How To Start with SharePoint (Create VM, Install Windows Server, install SQL Server, install SharePoint)

Some time ago I decided to learn SharePoint. That’s the only powerful thing I’m missing in my professional .NET knowledge. SharePoint is a browser-based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft (Wikipedia). It is a huge platform for Enterprise Content Management, Business Intelligence, simplifying search, collaboration, portal with non-trivial architecture management, integration with Exchange, Social Networking and etc. So this requires a good practice of administering Windows Server, SQL Server and so on. To get started with SharePoint, I’ve made a virtual machine on my computer where Windows Server is installed. I’ve made an instruction that works for me, and that will help my girl-pogrammer friends too. So this is the first part. It’s about how to install a VM on your computer and install Windows Server 2008 R2 OS. 

Virtual Machine

Step 1 – Install virtual machine software

Nowadays you have a large choice of VMs: HyperV, VirtualPC, VMWare, VirtualBox … Some of them are free :) It doesn’t matter what kind of it to install, though it must be 64-bit version, cos we are to install only 64-bit Windows Server inside. It’s OK if you have 32-bit OS on which you are going to install 64-bit VM. I’ve chosen the VirtualBox as a virtual machine tool to install, because it is free and rather simple to work with. It can be downloaded by following the link and selecting the appropriate version https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. I’ve chosen the “VirtualBox 4.2.6 for Windows hosts” variant. Then run the exe file and follow the trivial steps of the installation. Then launch the Oracle VM Virtual Box. It looks like the following (but without any created virtual machines):

Step 2 - Create your own virtual machine

At the time of writing I don’t have access to SharePoint 2013 or SharePoint 2010, unfortunately … because it costs some money. That’s why I will use SharePoint Foundation 2010, that requires Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2008 64-bit. Though we can’t use Windows Server 2012 for SharePoint Foundation 2010 – there will be pretty small difference in usage, if you manage 2010 version. SharePoint Foundation differs from SharePoint in the way that it has fewer services, limited search and account management, but in everything else it is the same.

So, click on the “New” blue round button on the top panel of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. Then type the name of your new virtual machine and select the version. In my case it is “Windows 2008 (64 bit)”. Like here: 

Click Next. Select the amount of RAM for virtual machine:

Click Next. The standard option to select is “Create a virtual hard drive now”:

Click Create. Here you are to choose the format of the file for the virtual hard drive. It’s Ok to select the VDI:

Click Next. Read the description of the options and choose the way to allocate the hard drive – dynamically or fixed sized. My option is first:

Click Next. Choose the size for your virtual machine:

Click Create. That’s it! Now we have a virtual machine created, but it’s “Powered Off” now:

Step 3 – Starting created virtual machine

Now we are almost done with creating the VM, and the task is to start it, and install real Windows Server 2008 R2 inside our created VM. If you are a student, you can download it via www.dreamspark.com (it’s a portal for students with software for training purposes only), another way to get it - through your MSDN Subscription (which you can buy, for more information - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy.aspx ).

After downloading Windows Server you will have an .iso or .img (if you used dreamspark) file. If you have .img – that’s Ok. But for using it for operation system on your VM you must reconvert it to .iso, using the special program.

By the way – you should make sure, that your system supports virtualization (use for example this free tool from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=592 )! Else you must enable it in BIOS. Enabling virtualization is most likely in the Security Settings tab. But it can depend – so look for appropriate system.

Done! Next – Click the “Settings” yellow button shaped situated at the top panel of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. Then select the “Storage”:

Select the “WindowsServer2008R2.vdi” like the following:

Then click on the  button below the “Attributes” separation and select “choose a virtual hard disk file” option. After that choose your .iso file with Windows Server 2008 R2 that you have downloaded. Now, we are ready to start the virtual machine and install the operation system. Click on the “Start” green button shaped as a pointer.

           Windows Server

  
           Step 4 – Installing Windows Server 2008 R2.

It’s pretty simple, just follow the installation manager. The thing you must do is to select your time zone and etc:

and put in your Administrator’s new password and confirm it when asked:

Don’t do anything additional while installing, the virtual machine may restart some times while installing OS. It can take up from 30-60 minutes.

Finally you will see the desktop of your installed OS.

Step 5 – Additional check

In virtual machine choose not NAT adapter - select Bridge connection (important). To prove that everything is OK – ping from your real computer - open command line and enter: ping <your VM computer name or IP>. Press enter. If 0 packets are lost you are done. Make the same within your VM computer, but instead <your VM computer name or IP> type your real comp name. Also you will need to move some installation files from your computer to your VM (for ex. SQL Server installation, or SharePoint Foundation) if you have already downloaded it from your host (real) computer, or just download the required from guest OS (on the VM). To exchange files – use network shared folders or RDP.

