Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2007 Bible

Planning Your SharePoint Deployment

Planning your SharePoint deployment is important so that you not only know what to expect during the installation process but also develop your plan for growth and user support. This section presents the decisions you need to make before starting your SharePoint installation, and discusses how your portal will integrate with the authentication and messaging components that may be present in your environment.

Choosing your shared services roles

Shared services in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) can be installed on one SharePoint location while providing services to one or more SharePoint instances, with each installation sharing the same settings and administration model. Before you proceed with installation, decide whether you will provide or host shared services or consume shared services, meaning that you are using the shared services provided by another installation. If you choose to consume shared services, you consume all of the services and cannot pick a subset to use. In other words, if you want to consume the search service provided by another SharePoint farm, you will also consume profiles, audiences, the business data catalog, and the other shared services. Unlike the shared services configuration in SharePoint 2003, deciding whether you will share services provided by another SharePoint deployment is not irreversible, so you can change this setting after initially configuring it.

The shared services provided in MOSS ...