Max Akbar : Deployment

Rub a dub dub, a PUP in my tub Part I!

Max Akbar — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 08:27:30 GMT

The Configuration of Commerce Server is stored in SQL Server database using Configuration APIs to manage it. To generate Commerce Server configuration you can use either the APIs or pre configured files. PUP which stands for Packaging and Unpackaging is used to create Commerce Server sites and resources. In this post I hope to shed some light on how Commerce Server PUP works.

What is PUP?

Site Packager application (Pup.exe) is a tool that packages or unpackages Commerce Server sites and resources into PUP files.

The Commerce Server documentation states that PUP is a deployment tool. I disagree, you should avoid deploying Commerce Server site from one environment to another. I use PUP is to manages the creation or extraction of Commerce Server sites or resources.

Is PUP the only way to create and extract Commerce Server Sites? No, you can use Commerce Server's Configuration APIs to do the same thing and I will show you how to do that. There has been some great post about PUP which you can find at the bottom for further reading.

PUP is responsible for the following operations:

Commerce Server Site
A Commerce Server Site includes a collection of site resources that define Commerce Systems such as Product Catalog, Inventory System, Orders System, Profiles System, Data Warehouse System and the Marketing System. These Systems can be accessed via APIs through ASP.NET, Console or WinForm Applications.
Site Resources
Site Resources are entities that provide configuration values to a Commerce Server Systems. Site Resources are local the to a Commerce Server Site and can not be shared. Sharing of site resources is only supported through import\export APIs or Global Resources.
Global Resources
Global Resources are an extension to Site Resources. A Site Resource can point to a global Resource which allows it to be shared among one or more Commerce Server sites.
Databases
Each Commerce Server System needs to store it's data some where, this storage is in SQL Server. The Site Resources have database connection strings to these databases.
OLAP database
Commerce Server uses OLAP to organize it's summarized data in the Data Warehouse so that report generation is completed faster.
Commerce Applications
A Commerce Site may have one ore more Commerce Application that maps to an IIS Site or Virtual Directory (VDir). These IIS Sites\VDir can be web site in a WebFarm or Web Services.
- IIS Applications
- IIS Metabase information

The Site Packager application can be used in two modes unattended\console and UI based. Using Site Packager application you can also add additional resources or Commerce Server Applications. PUP.exe will generate a log file under c:\pup.log and will append it's data for every execution of packages.

PUP stores and extracts it's data when unpackaging and packaging into MSCS_Admin database. For now we will concentrate on PUP and at later posts we dive deeper into MSCS_Admin database and Configuration API's.

UI PUP

When launching the PUP.exe you will navigate through the UI forms. Each form collects specific data then generates a Commerce Server Site or resource based on your responses and the data inside the PUP file.

Once the PUP.exe is launched you have two options Packaging an existing site or Unpackaging for a PUP file.

Unpackaging

If you select the Unpackage a PUP file you will navigate to next wizard form. On this form you need to enter the path of the PUP file and select either a Quick Unpack or Custom Unpack.

If you select a Quick Unpack the PUP.exe will select default values for you. If you have previously already selected a Quick Unpack then you run the danger of over writing your previous PUP settings. I always use the custom unpack as it allows me greater flexibility and control.
If you selected the Custom Unpack and selected Next. Then, on the next wizard form you select to:
- Create a new site
- Add resource in the package to an existing site
- Add an application in the package to an existing site
- Add a Web server to an existing application in an existing site
If you select a new site option then on the next form you will need to enter a unique site name.
On the next form you select the resources for your site.
Next you select the Global Resources for you site. Here you can either select a new global resource to be created for your site or use an existing one. If for whatever reason you selected a new global resource later on you can changed it by pointing the global pointer in the site resource.
Then you select the SQL server and databases. By default Commerce Server will create a database for each resource. For scalability reasons keep the Commerce Server Systems on separate databases.
On the next form you select which application to unpack.
Finally you can select which IIS site each application can be installed and name each application and IIS Virtual Directories. By selecting next the PUP will Unpack the site based on the answers you have provided so far.
During the Unpack you will be prompted for the profile xml files.
On the next wizard form you will need to select the SQL file for your profile structure.
Once the Unpackaging is complete on summary page you will be prompted to view any errors if occurred during the Unpackaging.

