Server and Security settings for app to manipulate MOSS

In order to create web application/site collection and manipulate SharePoint programmatically, few things you need to ensure, without these you cannot be successful.

You can develop the program as console app, web app or any kind of service. But make sure

1. The server where the app is running from, should be having SharePoint binary installed and being added in the same farm. If all the servers in the farm is 64 bit make sure the concerned server is also having same OS version installed. If you are adding the server in the farm, it would never find the required SP context and hence web app itself cant be found.

2. Identity should be a domain account

3. Identity with which the app is running it should be having

- The db_owner role for content databases and search databases associated with the Web application
- The identity being used to create a web application / site collection needs to have write access on the configuration database and the SharePoint_AdminContent database.
- Access to read from and write to the associated SSP database.

4. Identity may not be part of farm admin group in order to follow least privilege access.

5. If you are not creating site collection or web app, you can very well use App Pool ID of the web app as an identity. But to keep separate security audit trail, you better use different account.