SQL Server

Step 6 – SQL Server installation

To work with SharePoint Foundation 2010 you must have either SQL Server or SQL Server Express (in this case the size of DBs is limited). I have SQL Server 2008 R2 from Dreamspark – so it’s time to install it. By the way, it requires .NET Framework and you should enable it in Features of Windows Server.

-        Launch the setup.exe

In the SQL Server Installation Center window click on the “New Installation or add features to existing installation”

-         In the “Setup Support Files” window click OK.

-         Enter your product key or select free option and click Next.

-         Show your fast reading technique and accept the license agreement :) Click Next.

-       Click install.

-         Look through the warnings and click Next.

-         In the “Setup Role” window select “SQL Server Feature Installation” and click Next.

-         In the “Feature Selection” window select ALL and click Next.

-         In the “Installation Rules” window click Next.

-         Select the “Default” instance and click Next.

-         Look through the memory requirements and click Next.

-         In the “Server Configuration” window select the Service Accounts for every Service. Usually, it’s OK with NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM, but sometimes you need to specify the Service Accounts you created in AD. Click Next.

-         In the ”Database Engine Configuration” window select Windows and click “Add Current User” as an SQL admin, or add some other account for it.

-         Go to the “Data Directories” tab and select the standard installation directories for log files, db files and backups.  Initially, everything of it is stored in one folder, but it is better to organize subfolders separately for logs, database and backup files. Click Next.

-         In the “Analysis Services Configuration” add “Current User” account as an administrator. Go to the “Data Directories” tab and select the destination directories for log files.

-         In the “Reporting Services Integration” select the standard configuration installation for the integrated with SharePoint mode. It allows to integrate report services with SharePoint. Click Next.

-         Accept everything in “Error Reporting” and click Next.

-         After the configuration rules launching click Next.

-         Look through the parameters summary and click Install.

-         When installation is finished look the log file with the results and click Close.

-         You are Done! Now you can update the SQL Server with Microsoft Update.

Step 7 – SQL Server permissions and TCP/IP enabling

The important thing to do now is to make permission for ports in firewall, which allows 1433 port to be opened (SQL port). If it is closed – SharePoint will fail to connect to SQL Server, if it is installed on another computer. Next – check if TCP/IP is enabled in your SQL Server. Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager and select the “SQL Server configuration -> Protocols” for the <your SQL Server name> element. Select Enabled for TCP/IP.

SharePoint Foundation 2010

Step 8 - SharePoint Foundation 2010 installation

Now everything is done and the task is to install SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Warning – you must have an Internet access for the installation.

-         Run the SetUp.exe for the SharePoint Foundation 2010.

-         Click “Install software prerequisites” (important)

-         When finished click Finish.

-         Click “Install SharePoint Foundation”

-         Accept the license and click Continue.

-         This step is very important! Here you are to choose the installation type – Standalone or Server Farm. Even if you are using the SharePoint as a testing server, or you don’t need additional servers – never choose Standalone variant con after that you won’t be able to add a server in the server farm. Choose Server Farm variant – with this option you ARE able to have only one server, like with a Standalone option, but you WILL be able to add a server to the server farm. So, choose Server Farm variant – you loose nothing.

-         In the “Server Type” window choose Complete (important).

-         Go to the “File Location” tab to select the place for index files. Click Install Now.

Next everything is finished and you are to select whether to launch the configuration wizard now. Advice – don’t choose to launch it, first – check for updates.

Step 9 - SharePoint Foundation 2010 configuration

Launch the configuration wizard from the start-> all programs -> SharePoint Foundation 2010 Products -> SharePoint Foundation 2010 Configuration Wizard or something like that. This wizard creates a new server farm.

-         Click Next on the greetings page.

-         Click Yes on the Message Box where it is said that IIS configuration will be changed.

-         Select Create a New Server Farm and click Next. We select it because we haven’t got another server farms yet.

-         In the “Configuration Database” type the name of your database server and the name of database for configuration. In our case we have our SQL Server on the same computer as SharePoint, so just put in your VM computer name. Click Next.

-         In the “Specify Farm Security Settings” window type the password for the farm. It is used for adding servers to the farm. Save it somewhere. Click Next.

-        Choose a port number for the administering application. You cam select from the range displayed on the window. Select NTLM for the beginning. Click Next.

-        Look through all the parameters and click Next.

-        Click Finish.

That's it - everything is ready for configuring the created server farm for your own purposes.