Unattended PUP

To launch the PUP.exe you must supply it two answer files. The answer files are ini files that holds responses to how the pup file should generate a Commerce Site.

Site Packager .ini File

The site packager .ini file control how a PuP file is deployed when you silently launch PUP. It is the answer file to all the Commerce Server System except Profiles System for that you will need BizData.ini.

BizData.ini File

The BizData.ini file is the answer file to Profiles System data related to a site. PUP.exe will look into the root folder (%COMMERCE_SERVER_ROOT%) of where Commerce Server is installed. So if you have customized the Profiles System then you need to put all the SQL, XML files and BizData.ini in this %COMMERCE_SERVER_ROOT% directory.

Automating the Unpacking Process

To automate the PUP process you will need an ini file. The ini file is an answer file to pup process and a sample ini can be found under %COMMERCE_SERVER_ROOT%\Sdk\Samples\SiteCreate\CSharpTemplate.ini.

Command line to pack a site:

pup /p /s:BlankSite /f:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2007\PuP Packages\YourSite.pup
/i:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2007\PuP Packages \YourSite.ini

Command line to unpack a site:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2007\PuP.exe" /u
/f:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2007\PuP Packages\CSharp.pup
/i:C:\Commerce\CSharp.ini

For more information and command line option see online help How to Run Site Packager from the Command Line.

Pup Structure

PUP files are Structured Storage. Structured Storage provides file and data persistence in COM by handling a single file as a structured collection of objects known as storages and streams. So PUP.exe generate a Structured Storage file then puts it's site and resource data into it. The Site and Data is further structured inside Cab files. To keep this structure formalized a table of content keeps track of what's inside the PUP file. To create Cab file Cabarc.exe is used under the root of where Commerce Server is installed.

diagram of PUP file structure:

How many PUP files are there?

There are three PUP files that are installed with Commerce Server blank PUP, CSharp PUP and DW PUP.

Blank PUP

This PUP file is used when you generate a Commerce Site using Visual Studio.

CSharp PUP

Generates a blank C# Site.

DW PUP

Data warehouse resource is stored in the PUP file.

PUP Security

You need to be a domain administrator to execute the PUP.exe. Remember the PUP file has the structure of the Commerce Server Systems so it needs to be able to hit SQL and create databases and SQL objects. It also needs to access IIS metabase information and create IIS sites or Virtual Directory. Not to include creating a pup file under the c:\ drive. If I can remember correctly remote PUP support was removed for Commerce Server 2007.

Pre and Post PUP Activities

PUP can launch a script for Pre and Post operations. The script must be in the same directory as the PUP file and must be named Pre<package name>.vbs or Post<package name>.vbs.

Backward Compatibility of PUP files

Backward compatibilty of PUP file are supported but you can read more about it Migration Impact on Pup Files here.

So you should have a good understanding of PUP.exe in the next blog post we will take a deeper dive into PUP. In another words we will flay PUP :).

Commerce Server 2007 Frequently Asked Questions

Max Akbar — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:50:11 GMT

Link to Commerce Server 2007 Frequently Asked Questions

Commerce Server Capacity Planning Tool

Max Akbar — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:07:10 GMT

The Commerce Server Capacity Planning Tool helps to determine and rate your server performance, scalability, and flexibility in order to optimize your environment.

Link to Commerce Server Capacity Planning Tool

MOSS 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 White Paper Released!

Max Akbar — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:26:12 GMT

This download provides setup and configuration information for solutions that are based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007. This download includes step-by-step configuration tasks and sample code.
This document in this download does not provide prescriptive guidance or a recommended enterprise architecture for building solutions that are based on these technologies. It is assumed that the reader has basic knowledge about Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Configuring and Integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007

Secure Commerce Server 2007 Tool

Max Akbar — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:09:57 GMT

Finally, I have updated security tool for Commerce Server 2007 to help you secure your commerce site. This secure deployment tool has been tested on a single server deployment. You can easily extend the tool for enterprise systems you are free to modify or add additional custom security procedures for securing your site.

