Performing SharePoint 2010 Installations (part 5)

12/8/2010 2:43:59 PM

1.4. SharePoint Foundation 2010 Complete Installation

The SharePoint Foundation 2010 Complete installation is quite similar to the SharePoint 2010 Complete installation. The differences you will see during the installation are

The screens will say SharePoint Foundation 2010 throughout phase one.
You will choose Install SharePoint Foundation.
You are not prompted for a product key (this version is free).

After completing the installation, some of the most noticeable differences you will see include

There is no option to Convert Farm License Type in Central Administration.
There is no option to View Web Analytics in Central Administration.
There is no option to configure content deployment jobs and paths in Central Administration.
Only two service applications can be configured using the Farm Configuration Wizard.
- Business Data Connectivity
- Usage and Health Data Collection

This is why you must decide if the Foundation edition of SharePoint 2010 will meet your organization’s needs, or if you will need the Server edition of SharePoint 2010 for document organization.

2. Performing a Command-Line Installation of SharePoint

The previous sections in this article describe how to install SharePoint using the graphical user interface, which is a great way to learn and understand how SharePoint can be installed, but it isn’t the most cost-effective way. So you should also be familiar with performing a farm installation using command-line utilities, and you should be able to create scripts that contain these commands. Scripts can be very helpful during a disaster recovery scenario or in a situation in which you want to have complete control of the configuration of the server when adding a server to a farm. It can save you a lot of time when your installation is fully automated.

All the steps you completed using the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard can also be completed using Psconfig.exe from the command line. When the appropriate parameters are passed to the program, your farm can be built without any user intervention. This allows for a completely scripted installation of a farm; you can also fully automate the process of adding servers to your farm.

An automated installation can be broken up into three steps.

Install the prerequisite software on the server using Prerequisiteinstaller.exe.
Install SharePoint in the two phases discussed in this article.
- Phase one: Install the SharePoint product and binaries using Setup.exe.
- Phase two: Completing the actions included in the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard using Psconfig.exe from the command line.
Run the Farm Configuration Wizard using Windows PowerShell cmdlets for SharePoint 2010.

2.1. Installing the Prerequisites

The section titled Section 4.1 earlier in this article described how to run the Prerequisiteinstaller.exe to install the software that is required for a successful SharePoint installation. Review that section to install the prerequisites for a command-line installation of SharePoint 2010.

2.2. Installing the SharePoint Product Binaries

The Setup.exe command can be used to automate the installation of phase one of your SharePoint 2010 installation. The parameters for this command can be stored in an XML file, allowing you to run Setup.exe using the following syntax.

setup.exe /config C:\installPath\config.xml

2.3. Building the SharePoint Farm

Psconfig.exe is not new to SharePoint 2010, but it has been enhanced to provide additional functionality and can be used as a substitute for the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. Psconfig.exe provides you much more flexibility when building your farm, including the ability to specify the database name for your Central Administration database. Table 1 lists some of the most common parameters and features that can be used with Psconfig.exe interactively at the command prompt or within a script.

Table 1. Psconfig.exe Parameters
COMMAND	PARAMETERS	ACTION
Psconfig –cmd configdb –create –server <server> –database <database> –user <user> –password <password> –admincontentdatabase <database> –passphrase < passphrase>	–server = SQL Server –database = Name of configuration database –user = Database access account (Farm Admin) –password = Password for Farm Admin –admincontentdatabase = Name of content database for Central Administration website –passphrase = Farm passphrase	Configuration database is created with name specified on server specified. Content database for Central Administration is created with name specified. Passphrase is generated with phrase specified.
Psconfig –cmd helpcollections –installall		Installs the help collections
Psconfig –cmd services install	install	Installs services specified
Psconfig –cmd services provision	provision	Installs and provisions services
Psconfig –cmd installfeatures		Installs and activates all necessary features at the farm level
Psconfig –cmd adminvs –provision –port 11111 –windowsauthprovider onlyusentlm	–port = portnumber for Central Administration website –windowsauthprovider = authentication method	Creates and provisions the Central Administration website
Psconfig –cmd applicationcontent		Installs the Central Administration Web Application content files
Psconfig –cmd –installhealthrules		Creates a Health Rules list and adds Health Rules items

Note:

Psconfig –cmd services provision fails with an error that indicates the Search account is a built-in account. Currently, there are no options available for setting these parameters.

2.4. Installing and Provisioning the Service Applications

You can manage the service applications in SharePoint 2010 using either Psconfig.exe or using Windows PowerShell cmdlets. There are Windows PowerShell cmdlets specific to each service application. Table 2 lists just a few of the available cmdlets to manage your service applications from the command line or from within a script.

Table 2. Service Application Windows PowerShell cmdlets
SERVICE APPLICATION	WINDOWS POWERSHELL CMDLET
Access Services	New-SPAccessServiceApplication
State Service service application	New-SPStateServiceApplication
Performance Point service application	New-SPPerformancePointServiceApplication
Visio service application	New-SPVisioServiceApplication
User Profile service application	New-SPProfileServiceApplication

Each service application has different cmdlets and different configuration options. Be sure to review the Windows PowerShell syntax for each service application carefully to determine what options are available when creating your SharePoint 2010 service applications using Windows PowerShell. After writing your scripts, test them often to be sure they fully duplicate your current system so that you will have minimal work to do after running the scripts. It is also wise to document each script, and if there are multiple scripts, also document the order in which they should be run.

Note:

BEST PRACTICES It is considered best practice to document this information in case you move to another company or another job and are no longer the person managing the SharePoint installation for the organization.