User and Service Accounts

It is strongly recommended that you use a dedicated account to log in and install Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Server 2007 servers. This account can also be used as the identity of the Central Administration site application pool, or it can be unique. By design, the Welcome menu displays "system account" if that account is used to log on to any application pool or Web site. This behavior continues even if the application pool identity is changed to the Network Service. This means your administrator account should not be used as an application pool identity or to install an SharePoint Server 2007 server.

Table 5-2 provides a detailed list of the accounts that are required by a SharePoint Server 2007 farm installation.

Table 5-2: Accounts Required by an SharePoint Server 2007 Farm Installation
Open table as spreadsheet

Account	Purpose	Scope	Used by	Needed	Requirements
Setup User	User account that is used to run setup on each server.	Farm	Person installing	Setup	Member of the administrator group on each Web front-end (WFE) server and application server computer in the farm. Member of the following SQL Server groups with SQL Security administrator and database creator rights on SQL servers.
SQL Server Service	This is the security context used By Central Administration for creating databases and other SQL configurations.	Farm	MSSQLSERVER, SQLSERVERAGENT	Setup	Member of the administrators group on each server on which setup runs, administrators group on each SQL Server computer, database system administrator, and member of the SQL security administrator and database creator SQL Server groups.
Server Farm	This account is also referred to as the database access account.	Farm	Central administration site application pool identity	Setup	Member of administrators group on each WFE server and application server computer in the farm with SQL security administrator and database creator rights on SQL Servers. Database Owner (DBO) for all databases and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed.
SSP App Pool		App	SSP App Pool Identity	SSP Creation	No configuration is necessary. The following permissions are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed: DBO for the Share Service Provider (SSP) content database, read/write permissions for the SSP content database, read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications that are associated with the SSP, read permissions for the configuration database, read permissions for the central administration content database, and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers.
SSP Service Account	Used to run timer jobs and for interserver communications.	Farm	SSP Timer service; SSP Web services	SSP Creation	Same as SSP App Pool Account
Windows SharePoint Services Search	Used as the service account for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. There is only one instance of this service, and it is used by all SSPs.	Farm	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service	SSP Creation	Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. Permissions automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed include the following: read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications, read permissions for the configuration database, and read/write permissions for the Windows SharePoint Services Search database.
Search Default Content Access Account	The default account used by a specific SSP to crawl content. It is used when an account is not specified for a content source.	App	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service	SSP Creation	Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. It requires read access to external or secure content sources that you want to crawl using this account. Additional permissions for this account are automatically configured when SharePoint is installed.
Search Specific Content Access Account	This is an optional account that is configured to replace the default content access account to crawl a specific content source.	Rule	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service	Create a new crawl rule	Read access to external or secure content sources that this account is configured to access.
User Profile and Properties Content Access Account	Account used to connect to a directory service, such as Active Directory, a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory, Business Data Catalog (BDC) application, or other directory source and used to import profile data from a directory service. Note: If no account is specified, the Search Default Content Access account is used. If the Search Default Content Access account does not have read access to the directory or directories that you want to import data from, you will need to specify a different account. You should plan for one account per directory connection.	App	Profile Import	SSP Creation	Read access to the directory service. For an Active Directory service connection that enables Server Side Incremental, the account must have the Replicate Changes permissions for Active Directory directory services provided by Windows 2000 Server. This permission is not required for Windows 2003 Active Directory. Manage user profiles right. View rights on entities used in Business Data Catalog import connections.
Excel Services Unattended Service Account	Excel Calculation Services uses this account to connect to data sources that require user name and password strings for authentication. The SSP App Pool account is used if none is specified. For security, plan to use a low-privileged account that does not have the database privileges of the SSP App Pool Account.	App	Excel Services Service	SSP Creation	Read/write access to the Excel data sources.
App Pool Identity	Used to access content databases associated with the Web application. Plan one for each application pool.	App	Web Applications	App Pool Creation	No configuration is necessary. SQL Server privileges that are automatically assigned to this account are member of Database Owners Group for content databases associated with the Web application, read/write access to the associated SSP database only, and read permission for the configuration database. Additional privileges for this account on WFE servers and application servers are automatically configured by SharePoint.