Clayton has posted a great article about accounts required for MOSS installation:
"Installing MOSS 2007 in a farm environment requires a few dedicated accounts and can be quite a confusing process. I came across a couple of great resources so I thought I would save you the heart ache and post them here. "
http://claytonj.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/moss-2007-setup-accounts/
Account | Purpose | Scope | Used By | Needed | Requirements |
Setup User | User account that is used to run setup on each server. | Farm | Person installing | Setup | Member of the administrator group on each Web front-end (WFE) server and application server computer in the farm. Member of the following SQL Server groups with SQL Security administrator and database creator rights on SQL servers. |
SQL Server Service | This is the security context used By Central Administration for creating databases and other SQL configurations. | Farm | MSSQLSERVER, SQLSERVERAGENT | Setup | Member of the administrators group on each server on which setup runs, administrators group on each SQL Server computer, database system administrator, and member of the SQL security administrator and database creator SQL Server groups. |
Server Farm | This account is also referred to as the database access account. | Farm | Central administration site application pool identity | Setup | Member of administrators group on each WFE server and application server computer in the farm with SQL security administrator and database creator rights on SQL Servers. Database Owner (DBO) for all databases and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed. |
SSP App Pool | App | SSP App Pool Identity | SSP Creation | No configuration is necessary. The following permissions are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed: DBO for the Share Service Provider (SSP) content database, read/write permissions for the SSP content database, read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications that are associated with the SSP, read permissions for the configuration database, read permissions for the central administration content database, and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers | |
SSP Service Account | Used to run timer jobs and for interserver communications. | Farm | SSP Timer service; SSP Web services | SSP Creation | Same as SSP App Pool Account |
Windows SharePoint Services Search | Used as the service account for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. There is only one instance of this service, and it is used by all SSPs. | Farm | Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service | SSP Creation | Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. Permissions automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed include the following: read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications, read permissions for the configuration database, and read/write permissions for the Windows SharePoint Services Search database |
Search Default Content Access Account | The default account used by a specific SSP to crawl content. It is used when an account is not specified for a content source. | App | Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service | SSP Creation | Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. It requires read access to external or secure content sources that you want to crawl using this account. Additional permissions for this account are automatically configured when SharePoint is installed. |
Search Specific Content Access Account | This is an optional account that is configured to replace the default content access account to crawl a specific content source. | Rule | Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service | Create a new crawl rule | Read access to external or secure content sources that this account is configured to access. |
User Profile and Properties Content Access Account | Account used to connect to a directory service, such as Active Directory, a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory, Business Data Catalog (BDC) application, or other directory source and used to import profile data from a directory service. Note: If no account is specified, the Search Default Content Access account is used. If the Search Default Content Access account does not have read access to the directory or directories that you want to import data from, you will need to specify a different account. You should plan for one account per directory connection. | App | Profile Import | SSP Creation | Read access to the directory service. For an Active Directory service connection that enables Server Side Incremental, the account must have the Replicate Changes permissions for Active Directory directory services provided by Windows 2000 Server. This permission is not required for Windows 2003 Active Directory. Manage user profiles right. View rights on entities used in Business Data Catalog import connections. |
Excel Services Unattended Service Account | Excel Calculation Services uses this account to connect to data sources that require user name and password strings for authentication. The SSP App Pool account is used if none is specified. For security, plan to use a low-privileged account that does not have the database privileges of the SSP App Pool Account. | App | Excel Services Service | SSP Creation | Read/write access to the Excel data sources. |
App Pool Identity | Used to access content databases associated with the Web application. Plan one for each application pool. | App | Web Applications | App Pool Creation | No configuration is necessary. SQL Server privileges that are automatically assigned to this account are member of Database Owners Group for content databases associated with the Web application, read/write access to the associated SSP database only, and read permission for the configuration database. Additional privileges for this account on WFE servers and application servers are automatically configured by SharePoint. |