SharePoint 2013 Development Environment Tutorial Part 3

Introduction

Creating a SharePoint Development Virtual Machine is something you might have to do quite a few times as a Developer. Even if it’s a pretty easy process, on a slow machine it can easily kill 4-5 hours of your day only to install SQL, SharePoint, Visual Studio and all the others tools you might need to get started. What if you could just script it so it’s all done automatically while you go take coffee, chat on SharePoint Community or whatever else you enjoy doing? In this tutorial we will learn how to build a script that we will keep using for as long as you keep developing on SharePoint 2013. The tutorial will be split in a few sections since in order to keep them focused and short, and at the end they will all be published in a downloadable PDF. I strongly encourage you to not only copy the scripts, but actually read the blog posts of why I did them like this and there are some parts where you will need to work as well!

Sections:

Introduction & Prerequisites & Creating the Domain and Service Accounts
Installing software prerequisites + SQL
Installing SharePoint 2013
Installing Visual Studio 2012 and Optional Software
Basic Optimizing and Summary
Advanced Optimizing of the scripts! (You are here)
An eBook Guide of the 6 sections and a video! (19/11/2013)

Installing SharePoint 2013

The Installation of SharePoint 2013 will basically be done in two steps. The first step is, of course, preparing our source package and configuration, and the second step is installing it. Both those steps will be done with the help of two great tools done by Brian Lalancette. The first one is AutoSPInstaller that you can download here: https://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/ and the second one is AutoSPSourceBuilder that you can download here: https://autospsourcebuilder.codeplex.com .

First, let’s download AutoSPInstaller, and put the “SP” Folder in C:\SharePoint . Now, let’s download AutoSPSourceBuilder and extract it in C:\SharePoint Again. The folder should look something like:

SharePoint 2013 Development Environment Tutorial

Next thing you have to do is mount the SharePoint 2013 ISO file and open PowerShell as an administrator.

Run the following script (If you want to add language packs to your install you can now! Make sure to read the tools documentation if you modify stuff! Also, for this step you will need an internet connection so it can download the prerequisites! However, once we have them we won’t need them anymore for future Virtual Machines.

cd C:\SharePoint\AutoSPSourceBuilder
.\AutoSPSourceBuilder.ps1 -Destination "C:\SharePoint\SP\2013" -GetPrerequisites $true

The script will start copying the Source Files from your ISO in the right folder in C:\SharePoint , as well as downloading the pre-requisites so they are offline in the future! It will look something like this:

When Asked to enter a Cumulative Update, just press Enter, we don’t want to slipstream the updates using the old process, we will use the new “AutoSPInstaller” way!

$AutoSPSourceBuilder.ps1 PowerShell output copying SharePoint 2013 media from E: to C:\SharePoint\SP\2013 and downloading prerequisites$

While it runs, you can download the March 2013 PU from this link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/1/C/51CA768E-C79E-41BA-91D4-7F7D929B0BFE/ubersrvsp2013-kb2767999-fullfile-x64-glb.exe

And the August 2013 Cumulative Update from this link: http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20SharePoint%20Server%202013/sp1/ubersrv2013kb2817616fullfilex64glb/15.0.4535.1000/free/466901_intl_x64_zip.exe

The March 2013 CU is already an .exe file, however the August 2013 one is a zip, so you will have to extract it into the exe. After you do, copy both your executables and the .cab file into C:\SharePoint\SP\2013\Updates folder. It should look something like this :

$C:\SharePoint\SP\2013\Updates folder with ubersrv_1.cab and the March 2013 and August 2013 SharePoint 2013 update executables$

When the AutoSPSourceBuilder finishes, it will have copied all the SharePoint 2013 Media in the C:\SharePoint\2013\SharePoint folder and all the prerequisites in C:\SharePoint\SP\2013\SharePoint\PrerequisiteInstallerFiles . Now that your media is prepared, you can actually delete the AutoSPSourceBuilder folder as we won’t be using it anymore. It will look something like this:

$C:\SharePoint\SP\2013\SharePoint\PrerequisiteInstallerFiles folder with downloaded dotNetFx45, AppFabric, sqlncli and WcfDataServices$

$C:\SharePoint\SP\2013\SharePoint folder with the copied SharePoint 2013 media, PrerequisiteInstallerFiles and updates folders and setup.exe$

$C:\SharePoint folder in File Explorer showing only the SP, SQLBinaries and sxs folders after the AutoSPSourceBuilder folder was deleted$

Now that our SharePoint Sources are ready, we can start configuring everything! Go in C:\SharePoint\SP\AutoSPInstaller and open “AutoSPInstallerInput.xml” with a notepad editor. You can also edit this file on your local machine since you probably have NotePad++ which makes modifying this document a lot easier! The Document is pretty well documented however I will go over with you with some settings we need to change. I will also show you a bit under an example of a configured AutoSPInstallerInput.xml that you can refer to incase you have any questions… so let’s start!

change the “PIDKEY” value with your actual SharePoint 2013 Key :
Change “OfflineInstall” to true:
Change the “AutoAdminLogon” to true and enter the sp_admin password. This will make sure we aren’t prompted to reboot every time the Pre Req installer needs a reboot! :
Change the “CertificateRevocationListCheck” to true. If we keep it enabled, it will slow down your VM when not connected to internet!:
Enter the passphrase of the farm… Make sure it’s pretty complicated!

