When SharePoint 2007 was in beta, I wrote a blog article about how to install it on a single machine. This was one of my most popular articles so I thought I’d repeat the process for SharePoint Server 2010 Beta 2.

This article should be read in addition to the official installation guide on TechNet.

Update 21/11/1009: Jie Li also has a great list of tips and resources which he seems to be keeping up to date as information is uncovered. I strongly recommend that you read his Installation Notice for SharePoint 2010 Public Beta article in addition to this one.

This article is based on using Windows Server 2008 R2 as your host OS; SharePoint 2010 can also be installed on Windows 7, but these steps are designed for installing on Windows Server 2008 R2 as I think that will be the most common scenario in dev/test environments. Please see the information about a hot fix required for Windows Server 2008 R2 in the 'general prerequisites' section.

For the purposes of this article it does not matter if the host OS is physical or virtual, however I imagine that most readers will be using virtualisation initially to test these steps out.

Bear in mind that SharePoint 2010 will only run on a x64 OS which excludes being able to use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 or Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 as they can only host x86 guests. This only leaves either Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V hosted VMs or Windows 7’s ‘VHD Boot’ feature as valid virtualisation options (from the Microsoft stack at least).

General Pre-Requisites

Update 23/11/2009: I have updated my advice to use a full install of SQL Server 2008. Previously, I had advocated using the built-in version of SQL in what is known as a ‘standalone’ configuration, but there are a few bugs with this is beta 2 so I’ve update this article for a full install of SQL 2008 in what is know as a ‘farm’ configuration. As a result this whole section of the article has been updated.

Ensure your machine meets the following pre-requisites:

• Install SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 and Cumulative update package 2 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1. Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970315/en-us if you want more details on the cumulative update.
• I’d recommend that if this is a development / test machine that Active Directory is also configured locally so that you have complete control over your test accounts. If you do not host Active Directory locally, the server will need to be a member of an Active Directory domain.

Downloading the SharePoint 2010 and Office Web Applications

In order to get the best experience in SharePoint 2010 you actually need to install two separate pieces of software, both of which are available on MSDN subscriber downloads if you are a subscriber.

The two packages you should download (in addition to the various patches outlined in the ‘General Pre-Requisites’ section) are:

• SharePoint Server 2010 beta (under ‘servers’). The filename is ‘en_sharepoint_server_2010_beta_x64_x16-19249.exe’
• Office Web Applications beta (under ‘applications’)

Don’t forget to also get your product keys.

If you are not an MSDN subscriber, you can register to download SharePoint 2010 here.

SharePoint 2010 Pre-requisites

SharePoint 2010 has several pre-requisite pieces of software which are neatly packaged into a pre-requisite installer that comes with the download. The server will need to be connected to the internet during this stage as it will download the latest versions of various beta components. If you cannot get your server online, you can download the pre-requisites separately, refer to Jie Li’s SharePoint 2010 Pre-Requisites Download Links article for the links.

To install the prerequisites, follow these steps:

1. Run ‘en_sharepoint_server_2010_beta_x64_x16-19249.exe’ (see downloads section above)
2. When the ‘SharePoint Server 2010’ menu screen pops-up, choose ‘Install software prerequisites’
3. On the ‘Welcome’ screen click ‘Next’
4. Accept the license agreement and click ‘Next’
5. When the installation is complete, click ‘Finish’ and reboot your server (setup does not mandate that you do this, but I have found that installations generally go better if you do this)

Once the above pre-requisites are installed, you will also need to install a patch for WCF:

Update 04/12/09: This WCF hot fix has been moved to after the SharePoint pre-requisites because it will not work if you attempt to install if before the pre requisites and more details have been added.

1. Install the ‘WCF hot fix’ . There is a different patch for Windows 2008 Server R2 / Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R1 so make sure you get the right one for your environment (see the list below). Please note that this will report ‘this update does not apply to your system’ if you try to do this before installing the pre-requisites listed above.

• For Windows Server 2008 R1 and Vista use KB971831. For details of the hot fix see the KB article
• For Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 use KB976462. For details of the hot fix see the KB article

Installing SharePoint Server 2010

This section will guide you through the base installation of SharePoint 2010.

