Building Your Own SharePoint 2013 Lab

Recently my wife decided that she had expressed an interest in learning SharePoint, so I said “Hey, there’s no better way to learn than to learning using the latest/greatest technology.” She would have to learn Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012 and the SharePoint 2013 Preview.  With that in mind, the goal was to build out a SharePoint 2013 Preview farm in a lab environment that would emulate a small/development environment.

The Prelude

This is not an exact step by step. Some of your own individual research will be needed to perform a lot of the “in-betweens”

The Hardware

The farm was built on my Macbook PRO utilizing Virtual Box. I truly recommend a desktop/laptop with a quad core processor and a minimum of 16GB of ram.

Software Needed

•        Virtual Box

•        Windows Server 2012 Trial

•        SQL Server 2012 Trial

•        SharePoint Server 2013 Preview

The Pre-Reqs

PreReqs can be downloaded via batch script. If you just want to let the SharePoint installer download everything, you can skip this section. If you want to perform an offline setup/install, see below:

• .NET Framework 4.5
• Windows Management Framework 3.0 (CTP2) – PowerShell 3.0
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 r2 Native Client
• Windows Identity Foundation (KB974405)
• Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
• Windows Server AppFabric
• Windows Identity Extensions
• Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client
• Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.0
• CU Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB2671763)

1.     Create a new folder and copy PrerequisiteInstaller.exe and msvcr100.dll from the root folder of the SharePoint 2013 Preview ISO into it. 

2.      Create a subfolder named “PrerequisiteInstallerFiles” and copy all the prerequisites that you downloaded into there. 

3.     Create a subfolder under PrerequisiteInstallerFiles named “NET35″ and copy the contents of the Windows Server 2012 ISO \sources\sxs there.

4.       Create a batch file to install the prerequisites:

@ECHO OFF

set PF=”PrerequisiteInstallerFiles”

REM INSTALL NETFX3

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:%PF%\NET35 /LimitAccess

REM INSTALL PREREQUISISTES

PrerequisiteInstaller.exe /SQLNCli:%PF%\sqlncli.msi ^

/PowerShell:%PF%\Windows6.1-KB2506143-x64.msu ^

/NETFX:%PF%\dotNetFx45_Full_x86_x64.exe ^

/IDFX:%PF%\Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu ^

/Sync:%PF%\Synchronization.msi ^

/AppFabric:%PF%\WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe ^

/IDFX11:%PF%\MicrosoftIdentityExtensions-64.msi ^

/MSIPCClient:%PF%\setup_msipc_x64.msi ^

/WCFDataServices:%PF%\WcfDataServices.exe ^

/KB2671763:%PF%\AppFabric1.1-RTM-KB2671763-x64-ENU.exe

5.       Save the batch file to wherever you placed the PrerequisiteInstaller.exe and msvcr100.dll files. 

Create Your Virtual Machines

Create Windows Server 2012 three times.

1. DC1        Active Directory Domain Services and DNS roles
2. SP_CAS_13         SharePoint 2013 running Central Administration Server
3. SPSQL   SQL Server 2012 hosting the SharePoint 2013 databases

Prepare the Domain

1.       Log onto your domain controller VM and add Active Directory Domain Services. 

2.       I used dev.internal for my domain name. 

3.       Configure DNS forward & reverse DNS

4.       Create the following domain accounts

o   SharePoint setup account

o   SharePoint Service Applications service Account

o   SharePoint Web Application Service Account

Install the SQL Server

1. Log onto your SQL Server 2012 VM.
2. Connect the SQL Server 2012 ISO image to the VM and run the setup.exe file located in the root folder.  I did not change any of the defaults.  For “Feature Selection” I enabled/installed ”Database Engine Services” and “Management Tools – Complete”.
3. Create a login for your SharePoint setup account and grant the account db creator and db owner rights.

 Install SharePoint Pre-Reqs

Now it’s time to install the SharePoint Server 2013 prerequisites.  Perform the following steps for the Central Administration VM:

1. Attach the SharePoint Server 2013 ISO to the VM
2. If performing an online (download everything from the internet) setup, launch the PrerequisiteInstaller.exe from the root of the SharePoint installation media/ISO

Install SharePoint Server

 Now it’s time to install SharePoint!  Perform the following on the CA Virtual Machine:

1. Log onto the CA VM using the SharePoint Setup Account
2. Attach the SharePoint ISO
3. Run splash.hta from the root of the SharePoint ISO and select the “Install SharePoint” option
4. “Create a new farm”
5. For the database settings, enter the name of the SharePoint SQL VM
6. When installation completes, launch Central Administration

The configuration wizard will step through setting up shared services, the initial web application and site collection.

Now you have a fully functional version of SharePoint 2013 preview

End the End

It took me longer to write this blog than it did to actually help my wife build out her first development farm. In our next segment we will talk about installing development tools and the such. Stay tuned.

Gary Arrington is the Cloud Consultant & SharePoint SME for JHC Technology.  He can be reached at garrington@jhctechnology.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.