Microsoft Office Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services use a number of different databases for different tasks.

These databases are:

• <...>_PROF
• This is the profile database and contains SharePoint profile information for the Portal
• One of these for each Portal
• <...>_SITE
• This is the site database and contains all of the Portal and WSS site information
• At least one of these for each Portal or WSS instance.  To help load balance, more can be created through the WSS Administration user interface.
• <...>_SERV
• This is the Service database and contains the alert definitions anf notifications, gatherer logs
• One of these for each Portal
• <...>_Config_DB
• This is the Configuration database and contains the server definitions for the farm environment
• Only one of these for the entire farm.