Scripted, Unattended and Silent Installs

I haven't heard much traffic on unattended installs in SharePoint, but hey it is possible, you may want to do it for consistency of building or rebuilding servers in your farm.

Here's a quick overview.  There are actually 3 commands you need to know.

• Setup.exe - lays down the bits.  Config.xml will answer the setup questions.
• PSconfig.exe - creates the config db, connects to the config db if exists, and creates admin virtual servers, and SSP etc...  This is the equivalent to the configuration wizard.
• STSADM.exe - can create the content web apps, site collections, adding users, deploying features, web parts and solutions.  This is equivalent to the central admin UI for creating your web apps and site collections, but there are deployment things that you can't do via the web admin.

SETUP.EXE 

TechNet has a good article on the config XML and why you'd use it.  There's also a setup.exe command line reference.  The data here is so lengthy I can see why many have written it off as too complicated for such a simple install.

In a nutshell you run setup and pass the config.xml similar to an answer file.

setup.exe /config \\%path%\config.xml

Where %path% is the path to the config file which may be local or remote.

Config.xml reference

When you want to control how Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is installed, use the Config.xml file along with Setup.exe. For example, you can use the config.xml file to:

Here's a good KB article on using the command line and changing the default home directory.  For WSS I can see people wanting to use this anyway even if they aren't trying to do unattended, but to force a specific directory.

How to customize the installation location when you install SharePoint Server 2007 from the command line

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923590

Snippet from the KB: 

Note Path is the path of the folder where you want to install SharePoint Server 2007. For example, if you want to install SharePoint Server 2007 to the C:\Test folder, Path is C:\Test.

SharePoint Server 2007 includes different Config.xml files for different types of configurations. Each Config.xml file is located in the following folder of the SharePoint Server 2007 installation source, depending on the edition of SharePoint Server 2007 that you have:

Note SetupFoldername is the name of the folder that represents the type of configuration. For example, the configuration may be represented by the SetupFarm folder or the SetupSilent folder.

The following is an example of a Config.xml file from the x86\Files\SetupSilent folder that has been modified to include the INSTALLLOCATION parameter. In this example, SharePoint Server 2007 is installed to the C:\Test folder.

<Configuration>
<Package Id="sts">
<Setting Id="LAUNCHEDFROMSETUPSTS" Value="Yes" /> 
<Setting Id="REBOOT" Value="ReallySuppress" /> 
<Setting Id="SETUPTYPE" Value="CLEAN_INSTALL" /> 
</Package>
<Package Id="spswfe">
<Setting Id="SETUPCALLED" Value="1" /> 
<Setting Id="REBOOT" Value="ReallySuppress" /> 
<Setting Id="OFFICESERVERPREMIUM" Value="1" /> 
</Package>
<INSTALLLOCATION Value="C:\Test" /> 
<Logging Type="verbose" Path="%temp%" Template="Office Server Setup(*).log" /> 
<Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" /> 
<PIDKEY Value="PID" /> 
<Setting Id="SERVERROLE" Value="SINGLESERVER" /> 
<Setting Id="USINGUIINSTALLMODE" Value="0" /> 
</Configuration>

PSCONFIG.EXE 

Keith Richie has a good post on PSConfig.exe and explains it is your friend.  It is true, in fact running this command is much faster, but is also cleaner.  Here's his example:

After installing, deselect the "Run the configuration wizard" check box and close, then jump to the BIN folder of the web server extensions path and run PSCONFIG such as follows:

psconfig -cmd configdb -create -server krichie-fosqlp -database krichie-fo-wss-configdb -user adomain\SPService -password "SPServicePassword" -admincontentdatabase krichie-fo-wss-admin-content -dbuser adomain\SQLService -dbpassword "SQLServicePassword"

This will run through the post setup configuration wizard and use the database names that I provide.  Now my database names reflect the farm their associated with.

Also, don't forget to provision the admin site itself.

psconfig -cmd adminvs -provision

Here's TechNet reference to Psconfig.exe the "command line reference to configuration wizard".  There is a reference for this file on psconfig.exe on WSS and MOSS.

Psconfig.exe -cmd <command> [optional parameters]

The article sounds pretty prescriptive around running these commands in a particular order.  Note the upgrade commands may not relate.  I'm not sure I prescribe to this being so harsh, your experience may vary.

