Providing Shared Services

You can configure a server farm to provide services used by another server farm or by portal sites on the same server farm. When you configure a parent portal site on the parent server farm, all other portal sites on the parent server farm automatically become child portal sites. For more information, see About Shared Services.

Caution  You should back up the server farm before and after you configure it to provide shared services. Once you configure the server farm to provide shared services, you cannot undo the operation.

There are up to four different accounts that are used in a shared services scenario between two portal sites:

• CentralAdminAppPool application pool account for the parent server farm
• Application pool account for the parent portal site (MSSharePointPortalAppPool)
• CentralAdminAppPool application pool account for the child server farm
• Application pool account for the child portal site (MSSharePointPortalAppPool)

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.

Provide shared services

1. On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage shared services for the server farm.
2. On the Manage Shared Services page, in the Shared Services Provider section, do the following:
   1. Select the Provide shared services check box.
   2. In the Portal site that provides shared services list, click the portal site that provides the shared services.
3. To use a separate portal site to host personal sites, in the Personal Site Services section, do the following:
   1. Select the Use personal site services check box.
   2. In the Personal site provider box, type the URL of the portal site that hosts personal sites.

   Specifying a personal site provider allows you to use a separate portal site to host personal sites. All users accessing personal sites on this server are automatically redirected to the server you specify.

   If there are any existing personal sites, you must manually transfer the data to the new portal site.

   Note  To avoid conflicting security settings, ensure that the site group rights on the portal site hosting personal sites match the site group rights specified on the child portal sites.

4. In the Direct Access to Search Service section, in the Accounts with access to the Search Services box, type the name of one or more accounts on the child server farm that you want to have access to search and index resources on the parent server farm.

   Type the account name in the format DOMAIN\user_name. You can also type the user principal name (UPN).

   Note  You must specify the configuration database administration account used by the child server farm. Additional accounts are required only if a child portal site uses a different application pool account than the parent portal site. If each child portal site uses a different application pool account (by default, they all share one application pool account), you must add each child portal site application pool account.

   Click Select accounts or groups to select a user or security group from Microsoft Active Directory directory service.

5. Click OK.
6. On the message box that appears, click OK.
7. On the Shared Services Setup Confirmation page, click Close to return to the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration page.

You can now configure the child server farm to use shared services. For more information, see Using Shared Services.

Configure the parent server farm to crawl the child portal site and to return alerts

As the final step of configuring shared services, configure the parent portal site to crawl content on the child portal site and to return alerts. Do the following:

1. Create a Web site content source that points at the child portal site. For information about creating a content source, see Adding a Content Source. When you create the content source, use the following parameters:
   • Specify the address as http://child_portal_site_URL.
   • Specify the crawl configuration as This site - follow links to all pages on this site.
   • If you have enabled advanced search administration mode, create a new source group describing the child portal site.

   Note  You could add the site to the Site Directory and suggest the site for crawling, but that limits the options for scoping.

2. Create a Site Directory content source that points at the child portal site.
   • On the Configure Search and Indexing page, in the Site Directory section, click Add Site Directory content source.
   • Specify the address as http://child_portal_site_URL.
   • Create a source group that describes the child portal site.
3. Create a rule to allow alerts on individual SharePoint list items. For information about creating a rule, see Adding a Rule That Includes or Excludes Content. When you create the rule, use the following parameters:
   • Create the rule in the same content index as the Web site content source.
   • Specify the path as http://child_portal_site_URL/sites/*.
   • For the crawl configuration, select the Allow alerts for individual SharePoint list items check box.