You can download the tool from my gotdotnet site.

PUP Viewer for Commerce Server 2007

Max Akbar — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 02:36:14 GMT

I have updated the PUP Viewer for Commerce Server 2007 and can be downloaded from GotdotNET.

PUP Viewer allows you to peak inside the PUP packages and extract specific files.

Windows XP installation Instructions

Max Akbar — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 11:05:00 GMT

I have got a few request about people not being able to install Commerce Server 2007 on Windows XP. The simple reason for having difficulty installing Commerce Server 2007 on Windows XP is that there are few differences between Windows XP and Windows 2003 sp\R2 that are not well documented. I will make an attempt to walk you through step by step on installing Commerce Server 2007 on Windows XP.

Why Install on Windows XP

Before we dive deep into the installation of Windows XP, I want to make it clear as to why install Commerce Server 2007 on Windows XP.

Minimize cost, Windows 2003 licenses is more expensive than Windows XP.
If you are building Proof of Concept (POC) you want to install it on your desktop make it easy to switch between presentations and demo of your POC.
Demo features and functionality of Commerce Server 2007 using Starter site.

All of the above reasons for installing on Windows XP are fine except minimizing cost and having your development environment as Windows XP. Take a moment and understand the following risks:

Debugging and reproducing production issues are harder because of differences of Windows XP and Windows 2003.
Uncertainty of your developed code will work on production environment, since there are differences between the operating systems the confidence level is not 100% that your code developed on Windows XP to work without issues on Windows 2003 due to configuration and other issues.

How to mitigate the above risks? Simple use virtualization. Huh, what's that? Use Virtual PC, Virtual PC allows you to maintain the compatibility of legacy and custom applications by providing an environment to host new operating systems on your current machine and the best part is Virtual PC Is Now Free!

So I want to reiterate that I highly recommend that you keep your development environment in the same file, network, secure deployment and software configuration as your production, this makes trouble shooting and reproing bugs that much easier and finding bugs before they go to testers.

Virtualization notes:

If you are going to reproduce your production environment by having two or more Virtual systems then make sure that you have RAM and drive Space. The more RAM and storage you have the more Virtual systems you can host. On my Windows Vista I have two gigs of RAM and an external USB drive with 8 megs of Cache and 7300 RPM. I can run three Virtual System without any problem. One System host my Windows Active Directory which I allocate 256K of RAM, this system is only used for authentication so it doesn't need a lot of memory. My other system is used to launch my business user application I allocate 512K of RAM again this system is used to manage my catalog, marketing, profiles and orders. On the third system I have my site and web services where I do all my development. On this system I use 1024K of RAM. On this system you need to configure so that SQL only take a small amount of memory turn off services that you don't need. Don't install services that are not required, the smaller you can make your image that better it will perform. On a regular basis run defrag in the Virtual System then compact the drive, you will also need to run defrag on the USB drive. These procedures need to happen on regular basis otherwise you will suffer performance.

Prepare you System

In these steps it's assumed that you have a system that meets the Windows XP requirements and have installed Windows XP. This installation also assumes single server deployment.

Windowsupdate

We need to get your system up to date with latest fixes, navigate to Windows update and get all critical updates. You may need to reboot your system based on updates for your system.

Install Windows component

You need to install and enable IIS for your Windows XP.

Place the Windows XP Professional CD-Rom into your CD-Rom Drive.
Click Start then navigate to Control Panel.
Open Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel.
From the Add/Remove Programs dialog Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
From the Windows Components Wizard dialog check Internet Information Services (IIS) leaving all the default installation settings intact. Then select Next.

Install .NET framework 2.0

Go here to download the Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86).
Once you have downloaded the .NET 2.0 Framework double click the dotnetfx.exe where you saved the file to install.

