Change passwords used for administration accounts (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

 

Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010

Certain Microsoft SharePoint Foundation services and features must be associated with a Windows account in order to run. If the account has a password -- that is, if the account is anything other than the Local System account, the Local Service account, or the Network Service account -- then the password in SharePoint Foundation must be updated whenever the account's password changes.

There are two ways to keep passwords synchronized between Windows and SharePoint Foundation: automatically and manually. To synchronize passwords automatically you can register managed accounts and configure SharePoint Foundation to change the managed accounts' passwords according to a schedule. SharePoint Foundation automatically generates a new password, updates the password in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), and propagates the changes to other servers in the farm. For more information about managed accounts, see Plan automatic password change (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Warning

Windows Server 2008 R2 includes managed accounts at the operating system level. Do not use Windows Server 2008 R2 managed accounts. They are not compatible with SharePoint Foundation managed accounts.

We recommend that you use SharePoint Foundation managed accounts when possible. You can use managed accounts to control the passwords for the following things:

  • Central administration

  • Timer service

  • Service applications

  • Application pools

When managed accounts are unsuitable, you must change passwords in SharePoint Foundation manually when the passwords change in AD DS. Passwords must be changed manually for the following things:

  • SQL Server services

  • The default content access account

The articles in this section contain procedures for changing the passwords for accounts that SharePoint Foundation uses. In this section:

See Also

Concepts

Plan automatic password change (SharePoint Foundation 2010)