Using the Central Administration

July 22, 2010 · by dave.webb · in Configuration, Security, Tips and Tricks

Once SharePoint is installed it can be configured and managed using the Central Administration. There will be a shortcut to this in the Start Menu on the server but, as it is web based, can be accessed anywhere on the network using a browser. As it is configured to listen on a random port I’ll run it on the server first to find out what port to use.

When logged in I’m presented with the following options:

After installation there are lots of things to configure. These are the most important for my setup:

Diagnostic logging
Regional settings
Email settings
Alternate Access Mappings
Site permissions
Search scopes

Note: when allowing access to the Central Administration remotely it is important to consider the following security arrangements:

Use a non-standard TCP port to make it harder for malicious users to guess the URL of the site
Restrict access by IP address or range
Configure the server to require secure connections in IIS