Section 6.3. Integrating with SharePoint Portal Server 2003

6.3. Integrating with SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Windows SharePoint Services provides a powerful suite of functions for developing portals and working collaboratively. However, Windows SharePoint Services only provides part of the total information portal solution.

6.3.1. SharePoint Portal Server

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 extends Windows SharePoint Services by adding many new features to assist larger and more robust collaborative work environments. In particular, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 provides a solution that enables enterprises to:

• Use single sign-on to enable easy access and relieve administrators from having to maintain multiple user data stores

• Integrate information from various systems (such as Microsoft BizTalk 2004) into a single coherent portal

• Employ a complete end-to-end solution that allows users to search for people, teams, and information through audiences, automatic categorization, site directories, and user profiles

• Use new deployment and management tools to meet the ever-changing needs of the corporate enterprises

6.3.2. The Relationship Between Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Although SharePoint Portal Server 2003 provides more features than Windows SharePoint Services, it is very important to remember that SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is an extension of Windows SharePoint Services. Whereas Windows SharePoint Services allows you to create sites for team collaboration, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 connects these sites to create a global directory. In other words, SharePoint Portal provides a unified interface into all team sites.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many of the features in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 require Windows SharePoint Services. For instance, user profiles are built by using Web Parts, which is a feature from Windows SharePoint Services. In other words, Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 work together to provide a single, complete portal solution. Figure 6-6 illustrates the relationship between SharePoint Portal Server and SharePoint Services.

Figure 6-6. SharePoint relationships

6.3.2.1 Comparing features of Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Table 6-2 provides a feature list of many of the items in SharePoint Portal Server. This table identifies whether the feature is exclusive to SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or if the feature also exists in Windows SharePoint Services. Because SharePoint Portal Server 2003 requires Windows SharePoint Services, none of the features of Windows SharePoint Services are excluded from SharePoint Portal Server.

Table 6-2. Feature matrix of SharePoint Server and Windows SharePoint Services

Feature	Both/SharePoint Portal Server
Alerts	Both
Automatic categorization	SharePoint Portal Server
Audiences	SharePoint Portal Server
Customization from the browser	Both
Discussion boards	Both
Document libraries	Both
Document workspaces	Both
Integration with Biztalk	SharePoint Portal Server
Integration with Microsoft FrontPage 2003	Both
Integration with Microsoft InfoPath 2003	Both
Integration with Microsoft Office 2003	Both
Lists	Both
Meetings	Both
News	SharePoint Portal Server
Personal sites	SharePoint Portal Server
Shared services	SharePoint Portal Server
Single sign-on	SharePoint Portal Server
Site directory	SharePoint Portal Server
Surveys	Both
Templates	Both
Topic areas	SharePoint Portal Server
User profiles	SharePoint Portal Server
Web Part pages	Both

6.3.2.2 Choosing SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services

If SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is an extension of Windows SharePoint Services, when should one be chosen over the other? Table 6-3 provides some guidance for common enterprise scenarios.

Table 6-3. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 versus Windows SharePoint Services

Business problem	Solution
Sharing documents with team members	Windows SharePoint Services. While SharePoint Portal Server 2003 contains Document libraries, if this is the main problem you are trying to solve, Windows SharePoint Services will more than suffice.
Integrating data from several applications into a central location	SharePoint Portal Server. By including the integration of Microsoft Biztalk Server, you can easily accomplish this task.
Sharing contact lists, events, and announcements	Windows SharePoint Services. Windows SharePoint Services allows you to use team sites to post contacts, events, and announcements.
Providing users with easy login options and centralizing the location of user accounts	SharePoint Portal Server. Single sign-on allows users to log in using their Microsoft Windows NT user accounts. Administrators do not have to create additional accounts for users, nor do users have to remember additional passwords.
Allowing users to create their own sites	Windows SharePoint Services. By turning on Self Service Site Creation, users can quickly create their own sites. This frees administrators from having to create sites for the users on demand.
Targeting content based on user roles or interests	SharePoint Portal Server. Using the Audiences feature in SharePoint Portal Server, you can target Web Parts, news, lists, and list items to different audiences.
Notification on document changes	Windows SharePoint Services. By using alerts, users can find out whenever a document has changed.
Managing multiple SharePoint sites	SharePoint Portal Server. You can add, modify, and delete multiple SharePoint sites from SharePoint Portal Server.

