Managing the Configuration Database

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Microsoft uses a database to store configuration and site mapping information for your server computer, the virtual servers on your server computer, and for servers in a server farm. This database is called the configuration database. You need one configuration database for your server farm, whether your server farm is one server computer with everything on it, or several server computers.

If you install on a single server using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) (WMSDE), the configuration database is created for you. If you install in a server farm environment, or with SQL Server computer, the installation ends without creating a configuration database, and you must create the database using HTML Administration pages or the command line.

Using HTML Administration to Create or Connect to a Configuration Database

When you install without installing WMSDE, the setup program ends by opening Central Administration and displaying a page where you specify the application pool to use for administration tasks. After you specify the application pool, you go to the Set Configuration Database Server page where you specify whether to use existing domain accounts or use Active Directory directory service to create user accounts, and create the configuration database. For more information about account types, see "Managing Users and Cross-Site Groups" in the Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide.

Create a configuration database after setting up

  1. When Setup finishes, you are taken to the Configure Admin Virtual Server page.

  2. In the Application Pool section, select Use an existing application pool or Create a new application pool .

    • If you selected Use an existing application pool , select the application pool to use.

    • If you selected Create a new application pool , under Application pool name , type a name for the application pool, and under Select a security account for this application pool , select a type, and then enter the required information.

      Note that if you select Configurable , be sure to specify an account that is a member of the Security Administrators and Database Creators roles for the SQL Server database. It is recommended that you use a dedicated account for this account, rather than a user's logon account. Also, it is recommended that you use the same account for each application pool that hosts the same content.

    • Click OK .

    After you configure the administrative virtual server, you must restart Internet Information Services (IIS), by typing iisreset on the command line. After IIS is reset, you can click the link on the Application Pool Changed page to continue configuring .

  3. After IIS has been restarted, on the Application Pool Changed page, click OK .

  4. On the Set Configuration Database Server page, in the Configuration Database section, enter the server name and database name to use.

  5. Under Database connection type , select Use Windows authentication (more secure, recommended) or Use SQL authentication (less secure) .

  6. If you selected Use SQL authentication (less secure) , you must also type the database account user name and password.

  7. In the Active Directory Account Creation section, select one of the following options:

    • If you are using a Microsoft Windows domain, select Users already have domain accounts. Do not create active directory accounts .

    • If you are using Active Directory directory service outside of a Windows domain, select Automatically create active directory accounts for users of this site .

  8. If you selected Automatically create active directory accounts for users of this site , you must fill in the Active Directory Domain and Organization Unit information.

  9. Click OK .

If you already have a configuration database for your server farm, you can use the Set Configuration Database Server page to connect to the existing configuration database. You must connect to the configuration database whenever you add a server to a server farm, and before you can extend any virtual servers on that server.

Connect to a configuration database

  1. Click Start , point to All Programs , point to Administrative Tools , and then click SharePoint Central Administration .

  2. Under Server Configuration , click Set configuration database server .

  3. In the Configuration Database section, enter the server name and database name for the existing configuration database.

  4. Under Database connection type , select Use Windows authentication (recommended security level) or Use SQL authentication (less secure) .

  5. If you selected Use SQL authentication (less secure) , type the database account user name and password.

  6. Select the Connect to existing configuration database check box.

  7. Click OK .

Using the Command Line to Create or Connect to a Configuration Database

You use the same operation on the command line to create or connect to a configuration database. The setconfigdb operation allows you to perform either action, depending on the parameters you include. The setconfigdb operation takes the following required parameters: databaseserver (ds), databaseuser (du), and databasepassword (dp). (Note that the -du and -dp parameters are only required if you are using SQL Server authentication; they are not used with Windows authentication.) In addition, you can use the following optional parameters: connect , databasename (dn), and hh , which specifies that you are in server farm mode .

To create a new configuration database and specify a name for the database, you would use the following syntax:

stsadm -o setconfigdb -ds <database server> -dn <database name>-du <database user> -dp <database user password> -hh

For example, to create a new configuration database called "config1" at https://mydomain, on the Sql_02 database server, using Windows authentication, you would type:

stsadm -o setconfigdb -ds mydomain -dn config1

To connect to an existing configuration database, you would use syntax similar to the following:

stsadm -o setconfigdb -connect -ds <database server>-dn <database name> -du <database user>-dp <database user password>

After you have set up the configuration database, you can begin extending virtual servers. For more information, see Extending Virtual Servers .

For more information about using the setconfigdb operation, see Command-Line Operations .