exe, then the folder is c:\program files\STS2Setup_1033.

6.
Click OK.

The Windows SharePoint Services Setup program opens.

7.
On the End-User License Agreement panel, review the terms, and then select the I accept the terms in the License Agreement check box, and then click Next.

8.
On the Type of Installation panel, click Typical Installation, and then click Next.

9.
On the Summary panel, click Install.

10.
Setup runs and installs Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and WMSDE to the specified path.

After Installing Windows SharePoint Services with WMSDE

After Setup finishes, your default Web site is extended with Windows SharePoint Services. Your browser window opens to the home page of your new Web site, and you can start adding content right away, or you can customize the site or set administrative options by using HTML Administration pages. Some actions you can take to get users working with your site are:

• Adding users to the site (for more information, see Managing Users and Cross-Site Groups).

• Customizing the home page and other pages in the site (for more information, see Customizing a Web Site Based on Windows SharePoint Services).

• Setting up version control (for more information, see Managing Versions and Checking Documents In and Out).

If you have multiple virtual servers, you can extend additional virtual servers with Windows SharePoint Services. To extend a virtual server,

you use HTML Administration pages. For more information, see Extending Virtual Servers.

Note: If you had a previous version of SharePoint Team Services or FrontPage Server Extensions, you will need to upgrade the virtual server, rather than extend it. For more information, see Upgrade Considerations.

After you have used Windows SharePoint Services with WMSDE for some time, you may run into performance or storage problems, and you may need to move to a more scaled out solution. If you find yourself in this situation, you can switch to using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as your database instead of WMSDE. For more information, see Migrating from WMSDE to SQL Server.

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Installing Windows SharePoint Services to Use SQL Server
Before you are ready to install Windows SharePoint Services, you must be sure that SQL Server 2000 is installed with Service Pack 3 or later and ready to host Windows SharePoint Services data.

If you want to use Windows SharePoint Services with SQL Server 2000 on the same computer, you must take specific steps to configure your server computer before, during, and after installing Windows SharePoint Services. For example, to set up Windows SharePoint Services, you must run Setup from the command line, using the remotesql=yes property. This topic describes the steps needed to configure a single server running both Windows SharePoint Services and SQL Server 2000. This topic does not cover using a remote SQL Server computer. For more information about using SQL Server on a remote computer, see Remote SQL Server Deployment.

Preparing SQL Server

You must configure your SQL Server installation to work with Windows SharePoint Services. For Windows SharePoint Services to be able to connect to your SQL Server database, it is recommended that you configure the SQL Server database to use Windows authentication.

Enable Windows authentication for SQL Server

1.
On your server computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server,and then click Enterprise Manager.

2.
In Enterprise Manager, click the plus sign (+) next to Microsoft SQL Servers.

3.
Click the plus sign (+) next to SQL Server Group.

4.
Right-click the SQL Server name, and then click Properties.

5.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Security tab.

6.
Under Authentication, select Windows only, and then click OK.

Running Setup

By default, when you install Windows SharePoint Services, the Setup program installs WMSDE. To use Windows SharePoint Services with SQL Server, you must install Windows SharePoint Services without installing WMSDE. To do so, you run the Setup program with the remotesql command-line option. For more information about the remotesql option and other Windows SharePoint Services Setup options, see Command-Line Options for Setupsts.exe. If you prefer, you can also install Windows SharePoint Services without WMSDE by running a quiet, command-line installation, rather than running the full Setup program. For more information about a quiet installation, see Performing a Quiet Installation.

Install Windows SharePoint Services without installing WMSDE

1.
Download STSV2.exe to your computer.

You can download STSV2.exe from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

2.
Run STSV2.exe to extract the installation files.

3.
When the Windows SharePoint Services installation starts, click Cancel.

4.
Click Start, and then click Run.

5.
In the Open box, type c:\folder\setupsts.exe remotesql=yes (where c:\folder is the path to the Setupsts.exe file on your local computer).

For example, if you installed the US English version of STSV2.exe, then the folder is c:\program files\STS2Setup_1033.

6.
Click OK.

The Windows SharePoint Services Setup program opens.

7.
On the End-User License Agreement page, review the terms, and then select the I accept the terms in the License Agreement check box, and then click Next.

