The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard creates the database and gets your servers ready for serving SharePoint. Before you can actually start using SharePoint, however, you have to configure which services you want to run on hardware in your server farm.

The following two services must be configured first for MOSS 2007:

• Office SharePoint Server Search: This service provides search and indexing features to your SharePoint implementation. You must implement the service on at least one front-end server.
• Windows SharePoint Services Web Application: This service must run on any front-end server that you intend to use as a Web server that would serve up the Web pages for your SharePoint server.

For Windows SharePoint Server version 3 installations, you need only to start the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. To start a new service, follow these steps:

1. Browse to the Central Administration Web site. The Central Administration site is hosted on the first machine on which you installed SharePoint. On that machine, choose Start→All Programs→Administrative Tools→SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
2. Click the Operations tab on the Central Administration home page.
3. Click the Servers in Farm link in the Topology and Services section. The Servers in Farm page appears. The Servers in Farm page lists all the servers in your server farm. Use this page to manage all the servers in your server farm.
4. Click the server you want to start services on. The Services on Server: Servername page appears, displaying a table of services that you may start or stop for the server you select. For example, click your front-end MOSS 2007 Web server if you want to start services such as Office SharePoint Server Search or Windows SharePoint Services Web Application.
5. Click the Start or Stop hyperlink on the line of the service that you want to start or stop. MOSS 2007 displays a list of server roles, from which you can select. Selecting a role highlights the service you should enable on the server. If you’re using a stand-alone server, you can’t choose a role for the server.
6. Configure the service if required. Some services, such as the Office SharePoint Server Search, require additional configuration information before the service can start.

You can view a list of all services running on the servers in your server farm on the Servers in Farm page. Follow the first three preceding steps to access the Servers in Farm page.