If you installed the .NET Framework as part of the Windowsupdate then you sill need to run the following command:

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i

Note: The above command install this version of ASP.NET and update scriptmaps at the IIS metabase root and for all scriptmaps below the root. Existing scriptmaps of lower version are upgraded to this version.

Install SQL Server

You can select to install either SQL Server 2000 or 2005 (Follow the installation instructions for either SQL servers).
Install the latest service pack for SQL.

Install Visual Studio 2005 [Optional]

Install Visual Studio 2005 if you are going to do any development.

Install Commerce Server 2007

Install Commerce Server either select the default setting or choose additional features.

Install Business User Application [Optional]

Install Commerce Server Business user Applications.

Install Hotfix

Install the following hotfix:

Configure Commerce Server

Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2007, point to Tools, and then click Configuration Wizard.
On the Welcome to the Microsoft Commerce Server Configuration Wizard page, click Next.
On the Administration Database page, fill the SQL Server property values and select Windows Authentication. Click to test the connection to the Administration database. Then Click Next.
If you have selected to install the Commerce Server Direct Mailer, fill the default property values and use Windows Authentication. Click to test the connection to the Direct Mailer database. Then Click Next.
On the Summary page, review the components that you are configuring.
Click Next to configure the components.
Click Finish to complete the Configuration Wizard.

Unpackage CSharpSite

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2007\Pup\ and double click CSharpSite.pup.
From the Pup dialog select Quick unpack and all defaults and continue next.
Data Warehouse is not supported on Windows XP and the CSharpSite has a reference for the Data Warehouse Module in the web.config and must be removed or remarked.

Secure CSharpSite

Assign Write Permissions.
Windows XP does not have Authorization Manager Installed by default so you need to download the following Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack. Then follow the instructions for Add Users or Windows Groups to the Authorization Roles.
Grant Web Applications and Windows Services Access to the Databases.
Configure a Temporary SSL Certificate.
Windows XP does not have Application pool therefore you must perform the following steps for the CSharp Web Services and CSharp Site.
- Download the Aspnet_setreq.exe package
- Read the following KB to use an identity tag in the web.config for ASP.NET process How to use the ASP.NET utility to encrypt credentials and session state connection strings
  
  After completing step five you should have the following in all your web.config files for all Commerce Sites and Web Services.
  
  <identity impersonate="true" userName="registry:HKLM\SOFTWARE\MY_SECURE_APP\identity\ASPNET_SETREG,userName" password="registry:HKLM\SOFTWARE\MY_SECURE_APP\identity\ASPNET_SETREG,password" />
  
  So instead of creating Application Pools and setting accounts we set the identity tag in the web.config.
Make sure to give ASPNET account read access to the registry key.
Restart IIS and Verify Installation of Web Services.

Test your Installation

Browse the defautl.aspx page under CSharpSite. Make sure there are no errors.
Launch the Business User Applications and Make sure that there are no errors.

Trouble Shooting your Installation

Run SQL Profiler to determine what account is accessing your Database.
Go to Windows Sysinternals home page and download the monitoring tools like regmon, filemon and others.
View the pup log for errors.
Check the web.config to make sure you have an identity tag.
Make sure that you have remarked or removed the Data Warehouse Module.
Make sure that you have the correct accounts enrolled in Authorization Manager.
Make sure that you have set the correct permissions on the XML authorization file.
Make sure that you have executed aspnet_regiis.exe -i command.
Make sure that you have set the correct permissions on the registry for each identity in the web.config.

Summary

So now you have a Commerce Server 2007 installed on Windows XP. Good luck.

Fix Commerce Server 2007 After Renaming Machine Name

Max Akbar — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:57:00 GMT

There are time you have to change your machine name post a Commerce Server 2007 installation and after doing so you render your Commerce Server in operable. No matter what your scenario is I will give you two solutions. These solutions are recommended for single server deployments only.

