This section highlights administrative tasks and tools you should understand when working with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services as deployed in the solution. Note that the material presented here takes advantage of the Windows SharePoint Services technical documentation that Microsoft makes available online. Links to this existing and continually updated body of information are used and provide immediate access to more detailed background material, pertinent procedures, and additional resources.

If you are an administrator or IT technician supporting day-to-day operations in a data center running a solution, you may find the following online Window SharePoint Services technical information especially beneficial:

• Introducing the Administration Tools for Windows SharePoint Services
  Provides an overview of the administration tools available for use with Windows SharePoint Services.
  
• Administrator's Guide for Windows SharePoint Services
  Guide for installing, configuring, managing, and maintaining Windows SharePoint Services.
  
• Troubleshooting Windows SharePoint Services
  This document provides troubleshooting information for some of the most common problems encountered when using Windows SharePoint Services.
  

Windows SharePoint Services includes tools to help you manage the Web sites you create. You can manage Windows SharePoint Services locally by using HTML Administration pages or a command-line interface, or you can manage it remotely by using HTML Administration pages. In addition, you can set properties - such as whether alerts are enabled for a virtual server - by using the command-line interface or HTML Administration pages.

For information on the using Windows SharePoint Services administration tools, administrative page types, remote administration and security, setting configuration properties, and related topics, see the TechNet article Introducing the Administration Tools for Windows SharePoint Services.

Windows SharePoint Services uses a database to store and manage site content. Just as each virtual server can host multiple top-level Web sites, each virtual server can rely on multiple content databases to store site content. If you are running Windows SharePoint Services on a single server hosting just a few sites, you can probably use the same content database for all of your sites. If you want to add capacity in a server farm, you will most likely need several content databases to store site data for each virtual server.

Content databases are created and managed at the virtual server level. When you create a new content database (or when you extend a virtual server), you specify the database connection settings for the content database. You can update these settings if, for example, the database server name changes.

You can create or delete content databases and specify settings, such as the database server to use for the content and how many top-level Web sites to allow per content database in a server farm setting, by using pages in HTML Administration. In HTML Administration, you can view the full list of content databases for your virtual server and see the current, warning, and maximum level of sites for the content database at a glance.

For information on managing content databases by using HTML administration, see the TechNet article Managing Content Databases.

SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is a tool that you can download from the Microsoft Download Center to analyze and report on your Windows SharePoint Services installation and content. SharePoint Configuration Analyzer reports on a wide range of configuration errors and also copies a set of log files, configuration files, and other data to a results folder for further analysis or archiving.

For information on installing and working with the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, see the TechNet article Using SharePoint Configuration Analyzer.

There are several methods you can use to back up and restore data for Windows SharePoint Services. Each of these methods allows you to back up and restore data, but each method acts at a different level of granularity and may require different permissions.

You can back up and restore data for Windows SharePoint Services by the following methods:

• Use the Stsadm.exe command-line tool to back up individual site collections.
  For more information and steps, see the TechNet article Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites.
  
• Use the SharePoint Migration Tool (smigrate.exe) to back up individual sites and subsites.
  For more information and steps, see the TechNet article Migrating and Upgrading Web Sites.
  

For an overview of backup options, see the TechNet article Backup and Restore Options for Windows SharePoint Services.

The following TechNet articles describe the steps you can take to keep your Windows SharePoint Services Hosting deployment operating properly.

• Analyzing Web Site Usage
  This article describes the Windows SharePoint Services features you can use to analyze the usage of a site.
  
• Managing Unused Web Sites
  To control the number of unused Web sites on your server, you can automatically send notices to site owners requiring them to confirm that their sites are in use and how to delete unconfirmed sites automatically.
  
• Changing the Application Pool Identity for the Administration Virtual Server
  This article describes how to use the SharePoint Central Administration page to change the application pool identity for the administration virtual server.
  
• Monitoring Events for Windows SharePoint Services
  This article describes how to monitor front-end Web server events, including:
  
  • Web Site and SQL Server Events
    
  • Services Events
    
  • Active Directory Events
    
  • Virus Scanner Events
    
  • HTML Transformation Events
    
  • Baseline Server Events
    

The following TechNet links provide information on the topics listed below them:

Troubleshooting Installation Issues

• Message: Cannot Connect to the Configuration Database
  
• Extending a Virtual Server
  
• Installing on Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
  
• Message: Page Cannot Be Found
  
• Reusing Application Pools
  
• Running Windows SharePoint Services on a Domain Controller
  
• Site Migration Error When Migrating a Site from SharePoint Team Services 1.0
  
• Typical Installation Ends Without Creating a Site
  

• Message: Database Already Exists
  
• General Site Use Issues
  
• Full-Text Search Issues
  
• Restoring a List, List Item, or Document
  
• Message: Service Unavailable
  
• Security Issues
  
• Usage Analysis Issues
  
• SSL Termination Is Not Supported
  
• Web Part Errors on the Home Page
  
• Assigned IP Addresses Are Not Supported
  
• Configuring Kerberos Authentication
  

Additional troubleshooting information is available in the TechNet article Troubleshooting Windows SharePoint Services.