Installing SharePoint Portal Server 2003 in AD Account Creation Mode

As mentioned previously, Windows SharePoint Services can be installed to allow the creation of new user accounts instead of using existing AD user accounts. Account Creation mode for AD replaces the local account creation feature in SharePoint Team Services v1.0.

This is important for organizations that want to provide access to SharePoint sites to individuals who are not part of the organization itself. For example, a nonprofit organization might want to provide a website that is accessible to members that provides a calendar of events, current and past newsletters, discussion groups so that members can share their thoughts and opinions, and information for company contacts. The organization might not want this site to be generally available to any anonymous user, but would instead alert members by mail or email of the site's availability. With this functionality, each user can log on to the site and participate in the different features offered by SharePoint, and the site administrator(s) can monitor the details of who is accessing the site and what features they are using, to get a better sense of who the active members are.

To run Account Creation mode, the Windows SharePoint Services server must be a member of a Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 domain, but the server cannot be a domain controller. An SMTP-compatible messaging system must also be installed, and Exchange Server 2003 is recommended.

NOTE

When in Active Directory Account Creation mode, certain administrative tasks are unavailable in the HTML Administration pages. For example, you cannot create a top-level website, you cannot enable Self-Service Site Creation, and you cannot add a user to a site from the Central Administration pages. To perform these actions in Active Directory Account Creation mode, you must use the command line or the object model.

The Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Administrator's Guide provides the steps that need to be followed to complete the installation.