This section provides information about the complexities of Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) in terms of architecture, deployment, provisioning implementations, and security features. If you are new to MPS, you can obtain a more comprehensive understanding of MPS from the material presented here. If you are already an experienced MPS user, you can use the information in this section as a reference or refresher on more advanced topics.

MPS is an extensible Microsoft Windows-based platform that provides an XML-based framework for automating the provisioning of services, which include hosted Web, Microsoft SQL Server database, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, and Active Directory services. MPS enables service providers to streamline the steps of the provisioning process within a data center.

By using MPS to automate provisioning tasks, you can reduce setup time, mitigate administrative costs, and minimize the occurrence of errors. With MPS and its providers, you can automate the tasks required to provision and manage services within a data center for a large number of users, and thereby streamline the completion of customer requests. MPS focuses on providing the business logic necessary to implement application provisioning. MPS uses providers to invoke the functionality of specific applications, such as Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft SQL Server database, and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web services.

MPS is an extensible framework that allows you to create customized provisioning solutions. This permits MPS to support almost any existing hosted functionality. You can implement this extended functionality through the ASP.NET Web Service or through a custom UI.

With the benefits that MPS provides, service providers can reduce the total cost of ownership in the provisioning environment. MPS achieves these benefits by automating provisioning tasks with the use of the following components:

• XML requests
  
• Namespaces and procedures
  
• MPF Client components
  
• Provisioning engines
  
• Providers
  

MPS includes the components that enable DNS provisioning. To facilitate a more completely automated provisioning process, DNS tasks must be included, because changes to many network services require DNS updates. In MPS, a DNS provider is included to enable you to automate complex DNS tasks that otherwise can be error-prone due to manual configuration processes. This contributes to a more fully-automated provisioning workflow because you can control and log changes to DNS and roll back failed transactions whenever necessary.