Essential SharePoint 2007, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13. Administering SharePoint

In Chapter 1, I showed you how to get started with SharePoint with a basic installation. I didn't go into detail there because I wanted to focus on what you can do with SharePoint rather than on the specifics of installing and administering a server. In this chapter, I expand on your installation options and show you how to configure SharePoint in a production environment. After installation, I show you how to enable:

• Access via the Internet

• Anonymous access

• Forms-based authentication for external users (extranet)

• Self-service site creation

• Backups and restores

• Activity auditing to help maintain security

• Search and icons for PDFs and other file types

These tasks will help you get your server up and running smoothly. Information on administering other aspects of SharePoint is included with the task-specific chapters earlier in this book. Information on upgrading from earlier versions of SharePoint is found in Appendix A, and a guide to the stsadm.exe utility command is found in Appendix B.

Installing SharePoint

You can install SharePoint in different configurations that range from simple to complex. The main configuration options are listed in Table 13-1.

Table 13-1. Overview of SharePoint installation options

Installation option	Server type	Advantages	Disadvantages
Basic	N/A	Dead-simple installation	Database runs on same server (WID) Can't add SharePoint servers to this configuration
Advanced	Standalone	Simple installation Can change the location of the database to ...