Bummer: WSS 3.0 limitations on SBS 2003

I managed to work around the search problem with full SQL (vs. WMSDE) in my SBS 2003 installation.  The key is to use an AD user account for DB access instead of Network Service.  Before I installed WSS 3.0, I created two user accounts using “Active Directory Users and Groups”.  I didn’t give them any rights or add them to any groups.  I used one account for database access and service account identity and the other as the search content access account (read only access).

The easiest way to have it set up this way is to answer the setup questions with the service account identity (user name and password).  I also configured the search content access account and started the search service using central admin (Central Administration > Operations > Services on Server > Windows SharePoint Services Search Service).

Start > Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Tools.
Click on the Users container in the left hand pane.  You may have to expand your domain container first.
Click on the “Create a New User in the Current Container” toolbar button.
Make up a user name for the database access account and password, but remember it for later.
When it asks if you want an exchange mail box, uncheck the box.
Repeat the above for the search account.

Follow the WSS on SBS 2003 white paper except for the following:

In SBS Step 2 (install wss) change 4b to be “web front end” instead of “standalone”.

In SBS Step 3 (configure sharepoint), after sub-step 3, it’ll ask you whether you want to create or join a farm.

·         Choose “No, I want to create a new server farm”

·         When it asks, tell it the name of your SQL server and make up a new configuration database name.  Also, type in the user name and password from step 1.  Don’t leave the user name blank otherwise it’ll end up using Network Service and that won’t work.

·         Go ahead and click finish and it’ll create the configuration database and the central administration web site (http://servername:somerandomport).  This step took a while for me.

Before SBS Step 4(create new intranet site), start and configure the search service

·         Start > Administrative Tools > SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration

·         Click the Operations tab

·         Click “Services on Server”

·         In the list of services, you should see “Windows SharePoint Services Search” and it is stopped.  Click on it.

·         Fill out the configuration.  For “Service Account” use the database access account you used in SBS Step 3.  For “Content Access Account” use the other account from Step 1.  For “Search Database”, use your SQL server name and make up another (different) database name or use the one it made up for you.  Leave it on Windows Authentication.

In SBS Step 4 (create new intranet site) Make sure that you choose to create a new application pool otherwise you’ll end up using the default app pool that uses Network Service and search will be broken.  (I actually messed this one up.  You can fix it later using IIS Manager to create a new app pool, but it’s a pain.)  And don’t choose Predefined for Network Service, but instead use Configurable and the database access account that you’ve already used twice.

At the end, you want the application pool credentials, sharepoint timer service and the sharepoint search service to all be using the account you created instead of network service.  You can check the app pool in IIS Manager and the services in Administrative Tools > Services.  There is a column for the view called “Log On User”.

You can fix these credentials up, if you like, using “stsadm –o updatefarmcredentials” which will update the app pool and the timer service and give the appropriate rights to the database.  It doesn’t, unfortunately, update the search service, but you can do that using the services property UI (double click on the search service and click on the “Log On” tab).