Hello Craig,
Apologies for a delay, for in my mind I had replied already days back, just coming back to this post today I realised I hadn't.
Anyway, regarding shared configurations, everything you do in IIS is written in XML files (applicationHost.config XML files), so when setting up a farm, I have to add a website to every instance of the farm. So if I have made some changes in configuration of the website, I have to run around making changes in every server, this is where shared configuration comes in, we share configuration files on a shared network. in your case you'll be sharing this configuration out of your main box and tells every other server to look for configuration changes. Concept is basically similar to shared content, but adding shared configuration, you'll be making changes (weather content or site) on main server to be replicated to all others in farm.
In order to set up shared configurations, create a folder on main server (say sharedconfigurations) <<-- this is where you'll be replicating the applicationHost.config file, give permission of domain admins (or whatever you have setup your domain as, you can as well create a dedicated user for that, for example wwwconfig user with read and write permissions to that shared configuration folder)
Step 1 will be exporting the configuration file, go to IIS manager at server level and you'll find icon shared configurations
Once you open that, you'll find check box of "enable shared configuration" - dont check it yet, export file first to that shared configuration folder
Once you click export, it will ask you for the place to export to (your shared configuration folder) - use your wwwconfig user, enter password and you'll find encryption keys option - this key is used when you'll setup configuration on other servers, to confirm for shared configuration.
Step 2 : Check that "enable shared configuration" enter wwwconfig user, password and encryption, and you'er done setting up shared configuration.
now you only have to do step 2 on other servers, same method, rather exporting configuration files, just enable shared configuration.
when you create application pool and setup site on main server, all that will be replicated to other servers, you dont have to setup application pools and sites on other servers, this makes the site management very easy.
only thing, you have to take care of, if for example you're adding an application that you'll be keeping on one server only, then just take servers out of shared configurations and once you're done with setup, re-enable shared configurations again.
Regarding database replication of ideal tables, do ask for advice of Ken Task, he has expertise in that area.
some guide at the end would really be worth while, as setting this whole scenario isnt easy task, though Windows server makes the process easy, but its all the attention for setup details that makes a mess. I would have done it practically myself, but then due to hardware limitations I postponed the idea .
