Operating System and Database Services

  • Article

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is built on the technologies and services provided by Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (as well as SQL Server 2000).

The core and development-platform operating system services include:

  • Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework

  • ASP.NET 2.0 master pages, content pages, and Web Parts

  • Pluggable service-provider models for personalization, membership, navigation, and enhanced security

  • Database access services

  • Internet Information Services (IIS)

  • Windows Workflow Foundation

  • Windows desktop indexing and search services

SQL Server is the relational database used for storing all content, data, and configuration information used by Office SharePoint Server 2007. SQL Server 2005 is recommended; SQL Server 2005 Express is included as a default part of the installation. SQL Server 2000 can be used as an alternative.

Configuration Database (configdb)

Windows SharePoint Services creates the configuration database during installation. You can have only one configuration database per server farm. The configuration database serves as the settings store for the following:

  • Sites

  • Databases

    Note

    This does not include databases that the Office SharePoint Server 2007 server running Excel Services can connect to, or other line-of-business data. Those are considered external data.

  • Servers

  • Web applications

Content Databases

You can have one content database per Web application. Windows SharePoint Services provides the ability to scale sites for the namespace across multiple content databases. The database serves as the data store for site collections and content within the site collection including the following:

  • Windows SharePoint Services site details

  • Structure details

  • User content

  • Files

  • Security information

Important

No custom third-party schema is allowed in the content database.

Shared Services Provider Database

One Shared Services Provider (SSP) database is created per SSP. The SSP database serves as the data store for the following:

  • User profiles

  • Audience data

  • Business application data

  • Excel Services functions

  • Site usage data

  • InfoPath Forms Services session state information

Search Database

Office SharePoint Server 2007 uses a separate Search database to store search data. The Search database is separate from the SSP database primarily to ease the management of these databases. It also enables the database administrator to back up other Office SharePoint Server 2007 databases at a more granular level. One Search database is created per SSP. The Search database serves as the data store for the following:

  • Search data

  • History log

  • Search log

  • Calculation tables for crawl statistics

  • Links tables and statistical tables

Other Storage: Search Indexes

Search indexes are stored on the file system. The instances of this type of data are registered in the configuration database, and Search will provide a backup/restore plug-in to handle the backup/restore functionality for this data.

Physical Architecture of SharePoint Server 2007

The following figure shows the physical architecture of an Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment.

Physical Architecture

Custom Third-Party Databases

Third-party applications can store their specific data in their own databases. These databases can be registered in the configuration database and therefore can be included in all the common infrastructure operations such as backup, restore, upgrade, and so on.

Note

Though custom databases do not allow schema extensions to Office SharePoint Server 2007, it does allow other independent schema additions.