Supported Solution

The supported solution only works for a very few scenarios for example, your Enterprise images Development Systems to prepare a computer for doing imaging and customization. Install Commerce Server but do not configure it, then make an image of the system. After installing the imaged system on to a computer run the Commerce Server Configuration.

Non Supported Solution

The non supported solution is exactly as it is, you will not get any support if you follow these steps. Now that I have made that disclaimer lets get down and dirty.

MSCS_Admin Database

Commerce Server holds all site configuration in MSCS_Admin database. This Database is created when you first configure your site and every time you unpackaged a site all it's configuration data will be stored in MSCS_Admin database. So how is it that MMC Console or Commerce Server knows where this database resides? That's a good question. Commerce Server holds the connection string for MSCS_Admin database in the registry key ADMINDBPS, this key is encrypted.

The Commerce Server MMC and the Configuration objects get the connection string from this location, to find the MSCS_Admin database. After configuration Commerce Server and un-packaging one more site(s), Server names and connection strings for a Commerce Site is held in this database. Hence if the machine name is changed post installation, the connections between resources might break and these connection strings needs to be changed manually.

Recovering Commerce Server After Machine Name Change

Change the Commerce Server Administration database connection string. You can do by running CSConfig.exe command with /f command line to re-configure Commerce Server. This will also reset Service accounts for Commerce Server.

Some global resources such as the Data Warehouse, Commerce Server Direct Mailer, and Profiles may have display names containing the server name on which they were created. So we need to fix this by updating the MSCS_Admin database and replace the old server name with a new one. Then we need to change all the connection strings.

Before doing any changes lets understand a few tables relevant to our updates in MSCS_Admin database. The Commerce Site information is held in several tables. The Site Table holds the Site Name and by joining to SiteResources and Resources Table we can get a list of Resources associated with a particular site. To see the detail properties of the Resource we need to join to ResourceProps Table. So most of the data is held in Resources table and ResourcesProps and these are the two table we need to modify. First we need to update the Resources Table's s_Computer column. This columns holds the global display name which are server names. Next We need to update the ResourceProps Table s_Value column this table holds all of the connection strings and for some resources it holds server names as well.

The following scripts is to be executed under the MSCS_Admin database:

DECLARE @OldMachineName nvarchar(255)
DECLARE @NewMachineName nvarchar(255)

SET @OldMachineName = null -- name of your old computer
SET @NewMachineName = null -- name of your new computer

IF @OldMachineName is not null AND @NewMachineName is not null
BEGIN
UPDATE ResourceProps
SET s_value=REPLACE(CONVERT(nvarchar(4000),s_value),@OldMachineName,@NewMachineName )

    UPDATE Resources
    SET s_DisplayName = REPLACE(s_DisplayName,@OldMachineName,@NewMachineName ) ,
    s_Computer = REPLACE(s_Computer,@OldMachineName,@NewMachineName)
END

Next we need to fix the profiles global connection strings. The following statement needs to be executed under the <SiteName>_Profiles database.

DECLARE @OldMachineName nvarchar(255)
DECLARE @NewMachineName nvarchar(255)

SET @OldMachineName = null -- name of your old computer
SET @NewMachineName = null -- name of your new computer

IF @OldMachineName is not null AND @NewMachineName is not null
BEGIN
Update SourceDef
SET ConnStr = REPLACE(ConnStr,@OldMachineName,@NewMachineName)
END

Also run the following SQL statement for Direct Mailer if you have it installed.

DECLARE @NewMachineName nvarchar(255)

SET @NewMachineName = null -- name of your new computer

IF @NewMachineName is not null
BEGIN

    UPDATE Resources
    SET s_Computer = @NewMachineName
    WHERE (s_Type = 'DirectMailer') AND (f_IsGlobal = 'true')

END

Update all of your Business User Management Applications so that they are pointing to the new machine name.
Also update local SQL accounts from OldMachineName\UserName with NewMachineName\UserName.

Summary

So you now have two solutions you can test in your Enterprise to ease you deployment pains.

