Deploying a Shared Services Scenario

Shared services are portal site services that are shared across server farms. The services are centrally managed from a single portal site for one or more portal sites on one or more server farms.

You can configure shared services on any of the following topologies:

• Large server farm
• Medium server farm
• Small server farm
• Single server with Microsoft SQL Server 2000

You cannot configure shared services on the stand-alone configuration.

Note  On the child portal sites, ensure that site group rights that affect access to shared services are the same rights as those on the parent portal site.

Security Considerations

The portal site application pool for the child server farm is a member of the db_owner database role in SQL Server on the profile, component settings, and content databases for the parent portal site.

The configuration database administration account for the child server farm is a member of the db_owner database role in SQL Server on the configuration database for the parent server farm.

Operating System and Setup Requirements

Ensure that you have installed Microsoft Windows Server 2003 before you install SharePoint Portal Server.

Deploy shared services

1. Deploy and configure the parent server farm. For more information, see Deploying a Small Server Farm, Deploying a Medium Server Farm, Deploying a Large Server Farm, or Deploying a Single Server Configuration.
2. Deploy and configure the child server farm. For more information, see Deploying a Small Server Farm, Deploying a Medium Server Farm, Deploying a Large Server Farm, or Deploying a Single Server Configuration.
3. Configure the parent server farm to provide shared services. For more information, see Providing Shared Services.
4. Configure the child server farm to use shared services. For more information, see Using Shared Services.
5. Back up the parent and child server farms. For more information, see Backing Up Data and Backing Up and Restoring Servers on the Server Farm.

When you are using shared services, the following applies for alternate access settings:

• You must manually synchronize the alternate access entries for the parent server farm and all child server farms. If you add, change, or delete an alternate access setting entry on the child server farm, you must add, change, or delete that entry on the parent server farm.

  The portal site and document library URLs are generated from the alternate access setting list for the child server farm. Search results use URLs from the alternate access setting list for the parent server farm. Changing an entry in the alternate access setting list (such as changing a default URL, or adding or changing an extranet URL) requires you to do this on both the child server farm and parent server farm.

• The alternate access entry list in the parent server farm should be a superset of the alternate access entry lists in all child server farms. Each child server farm must keep alternate access entries for its portal sites and document libraries up-to-date.

For more information about alternate access settings, see About Alternate Portal Access Settings.

Related Topics

Shared Services Deployments