1. Run ‘en_sharepoint_server_2010_beta_x64_x16-19249.exe’ (see downloads section above)
2. When the ‘SharePoint Server 2010’ menu screen pops-up, choose ‘Install SharePoint Server’
3. When prompted enter your product key and click ‘Continue’. If you are an MSDN subscriber, you can download the key from the same place that you got the software from. If you are not an MSDN subscriber, Jie Li’s SharePoint Server 2010 beta key article will help you.
4. Accept the License Agreement and click ‘Continue’
5. Select ‘Server Farm’ as the installation type. This means that a separate installation of SQL Server 2008 is required.
6. Select ‘Complete’ as the server type and click ‘Install Now’. This means that you have all available components installed.
7. The installation will now take place, this typically takes about 20 minutes. The final ‘applying updates’ phase does take a particularly long time, but do not worry it will finish eventually. Why not check out some of my  team’s great blog articles on SharePoint 2010 whilst you wait? (shameless plug, I know .. sorry! :) )
8. Once the installation is complete, you will see a ‘Run configuration wizard’ screen. Keep the ‘Run the SharePoint products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now’ box ticked and click ‘Close’. This will start the farm configuration wizard.
9. Click ‘Next’ on the ‘Welcome’ screen
10. Click ‘Yes’ on the warning about restating services.
11. Choose to ‘Create a new server farm’ and click ‘Next’
12. Specific the name of your SQL server and an account that SharePoint will use to access it and click ‘Next’
13. Enter a passphrase which will be needed if you add more servers to the farm and lick ‘Next’
14. Accept the default settings for the Central Administration Web Application and click ‘Next’
15. On the ‘Competing the SharePoint products Configuration Wizard’ screen, click ‘Next’. This will initiate the configuration and may take some time to complete.
16. When the configuration process is complete you’ll see a ‘Configuration Successful’ screen, click Finish on this. Doing this will open the browser at the default web application and prompt you to create a new site. Close the browser at this point.

At this point SharePoint 2010 is installed and a default farm has been configured.

As with SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010 has a vast array of configuration options and it is not feasible to include them all in this article, therefore the following are recommended (but optional) steps that will cover the basic configuration that is suitable for most scenarios.

Configuring basic farm settings, services and initial Site Collection

This section uses a wizard to configure the basic services for your farm.

1. Load Central Administration (Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > Central Administration).
2. SharePoint 2010 contains a new configuration wizard which can be used to configure common services. Load this by clicking ‘Configuration Wizards > Launch the farm configuration wizard’.
3. You will be asked whether you wish to participate in the ‘Custom Experience Improvement Program’. It really helps Microsoft if you do participate in this by clicking OK.
4. When prompted, choose ‘Walk me through the setting using this wizard …’ and click Next
5. On the ‘Configure Your Farm’ screen do the following:
   1. For the ‘Service account’, add the account that you wish to use for your services by adding it to the ‘Create new managed account’ section. In a production environment, more care needs to be taken in terms of isolating service accounts, but for a development and test environment such as this, it is not usually necessary.
   2. Accept the default services; this will give you nearly all of the available functionality. It is worth examining this list to get a first glance at some of the new services that are available with SharePoint 2010.
   3. Click Next. This will initiate the wizard and may take some time to complete.
6. The next screen will ask you to ‘Create Site Collection’, do the following:
   1. Enter something memorable such as ‘Team Site’ for your title
   2. In the ‘Web Address’ section choose ‘Sites’ from the drop down in the URL and enter your site title in the text box to the right of the drop-down.
   3. Leave the default template of ‘Team Site’ selected. This will give you the familiar team site template which is the best place to start playing with the new features of SharePoint 2010
   4. Enter your ‘Primary Site Collection Administrator’, this would most likely be the account you defined in step 5 of this section. In a production environment, more care needs to be taken in terms of isolating service accounts, but for a development and test environment such as this, it is not usually necessary
   5. Leave all other options as default and click ‘OK’
7. On the final ‘Configure your SharePoint farm’ screen, click ‘Finish’

Update 22/11/2009: In beta 2 there are some issues with the user profile synchronisation service application. The main issue is that it does not work in a standalone deployment, i.e. using the built-in version of SQL. If you are using a farm (separately installing full SQL server) and want to experiment with the service, you may wish to refer to this blog article which has a list of steps to get the service working: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/11/18/path-to-user-profile-synchronization-success-in-sharepoint-2010-beta.aspx

Installing Office Web Applications

The Office Web Applications (browser based versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint) are part of a separate install which goes on top of SharePoint 2010. When installed, these appear as service applications within Central Administration. This section will guide you through the installation and configuration of the Office Web Applications.

1. Run ‘en_office_web_applications_beta_x64_456141.exe’ (see downloads section above)
2. When prompted enter your product key and click ‘Continue’. If you are an MSDN subscriber, you can download the key from the same place that you got the software from. Note that this is a different key than SharePoint Server 2010.
3. Accept the license agreement and click ‘Continue’
4. Accept the default file location and click ‘Install Now’. This will start the installation and may take a while.
5. Once the installation is complete, you will see a ‘Run configuration wizard’ screen. Keep the ‘Run the SharePoint products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now’ box ticked and click ‘Close’. This will start the farm configuration wizard, though this has already been executed in the ‘Installing SharePoint Server 2010’ section, it needs to be re-run to properly configure the Office Web Applications
6. Click ‘Next’ on the ‘Welcome’ screen
7. Click ‘Yes’ on the warning about restating services. This will initiate the configuration process and may take some time to complete.
8. When the configuration process is complete you’ll see a ‘Configuration Successful’ screen, click Finish on this. Doing this will open the browser at the default web application and prompt you to create a new site. Close the browser at this point.

I hope these steps work well for you, I’ve tested them myself and with colleagues on the various builds leading up to the general beta 2 release. If you do see any variations, please either log a comment and/or contact me directly and I’d be happy to update the article accordingly if enough people see the same variations or have the same problems.

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