Simplifying Authorization Management of Commerce Server Web Services

Max Akbar — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:36:50 GMT

To make the job of your infrastructure easier you may want to follow my next piece of advice. When un-packaging a Commerce PUP you get four Web Services to manage your commerce engine. Each Web Service has a different Authorization XML store. Let’s find out what Authorization Manager is.

Authorization Manager

Authorization Manager (commonly known as AzMan) is a new general-purpose, role-based security architecture for Windows. AzMan is not tied to COM+, so it can be used in any application that needs role-based authorization. Using Authorization Manager, you can define roles and the tasks those roles can perform. You can nest roles to inherit characteristics from other roles, and you can define application groups. In addition, Authorization Manager lets you use scripts to modify permissions dynamically, and it allows you to wrap your security logic in a security policy that can be stored in Active Directory or an XML file. Authorization Manager also includes an easy-to-use API for running access checks. Commerce Server only supports the security policy to be stored in an XML file.

Simplify AzMan

Managing four different AzMan XML files can be difficult to manage. In order to simplify this, we need to merge all files into one AzMan XML Store.

The following is an example of the AzMan XML Store of the Catalog Web Service.

Note that the AzApplication node holds all the information required by AzMan to perform its’ internal policy actions. So we need to create a new XML file then copy the AzApplication node of every Web Service XML file.

Open the Authorization Manager Management Console.
From the AzMan MMC right click Authorization Manager.
From the New Authorization Store, Select XML, then name your Store and give a brief description. Next, close the AzMan MMC.
Navigate using windows Explorer to where you saved the new AzMan Store and open it with notepad. Navigate to Catalog Web Service and open the CatalogAuthorizationStore.xml file in notepad. Then copy everything from AzApplication begin tag to the end tag. Next paste the copied XML tags to your new AzMan Store. Paste the copied XML nodes between AzAdminManager begin tag and end tag.
Now follow step 4 for other Web Services.

Now you can manage one file rather than four different store to ease administration.

Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Solutions Center

Max Akbar — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:28:00 GMT

Locate support resources such as how-to articles, download details, and troubleshooting documents that have been reviewed and approved by the Microsoft Commerce Server team.

Commerce Server Solution Center

Feature Comparison of Commerce Server Versions

Max Akbar — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 08:54:00 GMT

The following link provides a comparison of features for Commerce Server systems, applications, and tools for the following versions of Commerce Server:

Commerce Server 2007
Commerce Server 2002 Enterprise Edition, Feature Pack 1
Commerce Server 2002 Enterprise Edition
Commerce Server 2000

Feature Comparison of Commerce Server Versions

Removed or Deprecated Features of Commerce Server 2007

Max Akbar — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 08:51:00 GMT

The following link provide information about the functions and objects that have been removed, deprecated, or replaced in Commerce Server 200:

Removed or Deprecated Features

Commerce Server 2007 Documentation Refresh on MSDN

Max Akbar — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:52:00 GMT

Take a look at the refreshed documention of Commerce Server 2007 on MSDN.

CONGRAULATIONS Doc Team and thanks for all your hard work.

Commerce Server 2007 Help

How to Create a Commerce Server VPC

Max Akbar — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 21:20:00 GMT

Requirements

This section contains two sub-sections that are repeated for each machine. These two sub-sections detail the minimum hardware requirement and the software requirements to build and make the lab exercises work.

The basic template you will receive will contain the hardware requirements section filled in with the standard configuration.

Minimum Hardware Requirements: <SERVER 1>

Processor	1.5 GHz
Memory	1024 MB
Disk Space	20 GB

Software required before demo installation

Required Operating Systems	Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Service Pack 1 or R2
	Install All current Windows Hot Fixes from windows update
	Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005 Database Server (Enterprise Edition or Developer)
	Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005 Analysis Services (Enterprise Edition or Developer)
	SQL 2000 Service Pack 4
	SQL 2000 Analysis Service Pack 4
	SQL 2005 Service Pack 1
	SQL 2005 Analysis Service Pack 1
	Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006
	Microsoft Commerce Server 2007

