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.
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
-
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.
