Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Chapter 17: Configuring SharePoint Portal Server 2003 457
portal site, but only the first three are configurable with respect to which SQL Server
will host that database. Following is an explanation of those three databases and a few
other items appearing in this section of the Configure Server Topology page:
■ Configuration Database Server. The configuration database maintains connections
between servers and content databases, stores server settings, and
identifies which content is to be provided by which virtual servers. There is
one configuration database per stand-alone server or per server farm. Each
server in the farm must be associated with the configuration database by connecting
it to that database. The default name of the database is SPS_01_Config.
Typically, the page will already display the server assigned during the product’s
post-installation Portal Configuration Wizard. Therefore, clicking the
listed server will show a page displaying the name of the existing configuration
database (as well as the database server name). Also, the option of disconnecting
the managed server from that database will be displayed. This is the preferred
method for removing a server running SharePoint Portal Server from the
server farm.
■ Content Database Server. The content database is where all portal site content
will be placed. By default, the server hosting the portal site content database
is the same as the configuration database. This can be changed here to
distribute the database load. Also, because the portal site will have many
sites—and potentially thousands—more than one database on more than one
server can be manually defined. However, only one server is designated as the
default database server on whose databases new sites will be created. When
you create a new site, the databases on the designated default database server
are queried and the new site’s content is added to the database that has the
most available space. The default database name for the first portal site content
database is composed of the first eight characters of the first portal site’s name,
followed by a number, and followed by _SITE. For example, if the portal site
is named Woodgrove, the content database would be Woodgrov1_SITE. Keep
in mind that even though this is the default database used for both portal and
team sites, a separate database can be defined and used to contain team sites.
■ Component Settings Database Server. This database stores service information
for each portal site in a deployment. For example, each time SharePoint
Portal Server 2003 updates an index, it creates a gatherer log entry in a table in
the component settings database for the portal site. The default database name
will start the same way as the content database but end with _SERV. Using the
same example as in the previous paragraph, the database would be named
Woodgrov1_SERV.
■ Profile Database Server. The profile database is used to store the content
for the My Site feature, which gives each portal site user a personal site. It will