Essential SharePoint 2007: A Practical Guide for Users, Administrators and Developers

Installing Portal Server halts SharePoint Services and web sites on the server during installation. Send an alert to users before beginning an installation or schedule the installation for a time when no one is using the server. You should also back up the server before installing the new software.

To install and configure SharePoint Portal Server on a server already running SharePoint Services:

1. Log on with administrative privileges to the server using the Remote Desktop utility and run the SharePoint Portal Server installation from CD or from a download. The installation is straightforward and takes about 30 minutes.

2. When install is complete, Portal Server displays the Configure Server Farm page. If you are configuring a single server, you can simply enter contact information and click OK. SharePoint displays the Create Portal Site page shown in Figure A-2.

3. You can create a portal now, or later. A portal site organizes the other SharePoint sites in your organization as shown in Figure A-3.

The portal site is installed as a new virtual server (in IIS terminology it is a top-level web site). If you have other existing virtual servers, you will need to configure those sites to use a different port or IP address through IIS. For example, to change the port of an existing site, start IIS, select the top-level site and click Action Properties Web Site. Then change the TCP port used by the site and click OK.

The default port for a web server is 80 . Other settings require users to enter the port number to view the site, (for example http://wombat1:40/ )displays the top-level site at port 40 on my server whereas http://wombat1/ displays the site at port 80. If your server has multiple IP addresses, you can use those to distinguish among the sites rather than among port numbers .