1. Preparing the Environment
Before starting the SharePoint
installation and configuration for this environment, several servers
were built with dedicated roles to make it easier to translate to your
environment. There is a dedicated domain controller, a dedicated SQL
Server, and a dedicated SharePoint server. All machines are running
Windows Server 2012 Standard with the GUI. All current Windows Server
Windows Updates have been applied.
The domain controller, named DC, is a
single-processor machine with 1GB of RAM. A new Active Directory (AD)
forest was created for the domain Contoso.com. DC has all the AD roles and hosts DNS for the domain.
The SQL Server, named SQL, is a four-processor
machine with 8GB of RAM. It is running SQL Server 2012 Standard RTM.
The machine is a member of the Contoso.com domain. SQL was installed using the blog post at http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2012/09/17/a-simple-install-of-sql-server-2012-for-sharepoint-server-2013-or-2010.aspx.
Even if you have SQL Server already installed, confirm that you have
changed the Max Degrees of Parallelism setting to 1 and have set up the
permissions correctly. Both of these steps are covered in the blog post
as well. For this environment the AD account Contoso\sp_install has
been given the SQL Server roles of dbcreator, public, and securityadmin.
The SharePoint server, named Server, is a four-processor machine with 8GB of RAM. It is a member of the Contoso.com
domain. The AD account Contoso\sp_install has been made a local
administrator on the SharePoint server. Nothing else has been done to
the machine. Tasks such as adding the Web Server (IIS) role will be
handled by the prerequisite installer included with SharePoint.
2. LOGGING IN AND MOUNTING THE FILE
In order to install SharePoint you need
to login to the SharePoint server with an account that is a local
administrator on that server. Therefore, in this example you will use
Contoso\sp_install to remote desktop into Server.
Once you are logged into the server you need to
get a copy of SharePoint Server 2013. Whether you download the trial
version from the Internet or have the official DVD copy, when you run setup.exe the same thing happens. You are prompted for a license key, and based on that key you get your version of SharePoint.
Download the SharePoint Server 2013 trial from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973397.aspx.
For some reason, the download for this version is an IMG file. If you
are using Windows Server 2012, then you can right-click the file and
mount it, which works the same as inserting a DVD. If you aren’t using
Windows Server 2012 or are otherwise having problems working with the
file, then check out http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html.
This handy free utility enables you to mount IMG and ISO files natively
in Windows. This is quite handy, especially if you used TechNet’s
download, which is in the form of an ISO file. Thank goodness for
consistency.
3. Running the Prerequisite Installer
The prerequisite installer is a
wonderful little tool that you are likely already familiar with, as
Microsoft uses a similar tool with several other Server products. As
the name suggests, it handles the download and installation of any
programs that you need to install before you install SharePoint.
Otherwise, you must manually download and run at least 11 different
programs from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(v=office.15).aspx.
There’s useful information on that page, but if you’re interested
solely in the prerequisite installer, here’s the direct section link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(v=office.15).aspx#section5. The prerequisite installer will also install and configure the Windows Server roles and features you need, such as IIS.
This section uses the prerequisite installer but
it is quite possible that your SharePoint server will not have access
to the Internet, which makes it hard to automate the process. In that
case, you have a couple of options. You can either download the
programs from the preceding link and then manually install them
individually or you can script the process. The latter method isn’t
really scripting, but running the program with a whole bunch of
parameters. If you run prerequisiteinstaller.exe /? from a command prompt, the screen shown in Figure 1
appears, displaying all your available options. You need to download
all of these bits, place them in a directory and then create a command
line that tells SharePoint where to find them. If you decide to go the
route of creating your own command line, be sure you save all your work
for future reference, as it will prove extremely helpful if you will be
installing a lot of SharePoint servers without Internet access. If not,
this is a lot of work with very little gain. TechNet has a nice article
at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686793(v=office.15) with additional details if the command line is your chosen path.
Whatever you decide, you must still run the
prerequisite installer to ensure that installation is complete. In
other words, even if you manually install and configure everything you
still need to run the tool to confirm you did everything successfully.
It only takes a couple of minutes and prevents any unpleasant surprises
later.
It isn’t unusual for the prerequisite installer
to require rebooting your machine once or twice as it runs. Don’t fight
it; instead, go get something to drink while it reboots. When you log
back in to Windows, the prerequisite installer will automatically
restart — that is, assuming it can get to the file. If you had to
previously mount an IMG or ISO file, that mounting often doesn’t
survive rebooting, so when you log back in you get an error. Not a big
deal. Just click OK, mount the file again, and then manually run
prerequisite installer again. It will skip the steps it has already
completed and continue. Just keep running it until the Installation
Complete message appears.
Use the following steps to run the prerequisite
installer on the SharePoint server. You can be logged in as any local
administrator on the server. The account type isn’t important until you
are ready to install SharePoint in the next section.
1. Open the
folder containing the SharePoint install files. If you downloaded an
IMG or ISO file, then you have to mount that first.
2. Double-click prerequisiteinstaller.exe.
3. At the Welcome screen, click Next.
4. Read all of that license goodness and select “I accept the terms of the License Agreement(s),” then click Next.
After several minutes the install will do one of
three things: complete successfully, prompt you to reboot so it can
keep going, or error out. If it prompts you to reboot, just click
Finish and the server will reboot. When you log in after the reboot,
the installer will automatically resume. If it does not, you may need
to remount your ISO or IMG file. See the Login and Mount the ISO
section if you need to troubleshoot the error message seen in Figure 2.
If you get an error, it will contain a
link to the error log. The log file is relatively readable, so you
should be able to determine the cause of the failure. Usually it is an
Internet connection issue. Also, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to just try
again before troubleshooting. SharePoint 2010 had a bad habit of just
wanting to be run twice. When you get the Installation Complete
message, click Finish.
