Beginning SharePoint® 2007 Administration: Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

4.5. Post-Installation Tasks

The first thing to do after an installation or upgrade is to test SharePoint. Log on as an administrator, start Internet Explorer, enter the URL for the MOSS portal, then open the Central Administration tool and make sure that everything works as before.

You may recall from earlier in this chapter that there are several databases used by MOSS. Microsoft does not want you to modify them in any way other than running SharePoint's web sites and the Central Administration tool. However, there is some interesting information hidden in these databases, as described in the following sections.

4.5.1. The Configuration Database

The purpose of the configuration database is to store SharePoint's configuration settings, such as what front-end servers exist, their role, and what back-end server is used. There is only one single configuration database for all SharePoint servers in the farm. It coordinates how all the SharePoint servers know each other and their roles.

If you need to expand the SharePoint farm with a new front-end server, you install MOSS on it and during the configuration you tell it to connect to the existing SharePoint farm, which is the same as saying the server will use an existing configuration database. This concept is very similar to the way that a new Windows 2003 domain controller is added to an existing Windows domain. If you need to remove a SharePoint server, you simply disconnect it from the configuration database.

The default name ...