8.
On the Type of Installation page, click Server Farm, and then click Next.

9.
On the Summary page, verify that only Windows SharePoint Services will be installed, and then click Install.

10.
Setup runs and installs Windows SharePoint Services.

After Installation

After the Setup process is complete, you can configure your administrative virtual server (including specifying an application pool to use for the virtual server processes), connect to SQL Server, and then configure your virtual servers with Windows SharePoint Services. You perform these steps by using HTML Administration pages.

Configure the administrative virtual server

1.
On the Configure Admin Virtual Server page, in the Application Pool section, select Create a new application pool.

Note: You can also use an existing application pool, but any Web application that is using the same application pool can modify the Windows SharePoint Services databases. This is a potential security risk.

2.
Type the name to use for the new application pool, and then specify whether to use a predefined or configurable security account for the application pool.

• If you selected Predefined, select the security account to use.

• If you selected Configurable, type the user name and password to use.

3.
The account you use must have rights to create databases in SQL Server. In other words, this account must be a member of the Security Administrators, Process Administrators, and Database Creators roles in SQL Server.

4.
Click OK.

If you have used an account that does not already have database creation rights in SQL Server, you can give the account this access in SQL Server Enterprise Manager. This is a one-time-only change. Once you have granted database creation permissions to the account used by the Windows SharePoint Services administration virtual server, this account can create databases for any subsequent virtual servers.

Grant database creation rights in SQL Server

1.
On your server computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server,and then click Enterprise Manager.

2.
In Enterprise Manager, click the plus sign (+) next to Microsoft SQL Servers, click the plus sign (+) next to SQL Server Group, and then click the plus sign (+) next to your SQL Server computer.

3.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Security, and then right-click Logins, and click New Login.

4.
In the Name box, type the account in the form DOMAIN\name.

5.
Click the Server Roles tab.

6.
In the Server Role list, select the Security Administrators, Process Administrators, and Database Creators check boxes, and then click OK.

After you configure the administrative virtual server (and grant SQL Server rights to the new application pool account, if necessary), you must restart Internet Information Services (IIS) by typing iisreset on the command line. After IIS is reset, you can click the link on the Application Pool Changed page to continue configuring Windows SharePoint Services to work with SQL Server.

Connect to SQL Server

1.
On the Set Configuration Database Server page, in the Configuration Database section, enter the server name and database name to use.

2.
Under Database connection type, select Use Windows integrated authentication (more secure, recommended).

3.
Click OK.

Extending a Virtual Server with Windows SharePoint Services

After you set up the connection to SQL Server, you are ready to extend your virtual servers with Windows SharePoint Services. When you extend a virtual server, Windows SharePoint Services is applied to a virtual server and a top-level Web site is created. To extend a virtual server, you use HTML Administration pages.

Extend a virtual server with Windows SharePoint Services and connect to SQL Server

1.
On the SharePoint Central Administration page, click Extend or upgrade virtual server.

2.
On the Virtual Server List page, click the name of the virtual server to extend.

3.
On the Extend Virtual Server page, in the Provisioning Options section, select Extend and create a content database.

4.
In the Application Pool section, select either Use an existing application pool or Create a new application pool.

Note: It is recommended that you create a new application pool for each virtual server, so that they run in separate processes. This application pool should use a domain account, but it does not need to have database creation rights in SQL Server — the administration virtual server account will create any databases required.

If you selected Use an existing application pool, select the application pool to use. If you selected Create a new application pool, enter the new application pool name, user name, and password to use.

5.
In the Site Owner section, in the Account name box, type the user name for the site owner (in the format DOMAIN\username if the user name is part of a Windows domain group).

6.
In the E-mail address box, type the e-mail address that corresponds to the account.

7.
In the Database Information section, select the Use default content database server check box, or type the database server name and database name to use for a new content database.

8.
If you want to specify a path for the URL, in the Custom URL path box, type the path to use.

Note: If you are using quotas, you can also specify the quota template to apply in the Quota Settings section.

9.
In the Site Language section, select the language to use.

10.
Click OK.

After a few moments, the virtual server is extended and a confirmation page is displayed. You can open the home page for your new Web site in your browser by using a link on the confirmation page. You can continue to extend other virtual servers or configure Self-Service Site Creation so users can create their own sites.

Source: Microsoft.com