Manual installation instructions

Install Windows 2003 Server using the default settings. When prompted for the administrator password type “Pass@word1”.
- After Windows 2003 Advanced Server is installed, you are prompted to restart the machine. The Windows 2003 Manage Your Server dialog box appears. Close the Windows 2003 Manage Your Server dialog box.
Install IIS and ASP.NET (If you are installing the Starter Site then you might also want to install SMTP Server and If you want to play with Commerce Server Staging then you might want to enable ASP for the reporting purposes of Commerce Server Staging).
Install Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1
Install SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition accepting all defaults EXCEPT for the Authentication Mode page, which should be changed to Mixed Mode. Use “Pass@word1” as password for the sa login. Once the installation is complete reboot the machine (You can substitute SQL 2000).
Install SQL Analytics 2005 accepting all defaults. Once the installation is complete reboot the machine (You can substitute SQL Analytics 2000).
Install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 once complete reboot the machine (If you substituted to use SQL 2000 install Service Pack 4).
You may also need to install SQL Server Reporting for the Commerce Analytics.
Perform a complete install of BizTalk Server 2006, accepting all defaults.
Perform a complete install of Commerce Server 2007, accepting all defaults.
Un-package Starter Site CTP accepting all defaults (You can substitute CSharpSite). After unpacking the Starter Site make sure to read the readme doc.

For CSharpSite follow these steps

Select Start | All Programs | Commerce Server 2007 | Commerce Site Packager
Select Next in Welcome Screen
Select Browse from the unpack screen and select CSharpSite.pup
Select all defaults.

Commerce Server Best Practices Analyzer

Max Akbar — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 20:10:00 GMT

The Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer examines a Commerce Server 2007 deployment and generates a list of best practices issues it discovers. The Best Practices Analyzer is intended for use in Commerce Server 2007 production and staging environments.

The Best Practices Analyzer performs configuration level verification, by reading and reporting only. For example, the Best Practices Analyzer gathers data from Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes, Microsoft SQL Server databases, registry entries, IIS Metabase Settings, and other parts of your deployment, and uses the gathered data to determine whether best practices are being followed. The Best Practices Analyzer does not modify any system settings, and is therefore not a self-tuning tool.

Max Akbar : Deployment

Rub a dub dub, a PUP in my tub Part I!

What is PUP?

UI PUP

Unpackaging

Unattended PUP

Site Packager .ini File

BizData.ini File

Automating the Unpacking Process

Pup Structure

How many PUP files are there?

Blank PUP

CSharp PUP

DW PUP

PUP Security

Pre and Post PUP Activities

Backward Compatibility of PUP files

Further Reading

Commerce Server 2007 Frequently Asked Questions

Commerce Server Capacity Planning Tool

MOSS 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 White Paper Released!

Secure Commerce Server 2007 Tool

PUP Viewer for Commerce Server 2007

Windows XP installation Instructions

Why Install on Windows XP

Virtualization notes:

Prepare you System

Windowsupdate

Install Windows component

Install .NET framework 2.0

Install SQL Server

Install Visual Studio 2005 [Optional]

Install Commerce Server 2007

Install Business User Application [Optional]

Install Hotfix

Configure Commerce Server

Unpackage CSharpSite

Secure CSharpSite

Test your Installation

Trouble Shooting your Installation

Summary

Fix Commerce Server 2007 After Renaming Machine Name

Supported Solution

Non Supported Solution

MSCS_Admin Database

Recovering Commerce Server After Machine Name Change

Summary

Simplifying Authorization Management of Commerce Server Web Services

Authorization Manager

Simplify AzMan

Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Solutions Center

Feature Comparison of Commerce Server Versions

Removed or Deprecated Features of Commerce Server 2007

Commerce Server 2007 Documentation Refresh on MSDN

How to Create a Commerce Server VPC

Requirements

Minimum Hardware Requirements: <SERVER 1>

Software required before demo installation

Manual installation instructions

Commerce Server Best Practices Analyzer

DownloadDownload the BPA

Download
Download the BPA