| Begin by assessing your existing content, identifying the needs and habits of your users, and outlining your deployment goals. This information can help you decide how to streamline your document management processes and create an effective dashboard site to deliver valuable information to your organization. Server Planning You can use SharePoint Portal Server to complete the following tasks : -
Document management. You can use SharePoint Portal Server to store and manage content in the workspace. -
Creating or updating indexes . SharePoint Portal Server crawls, or reads through, content to create an index of the content. You can use SharePoint Portal Server to crawl and create indexes for content such as Web sites and pages, file servers, Lotus Notes version 4.6a and R5 databases, computers running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and Exchange 2000 Server, and other SharePoint Portal Server computers. -
Searching. After indexes are created, you can use SharePoint Portal Server to search for content. TIP For optimal performance, distribute these tasks across multiple servers.
 To learn more about load planning on single server vs. multiple servers, see "Server Deployment Recommendations," p. 125. Before you determine how many servers you need, consider how your organization will use SharePoint Portal Server. When doing so, it is a good idea to plan for your current requirements as well as for your future needs. To learn more about planning your deployment, see "Planning a Deployment for ABC Company," p. 520. Your server configuration depends on how you intend to use SharePoint Portal Server. Before selecting a configuration, consider the following questions: -
How many users will use SharePoint Portal Server primarily for document management? -
How many users will use SharePoint Portal Server primarily for searching? -
How many documents do you expect to maintain? -
How many concurrent users do you expect on a server? -
How many workspaces do you expect to maintain on a single server? The recommendation is to have no more than 15 workspaces per server. -
What content do you want to crawl for the index, and where is it located? For example, do you want to crawl other SharePoint Portal Server computers, Exchange 5.5 or Exchange 2000 Server computers, Lotus Notes databases, file servers, or Web sites? -
Do you expect the number of users for a specific workspace to increase significantly? If so, you may want to consider hosting that workspace on its own server. -
Will you need to increase the number of servers to dedicate individual servers to specific tasks? If you expect to crawl large numbers of content sources, you may want to dedicate one server to creating and updating indexes and another server to searching. For more details about planning a deployment, see "Planning a Deployment for ABC Company," p. 520. Client Planning By design, there is not an individual client application. SharePoint Portal Server commands are extensions, integrated in the menus of Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office applications. Within those applications you cannot access SharePoint Portal Server commands from the menus , but you can use other applications to create documents. Therefore, you must use Windows Explorer or a Web browser to perform SharePoint Portal Server document management tasks on documents created by using those applications. Users must install the client components in order to meet the following conditions: -
To provide complete workspace management functions. Including the ability to configure security, and create and manage content sources. -
To access all other SharePoint Portal Server Help. After you have installed the client components, you must add a Web folder that points to the workspace. The address of the workspace is http://server_name/workspace_name. NOTE The procedure for adding a Web folder varies depending on the operating system you are using. For detailed instructions, see your operating system Help.
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On Windows 2000 Professional, go to My Network Places and use the Add Network Place Wizard to add a Web folder that points to http://server_name/workspace_name. -
On Windows 98, go to Web Folders in My Computer, and then use Add Web Folder to add a Web folder that points to http://server_name/workspace_name. Network Planning Prior to implementing SharePoint Portal Server, you should review and address any network concerns. The main concern is to ensure that TCP/IP is the protocol running on your network. Once TCP/IP is installed, you can install SharePoint Portal Server on Windows NT version 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Portal Server honors the trust relationships between domains. If you want to use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and index workspace propagation together, both the server dedicated to creating and updating indexes and the destination server must be in Windows 2000 domains. However, as stated earlier, do not install a server running clustering as this is not supported. Proxy Server If your organization uses proxy servers, you should plan where to place the proxy servers in relation to your servers. If you are using index propagation, ensure that there is not a proxy server between the server dedicated to creating and updating indexes and the server dedicated to searching, or ensure that any proxy server between the two servers allows Windows file share access. Refer to the readme file and Microsoft's Web site for more information on this section. Your proxy server must be configured to pass the following verbs. -
SharePoint Portal Server Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) verbs. -
The Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV) set of HTTP extensions. -
A custom SharePoint Portal Server verb called INVOKE. By default, SharePoint Portal Server uses the proxy server settings of the default content access account, taken from the current proxy server settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer. NOTE Changes to the proxy server settings do not affect other applications. For example, you can configure the server to use a specific proxy server without affecting Internet Explorer.
The proxy setting for Internet Explorer on the client can affect how the client and dashboard site communicate with the server, because the client components and the dashboard site communicate with the server by using HTTP. TIP You must use a tool called proxycfg.exe located in the drive:\SharePoint Portal Server\Bin directory to configure proxy settings for the ServerXMLHTTP object, if the dashboard site is behind the proxy. The dashboard site uses ServerXMLHTTP to make HTTP requests. These requests are necessary to return the correct page to the client. The ServerXMLHTTP object has its own proxy settings. See "Advanced Topics" in Administrator's Help for more detail.
The client components and the server communicate by using the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). If you are using SharePoint Portal Server over the Internet and DCOM is not enabled between the client and the server computers, the Category Assistant feature of SharePoint Portal Server does not function on the client computer. In addition, the user is unable to manage updates or content sources. Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) Specify a FQDN for your server. Then you can access the server by using the FQDN either on your intranet or on the Internet. On your intranet, you access the server by using http://server_name/workspace_name. If you want to use an FQDN, you access the server by using http://server_name.domain/workspace_name. For example, the FQDN of a server named Works on the adventure-works.com domain would be Works.adventure-works.com. If you want to use SharePoint Portal Server with FQDNs, you must use the proxycfg.exe tool located under the SharePoint Portal Server\Bin directory to exclude access to the SharePoint Portal Server computer through the proxy server. The location of this directory depends on where you installed SharePoint Portal Server. To learn more using the Proxycfg.exe tool, see "Using the Proxycfg.exe Tool," p. 625. | 
