Setting up Windows SharePoint Services
What is Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)
Windows SharePoint Services provides a basic web portal
framework that allows users to create sites, or web pages, to store
information.? This information is entered in ?Web Parts?, which WSS includes
several templates for.? The most commonly used web part is the Document
Library. ?This can be used to store files of any type, most commonly
Microsoft Office files.? There are also web parts for an Events list, or
calendar; Tasks; Issues; Contacts; Surveys; Web Pages; and a few other items.? Most
of these web parts are basically in the form of a list. ?Each of these list
templates includes certain columns (or fields) and views.? In addition to the
built-in templates you can create a Custom List and add any fields and
views to it that you wish from scratch.? All list based web parts, including
document library, can be customized by adding, removing, and/or changing
columns.? Customized lists can even be saved as a template for reuse when
creating new lists.? New lists can also be created by importing an Excel
spreadsheet.
The biggest difference between a
SharePoint list and an Excel spreadsheet is that multiple people can access and
modify items in a SharePoint list at once.? Each item (or row) in a SharePoint
list is stored independently.? This allows one user to change item #5 while
another user is editing item # 10, for example.? To do the equivalent in Excel
the first user would have to finish their edits then send the file to other
user, or save the file to a file share.? Take a simple inventory list for
example.? If you want multiple people to work on adding, removing, and updating
items in that list, doing this with an Excel spreadsheet would be difficult.?
It would require one person to be the owner of the spreadsheet(s) and they would
then have to reconcile the changes made by the other users.?? With SharePoint,
a URL and a web browser is all the users would need to make changes to all items
in the list.? If two people happen to modify the same item in the list the user
who tries to save the 2nd change is alerted.? They are then shown
what columns are different between the item (or ?row?) he had opened and the
current values stored in SharePoint.
Document libraries are a special
list in SharePoint that allows for organizations to get away from using file
shares, public folders, and e-mails to access, share, and transfer files.? Once
a SharePoint server is setup, the first step is to get content into it.? The
next step is to train users to goto SharePoint to access those files instead of
a file share or asking someone to e-mail it to them.? When a team is working on
a document, for example, they can use SharePoint to store that document so
multiple team members can access the same document and always be sure they are
accessing the most recent version.? Document Libraries also support versioning
and check-in\check-out capabilities.? This allows previous versions of the
document to be accessed, if needed, and the file to be ?check-out? to prevent
other users from making changes to it while someone is editing it.? In
addition, SharePoint is integrated with Office 2003 and lets users open and
save files directly to SharePoint.? It even allows lists in Excel spreadsheets
to be linked to lists in SharePoint.? Updates in Excel or SharePoint can then
be synchronized as needed.? Event calendar setup in SharePoint can be linked to
Outlook so user can see the SharePoint calendar directly in Outlook (all
updates must be done in SharePoint).? For more information on SharePoint and
Office 2003 integration, see:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sppt/wss/spoffint.mspx.
SharePoint uses Microsoft SQL (SQL
2000, 2005, MSDE or SQL Express) for its database backend.? If MSDE or SQL 2005
Express is used, SharePoint can be used free of charge.? WSS, or SharePoint
Services, comes built into Windows 2003 R2 and is a free download for Windows
2003.? This article covers the features provided in Windows SharePoint Services
2003. ?Windows SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) is an upgrade to WSS that
provides additional features and functionality.? SPS is not free, for a
comparison between WSS and SPS see
KB830320.
?
SQL 2000 and 2005 provide full text searching support in
SharePoint.? This allows users to search all content, including text within
Microsoft Office documents in document libraries.? Because of this if an
existing SQL server be utilized, when installing SharePoint it should be to
provide this support.
SharePoint can be used to setup
sites for different projects, departments, divisions, and more.? For example, a
Sales site can be setup that stores all sales collateral, expense templates, a common
calendar, policies and procedures, contacts, and etc.? Under the Sales site a
sub-site could then be created for each sales team to store their personal
documents, leads, tasks, notes, etc.? Another common site is one for IT.? This
site could be used to store an FAQ, How To documents, contacts, downtime
schedule, an issues lists, etc.
All of this functionality is
provided without having to write or edit a single line of code.? SharePoint
provides a basic drag-and-drop web interface that can be customized as needed.
Installing SharePoint (WSS)
For both Windows 2003 R2 and Windows 2003, IIS with ASP.NET
enabled, must be installed first before installing SharePoint.? When SharePoint
is installed using the steps below, the default web site used by IIS will be
?taken over? by SharePoint.? Thus, if users goto http://<server> they
will get the SharePoint web site.? This can be changed later, without having to
re-create any content.
Windows 2003 R2
1. Under
Administrative Tools, click ?Manage Your Server?
2. Click
?Add or remove a role?
3. Click
Next > on the Preliminary Steps screen
4. Choose
?SharePoint Services? from the list and click Next >
5. Click
Next > on the Summary of Selections screen
?
You should be prompted for your Windows 2003 R2 CD2.
?
This will also install MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine)
on this machine for SharePoint.
6. Click
Finish when the install process is done
7. Close
the Manage Your Server wizard
Windows 2003
1. Download
Windows SharePoint Services with SP2 from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B922B28D-806A-427B-A4C5-AB0F1AA0F7F9&displaylang=en
2. Run stsv2.exe
to start the SharePoint setup program
3. Accept
the license agreement and click Next >
4. Choose
?Typical Installation? and Next >
?
The ?Server Farm? option allows you to connect to an existing SQL
database server.? Select this option if you have SQL setup already in your
environment and don?t want to use MSDE.
Configuring SharePoint
Once the setup program has finished, SharePoint is ready to
use.? However, a few steps should be carried out to enable some features.
Creating a new DNS entry for SharePoint
Using the steps below, a CNAME or alias to the server
running SharePoint will be created.? This will be used to give the server a friendlier
name, assuming the server is named something like ?DENSRVWEB01?.
1. On a
server with the DNS Administration tools installed, launch DNS Manager under
Administration Tools
2. If
needed, right click on DNS and choose Connect to DNS Server? and connect
to a server running DNS
?
This server should be a Windows 200x DNS server, if it is a
domain controller make sure it is in the same site as the SharePoint server you
are configuring so you will not have to wait on AD replication.
3. Expand
<server>\Forward Lookup Zones
4. Right
click on your domain name and choose New Alias (CNAME)?
5. Enter
the friendly name for the SharePoint server in the Alias name box
?
I would suggest ?portal? or ?info?
6. Enter
in the FQDN for the server SharePoint was installed on, or click Browse?
to browse for the server
7. Click
OK
8. Close
the DNS management console
Now users should be able to access the
SharePoint site using a URL like http://info.company.com.
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