Keep in mind that Windows SharePoint Services is the simpler solution; however, SharePoint Portal Server provides additional features. If you choose to use SharePoint Portal Server, you gain all of Windows SharePoint Services, plus the additional features.

6.3.3. Integrating Windows SharePoint Services with SharePoint Portal Server

Even though SharePoint Portal Server 2003 extends Windows SharePoint Services, integration between the two applications is not completely seamless. As with any upgrade (or in this case, integration), it is advisable to back up the server prior to beginning the integration.

Prior to installing SharePoint Portal Server 2003, there are two tasks that need to be completed:

• Verify the configuration is supported.

• Record the SQL Server database names.

Once you have completed these tasks, you can proceed to install and configure SharePoint Portal Server.

6.3.3.1 Verify configuration

Two Windows SharePoint Services configurations are not supported during an install by SharePoint Portal Server:

• Scalable Hosting mode

• Active Directory Account Creation mode

Unfortunately, if either of these modes has been installed, you cannot install SharePoint Portal Server 2003 over Windows SharePoint Services. These options are set during the installation of Windows SharePoint Services and cannot be changed.

To find out if you are in Scalable Hosting mode, open the configuration database for Windows SharePoint Services. Find the Globals table and open it. Search for the UseHostHeader column. If the value is 1 in UseHostHeader, you are in Scalable Hosting mode.

To determine if you are using Active Directory Account Creation mode, open the SharePoint Central Administration site. If the options to create a top-level site, enable Self-Service Site Creation, and adding users are not available, you are in Active Directory account mode.

In either case, you will not be able to integrate your existing Windows SharePoint Service installation with a new installation of SharePoint Portal Server.

6.3.3.2 Record SQL Server database names

During the installation of SharePoint Portal Server 2003, one of the steps will be to identify your database. If you specify the settings of the current Windows SharePoint Services installation, all of the functionality from your existing virtual servers will be retained. Otherwise, your new SharePoint Portal Server 2003 will be created with no information pertaining to the existing Windows SharePoint Services sites.

You can use the SharePoint Central Administration site to gather the names and settings of your content databases for use in the SharePoint Portal Server installation. Figure 6-7 shows the Set Configuration Database Server screen that allows you to enter the configuration information for your databases.

Figure 6-7. Database configuration information

You should note all of the details for each database in your current installation before beginning the installation of SharePoint Portal Server.

6.3.3.3 Install and configure SharePoint Portal Server 2003

For the most part, installing and configuring SharePoint Portal Server 2003 over an existing Windows SharePoint Services installation is very straightforward. However, as with all things, there are some important items to note:

• All virtual servers and content databases will be stopped and disconnected during the installation. You have to manually reconnect the virtual servers to SharePoint Portal Server 2003 once the installation is complete.

• In a server farm, you must install SharePoint Portal Server 2003 on every server that contains an instance of Windows SharePoint Services.

• If the virtual servers for both Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 are located on the same machine and use the same port, you must apply host headers to allow for navigation to the correct sites.

• You must create a new virtual server in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and extend it to map to your existing Windows SharePoint Services virtual servers to access existing SharePoint sites.

6.3.3.4 Consider the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool

As mentioned previously, you need to create a new virtual server once SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has been installed over Windows SharePoint Services. By configuring the new virtual server to extend the existing Windows SharePoint Services virtual servers, you can now access your existing SharePoint team sites. Fortunately, there is another way to map to your existing SharePoint team sites without having to create a new virtual server manually.

The Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool (smigrate.exe) provides you with a method of moving your existing Windows SharePoint Services sites to SharePoint Portal Server 2003. The Migration Tool:

• Backs up all sites to a file

• Restores the sites to the new location

If you have many sites, or the site you are trying to migrate is large, this process could take a very long time to complete. In order to increase performance, you should configure the process with:

• One server running the Migration Tool

• One or more servers acting as the web servers

• One or more servers acting as the database servers

Once you have completed migration, you should be able to leverage the full features of SharePoint Portal Server.