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Here are some valuable tips about MOSS and WSS to keep in mind, extracted from the NZ TechEd 2007:

SQL Server:

Databases can get big, really big, if you store lots of documents in SharePoint. Split your databases so they have around 50GB to 100GB. This will make many things easier, such as backup/restore for example.

Don’t update statistics for SharePoint database. Trust that SharePoint will take care of that. If you update statistics, this can actually make things worse.

During the first days, when you probably will be loading lots of documents, you will probably want to set the database recovery mode to simple to improve performance.

Use aliases when configuring database access, this will make a lot easier when moving from one SQL Server to another.

IIS:

                Do not configure IIS, configure SharePoint. Yes, I know, I don’t feel very comfortable with that too, but that’s how SharePoint works, so accept it and be happy.

                Get to know how AAM works, avoid IIS host headers.

                Get to know how Security Zones work, they can be very useful. Remember that you need a security zone with NTLM support in order to allow search.

                If you are used to ASP.Net applications, remember that web.config files work differently here. They stay at InstallDir\InetPub\wwwroot\wss\virtual directories\{GUID of Site}

                If you need your SharePoint to have internet access (read RSS’s for example) you need to change the web.config of each web site that needs this access.

                Application pools for SharePoint takes a lot of RAM (consider at least 1 GB per pool). Avoid creating too many of them. If you are considering having both SharePoint and SQL server on the same box, memory can become a serious issue.

Security:

                Always use domain accounts for all the SharePoint services.

                Create one domain account for each of the following:

                                -Farm account

                                -SSP account

                                -Office SharePoint Search Service

                                -Default content crawling (this one has read access to everything, so shouldn’t be mixed with others)

                                -Standard app pool account

                Do not mix these accounts

Log files:

                Always check SharePoint’s log files after setups/upgrades.

Windows Event Logs:

                Consider using MOM as your central management system, will make things easier

General:

                The first SharePoint Server in a Farm is like the first AD Server in a domain. So that requires more attention when installing/configuring.

                Features: Installing is different than activating

                You have content deployment so you can mirror your authoring server to the production server. It works incrementally by default, and is only for MOSS. But the API that supports it can be used on WSS as well. Do not edit content on the destination server when using this feature.

                You can also copy content using stsadm command line tool, site management tool, backup/restore or custom codes, but if you are replicating an authoring site to production, the content deployment is your guy.

Hotfixes:

                There are known bugs, and hotfixes for them. Remember to check in blogs and MS website.

Staging:

                There is no staging server support for content, only code. Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense. You can create/change your content in production without making it visible.