The commands in psconfig.exe need to be run in a specific order to run successfully. If you use the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to configure your installation, it calls the commands (also called configuration tasks) in the correct order for you. However, if you use the command line to run psconfig.exe, you need to be sure you are performing the tasks in the correct order. The psconfig.exe commands must be performed in the following order:

psconfig.exe –cmd configdb <parameters>
–cmd helpcollections <parameters>
–cmd secureresources <parameters>
–cmd services <parameters>
–cmd installfeatures <parameters>
–cmd adminvs <parameters>
–cmd evalprovision <parameters>
–cmd applicationcontent <parameters>

I do find the psconfig setup repair option interesting.  Note the reference to using the GUI if you're in a farm if you're doing repair.  As well, this comes into play after installing the language packs.  If you are installing them, I recommend installing *all* the binaries before configuring the farm otherwise you'll have to re-run psconfig or the configuration wizard and resetting IIS.

STSADM.EXE

TechNet Mag has an article on the stsadm command not necessarily on creating web apps, but exploring the command line tool.

TechNet has an WSS STSADM.EXE reference and SharePoint Server STSADM reference, very little difference except when it comes to SSPs.  An index of many of the stsadm commands with properties and content was published last month.  I see it is missing a few commands (which I tried to include below).  The main one is connecting to the config db, creating the web app (extendvs) and then connecting to it from the other servers in the farm, creating sites and webs, and importing sites where they already exist or simply doing a restore.  For all these STSADM is *the* command.

I recommend looking at these commands for unattends:

createsite, extendvs, extendvsinwebfarm, createsiteinnewdb, createadminvs, installfeature, import, provisionservice, addsolution, addcontentdb,

deploywppack, deploysolution

In no particular order or command, since it really depends on how many web apps you're creating and what you're doing with them... 

stsadm.exe -o setconfigdb -databaseserver server

           extendvs

The basics: 

stsadm.exe -o extendvs -url http://server:80
           -ownerlogin DOMAIN\name
           -owneremail someone@example.com

The meat:

stsadm.exe -o extendvs
           -url <url>
           -ownerlogin <domain\name>
           -owneremail <someone@example.com>
           [-exclusivelyusentlm]
           [-ownername <display name>]
           [-databaseuser <database user>]
           [-databaseserver <database server>]
           [-databasename <database name>]
           [-databasepassword <database user password>]
           [-lcid <language>]
           [-sitetemplate <site template>]
           [-donotcreatesite]
           [-description <iis web site name>]
           [-sethostheader]
           [-apidname <app pool name>]
           [-apidtype <configurableid/NetworkService>]
           [-apidlogin <DOMAIN\name>]
           [-apidpwd <app pool password>]
           [-allowanonymous] 

           extendvsinwebfarm (this is when it already exists and you want to connect)

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server e
dm -help extendvsinwebfarm

stsadm.exe -o extendvsinwebfarm
           -url <url>
           -vsname <web application name>
           [-exclusivelyusentlm]
           [-apidname <app pool name>]
           [-apidtype <configurableid/NetworkService>]
           [-apidlogin <DOMAIN\name>]
           [-apidpwd <app pool password>]
           [-allowanonymous]

stsadm.exe -o createweb -url http://server/site/web

stsadm.exe -o adduser
           -url http://server/site
           -userlogin DOMAIN\name
           -useremail someone@example.com
           -role reader
           -username "Your Name"
           -siteadmin

stsadm.exe -o setconfigdb -connect -ds Server1 -dn Server1_collab -du User1 -dp password

The following table explains the commands and parameters from this example.

Ben Curry in his MSPress Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator's Pocket Consultant book has a great STSADM reference.  It's one of the most complete command line references I've come across.  He produced much of it in an stsadm whitepaper on the 184 command-line options.  <update 3/15>Ben did a bang up job on Scripted Installations and Config.xml at the SharePoint Conference and did a post on this.  He's done a great job demistifying it, so much so that he's recommending this in DR circles.  I agree with him.  If you can automate the installion, recovery will be a ton easier.  It's not just about how quick you can install, but about turning your install into components so you can quickly recover or re-deploy.</update>

Please see some great comments from those that have used these.  Love Paul's post on SharePoint and Sysprep.