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Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services relies on Microsoft SQL Server. Supported database servers are as follows:
If you do not have SQL Server installed on your server, WMSDE is installed automatically when you install Windows SharePoint Services. If you are using the command-line interface to install Windows SharePoint Services, or if you are using a script to run the installation, you can specify a separate server to use for your database.
Windows SharePoint Services uses two separate databases to run sites within the virtual server — a content database and a configuration database.
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, and 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.
To make it easier to manage site content for large server farms, you can also set a limit on how many top-level Web sites can store content in a content database. You can specify a warning limit and a maximum limit for the number of sites. When a warning limit is reached, an event is logged in the server's Windows NT Event Log, so you can take action. When a maximum limit is reached, no more sites can be created using that content database.
You can specify any number of sites for the warning and maximum number of sites. To determine an appropriate number for your situation, divide the amount of available disk space on the database server by the estimated size for each site (plus a buffer). If you are using quotas, divide the disk space by the disk space quota (plus a buffer).
A buffer allows the number of sites to grow beyond the warning level, but not to exceed your disk space. The size of the buffer is up to you, but make sure to provide enough space for growth so that you don't exceed the maximum number before you can react to a warning event. When the maximum number is reached, no more sites can be created in that content database. Be sure to create a buffer large enough so that your users can continue to create sites as required, without having to constantly create new content databases.
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 SharePoint Central Administration. From there, you can view the full list of content databases for your virtual server, and see the current, warning, and maximum levels of sites for the content database at a glance.
Windows SharePoint Services uses a database to store configuration and site mapping information for your server computer, the virtual servers on your server computer, and for servers in a server farm. This database is called the configuration database. You need one configuration database for your server farm, whether your server farm is one server computer with everything on it, or several server computers.
If you install Windows SharePoint Services on a single server using Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (Windows) 2000 (WMSDE), the configuration database is created for you. If you install Windows SharePoint Services in a server farm environment, or with Microsoft SQL Server, the installation ends without creating a configuration database, and you must create the database by using HTML Administration pages or the command line.