Tip to make configuration faster! Do a Find/Replace with Domain\ for vladdev\ (for example) and domain.com for vladdev.local (for example). This will avoid you writing in the domain every time!

From now on, I won’t tell you what to change on each line, since it’s very well documented in the XML file, however I will post you screenshots of “Sections”. The only thing I want to make sure you do is set the to localhost! This will make sure it will always pick the MSSQL instance!

PS: I will have deleted comments from my screenshots so I am able to show you more actual configuration on a smaller screenshot!

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml farm section with vladdev SP_Farm account, Central Admin port 2010, localhost DBServer and SharePoint2013_Dev DBPrefix

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml Services section starting SandboxedCodeService, Outgoing Email on localhost, Distributed Cache and Workflow Timer

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml ManagedAccounts section with vladdev SP_Services and SP_Pool for the service and app pool accounts, plus ObjectCacheAccounts

In the Logging Part, I changed the Path to C:\Logs\ to make it easier to find them after! Won’t have to go to the long default path anymore!

$AutoSPInstallerInput.xml Logging section with IIS, ULS and Usage log paths changed to C:\Logs$

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml Portal web application at http://portal.vladdev.local with SP_Pool app pool, Content_Portal database and STS#1 root site

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml MySiteHost web application at http://mysites.vladdev.local with Content_MySites database and SPSMSITEHOST#0 site collection

For the Service Applications, the basic ones will only ask you if you want to provision or not… And some of them like “Search” And User profile will ask you for more detail! I will only show you the MMS, Search and User Profile Screnshots, use the comments in the XML to configure the rest if you need!

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml ManagedMetadataServiceApp section with Provision set to true and the MetaData database name

The SP_UserProfiles account currently does not have the necessary rights to sync users! You either have to give it the Replicating Directory Changes Permission (Click here for tutorial) OR, if you want an “easier” way… Just use the SP_Admin account! It’s already a local(domain) admin!

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml UserProfileServiceApp with StartProfileSync true, vladdev SP_UserProfiles sync account and Profile, Sync and Social databases

$AutoSPInstallerInput.xml EnterpriseSearchService with C:\SearchIndex index location, SP_Services and SP_Crawl accounts and every component on localhost$

Closing lines of the EnterpriseSearchService section in AutoSPInstallerInput.xml with the Default proxy group and empty SearchCenterUrl

The rest of the Service Applications can be configured as you wish!

After you’re done configuring the file, run the AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat file. It will launch a CMD window as well as a PowerShell one and will look something like this!

AutoSPInstaller launching on DEVMACHINE1, verifying vladdev managed accounts, testing SQL Server access and disabling loopback and CRL checks

And then it will install the prerequisites, Binaries, Updates and configure everything as you told it to in the AutoSPInstallerInput.XML. Here are some screenshots of it running.

d AutoSPInstaller console installing prerequisites alongside the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Installation Progress dialog and its progress bar

AutoSPInstaller console reporting SharePoint 2013 setup completed, no language packs found, and the March 2013 Public Update installed

$AutoSPInstaller creating SharePoint2013_Dev_Config database, configuring farm and Central Admin, setting ULS logs to C:\Logs\ULS, adding managed accounts$

$AutoSPInstaller provisioning Managed Metadata and User Profile service applications, starting profile sync and setting usage logs to C:\Logs\Usage$

AutoSPInstaller console launching Central Admin, portal and mysites web applications, with Automated SP2013 install script completed at 7:42 PM

And when the SharePoint 2013 installation is done, it will open the Web Applications and Central Administration in the Background

Completed AutoSPInstaller console over Internet Explorer showing the new mysites.vladdev.local Newsfeed page and a Central Administration tab

Summary

This Part of the Guide has been quite complicated, however we managed to install SharePoint 2013 entirely scripted! The fun part is now that you already got your sources ready, so you won’t have to redo the “Source Preparation” ever again. Also, since it’s a development machine, the AutoSPInstallerInput.XML will probably never change between the installs, so now you got that forever as well! One thing that isn’t “cool” now is that we have to go to “C:\SharePoint\SP\AutoSPInstaller” to launch the script and not launch it from C:\SharePoint like all the other ones! So let’s create this script and put it in C:\SharePoint

#Name: installSharePoint.ps1
#Purpose: Installs SharePoint
cd C:\SharePoint
.\SP\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat

Your new C:\SharePoint should look something like this :

$C:\SharePoint folder with SP, SQLBinaries, sxs and XML folders and the seven PowerShell scripts from createaccounts to sp2013serviceaccounts$

So Until now in the 3 Sections that we completed we:

Changed our PC Name and Created a Domain
Installed Prerequisite Software and Features
Prepared our ConfigurationFile.Ini for future SQL installs and SQL install Script
Prepared our SharePoint 2013 Sources and AutoSPInstallerInput.xml file for future installs!
And we Also installed SQL 2012 and SP2013 of course!

Now it’s time to install the other software! Head over to Installing Visual Studio 2012 and Optional Software

Create a scripted SharePoint 2013 Development Environment Tutorial – Part 3

Introduction

Sections:

Installing SharePoint 2013

Summary

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