A lot of clients and colleagues ask me how I build out SharePoint in my lab so I decided to author a simple "how I did it" article on SharePoint 2010 installation. My environment is an 8GB Vista 64 Bit Ultimate running VMWare workstation 7.0. The host operating system typically only supports my Subversion repository and runs nothing else, all development, testing, and configuration happens on my development (guest) OS which, in this case is a 64 Bit Windows Server 2008 R2 *** It must be 64 bit ***.

Warnings and Gotchas

• SharePoint Server must be 64 Bit
• If you install the server as a domain controller it should have a fixed/static IP address
• No matter how well you configure your server the SharePoint installer will still want to install additional roles and services from the internet therefore the server must have a network connection
• SQL Server requires version 10.0.2714 or so which is quite difficult to configure as it requires several hot fixes to get to the necessary patch level

This server is a full SQL Server, Domain Controller, SharePoint Application Server, and Development Server so it’s more than just "all-in-one". For that reason, I have included some screenshots showing how I configured everything on this server.

Here’s the requisite software

• Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 Bit)
• SQL Server 2008 – You will have to every service pack imaginable so please please please get the most recent media you can find
• VMWare or HyperV Virtual Environment
• SharePoint 2007
• Visual Studio 2010
• SharePoint Designer 2010

Download the Windows Server 2008 R2 ISO

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx

Install Windows Server 2008 R2 on VMWare or in your HyperV environment – The steps to follow can easily be ported to a HyperV installation so don’t worry, just continue on.  If you’re building a physical box, no problem, simply continue on past the VMWare portion.

Note that I’m naming this server something generic so that I can clone it before installing SharePoint 2010, that way if I make a mistake I can roll back.

Don’t be stingy on the space, you’ll regret it later if you are

After installation completes you should see a screen similar to the one shown below

Before you do anything (if this server is going to be a Domain Controller), you need to give it a hard IP

Add the Active Directory Domain Services role

Set the password in computer management (since we’re not part of a domain yet do not use active directory users and computers ‘ADUC’)

Leave the "DNS Server" checkbox checked, this will allow you to easily test Alternate Access Mappings in SharePoint

The server will reboot and log you back in automatically, if you are not logged back in remember to use the administrator account as the accounts you previously had on the server may no longer be valid depending on the password complexity that you originally chose.

Add the following roles if you haven’t done so already

• Application Server
• Remote Desktop Services
• Web Server (IIS)
• IIS 6 Management Compatibility

Leave the default services selected for the IIS Web Server (IIS) Role

Add IIS 6 Management Compatibility (required by SharePoint 2010)

After reboot, under administrative tools open Active Directory Users and Computers. Create an organizational unit called "Service Accounts" and create the following users.

• SharePoint Application Pool
• SharePoint Search Service
• SharePoint Search Content Access
• SQL Service

Also create a SharePoint Administration account that you might use instead of your personal login. Hint, this is useful when you want to take screenshots and not have your name on every single item (Unless you’ve got a nerdy name like Ulysses and you want to see it everywhere).

Run windows update

Now shut down the server and take a snapshot

Take a snapshot!

The next part of this series will cover the SQL 2008 installation and configuration.

Popularity: 6% [?]