Many of Microsoft's enterprise-level applications use SQL Server on the back end to host data, content, etc. CRM, Operations Manager, Sharepoint... You get the idea. While many companies have Database Administrators (DBA's) to manage their business-critical databases (perhaps the ones holding customer or sales information), it can be easy to forget to perform regular maintenance on the databases underlying another product. There's enough to know just to size/deploy/operate SharePoint or Operations Manager!
Fortunately, Bill Baer has just released an excellent white paper on recommended maintenance strategies for the databases that host content and configuration settings for SharePoint (MOSS and WSS).
Before you implement any database maintenance tasks or modify your SharePoint Products and Technologies databases, read the following MSDN support articles:
1. Support for changes to the databases that are used by Office server products and by Windows SharePoint Services
2. Information about the Maintenance Plan Wizard in SQL Server 2005 and about tasks that administrators can perform against SharePoint databases
With that out of the way, you can dive into the meat of the white paper:
CHECK FOR AND REPAIR CONSISTENCY ERRORS BY USING DBCC CHECKDBAbout DBCC CHECKDBDBCC CHECKDB and performanceMEASURE AND REDUCE FRAGMENTATIONMeasure fragmentation in a SQL Server 2005 database (sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats)Measure fragmentation in a SQL Server 2000 database (DBCC SHOWCONTIG)Reducing Fragmentation for a DatabaseReducing fragmentation for a specific table and its indexesUsing ALTER INDEXFine tuning index performance by setting fill factorShrinking data filesShrinking a database by using Transact-SQL commandsShrinking a database by using SQL Server 2005 Management StudioCREATING SQL SERVER 2005 MAINTENANCE PLANSConfigure a SQL Server 2005 Database Maintenance Plan
Download the White Paper here: Database Maintenance for Microsoft® SharePoint® Products and Technologies