Set up accounts for a BI test environment

 

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

Important

This article is part of the baseline setup for the Configuring a BI infrastructure: Hands-on labs series. To complete the steps in this article, you must first have completed Add a virtual machine to the virtual domain in a BI test environment.

Video demonstration

This video shows how to add the required accounts for use in these labs.

Running time: 5:45

Watch the video.  For an optimal viewing experience, download the video. Right-click the link, and then click Save Target As to download a copy. Clicking the link opens a .wmv file in the default video viewer for full-resolution viewing.

Configure accounts

To configure Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 in a server farm environment, there are several domain accounts needed to provide the most optimal and secure configuration. This article describes how to create accounts and groups at the domain level for use in the remaining configuration steps in this series of articles.

Account	Domain account	Description
SQL Server Administrator	Contoso\SQLAdmin	Administrator account for SQL Server 2008. Local Administrator on Contoso-SQL.
Farm Administrator	Contoso\FarmAdmin	Farm Administrator for the SharePoint Server 2010 farm. Local Administrator on Contoso-AppSrv.
SQL Server service account	Contoso\SQLSvc	Domain account for running SQL Server services.
Client user account	Contoso\John.Woods	Domain user account for testing BI functionality.
Client user account	Contoso\Susan.Burk	Domain user account for testing BI functionality.
Client user account	Contoso\Cindy.White	Domain user account for testing BI functionality.
Client user account	Contoso\David.Hamilton	Domain user account for testing BI functionality.
Client user account	Contoso\Jill.Frank	Domain user account for testing BI functionality.

To create these accounts, you must be logged on to Contoso-DC as the domain administrator (contoso\administrator).

Note

Additional accounts will be created for SharePoint Server 2010 service applications and for data access as part of the other hands-on labs in this series.

Perform the following procedure for each account listed in the table.

To create an Active Directory account

1. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.

2. Expand the domain node.

3. Right-click Users, click New, and then click User.

4. For a user account (for example, John Woods or Susan Burk) type the first and last name in the First name and Last name text boxes. For a service account, leave these text boxes blank.

5. In the Full name box, for service accounts, type the name of the account (for example, FarmAdmin).

   Note

   This text box is automatically populated for user accounts when you specify the First name and Last name fields.

6. In the User logon name box, type the logon name for the account. For service accounts, this is the same as Full name; for user accounts this should be in the format first.last (for example, Susan.Burk).

7. Click Next.

8. Type and confirm a password for the account.

9. Clear the User must change password at next logon check box.

10. Select the Password never expires check box.

11. Click Next.

12. Click Finish.

Leave Active Directory Users and Computers open for the next procedure.

Once you have created the user accounts listed in the previous table, you must create an Active Directory group to contain these accounts. These groups are used to grant access to the Business Intelligence Center that we will create later in this series of labs.

We will create the groups listed in the following table.

Group	Description
BICenterRead	Provides Read access to the BI Center.
BICenterContribute	Provides Contribute access to the BI Center.
BICenterDesign	Provides Design access to the BI Center.
BICenterFullControl	Provides Full Control access to the BI Center.

Use the following procedure to create each Active Directory group.

To create an Active Directory group

1. In Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click Users, click New, and then click Group.

2. In the Group name text box, type the name of the group that you are creating from the previous table.

3. Click OK.

Leave Active Directory Users and Computers open for the next procedure.

Once the groups have been created, you must add a user to each group, as specified in the following table.

Add this user	To this group
Contoso\John.Woods	BICenterRead
Contoso\Susan.Burk	BICenterContribute
Contoso\Cindy.White	BICenterDesign
Contoso\David.Hamilton	BICenterFullControl

Use the following procedure to add the specified user to each group.

To add users to an Active Directory group

1. In Active Directory Users and Computers, click Users.

2. In the pane on the right side, double-click the group to which you want to add a user.

3. On the Members tab, click Add.

4. In the Enter the object names to select box, type the name of the user whom you want to add to the group (for example, contoso\john.woods for the BICenterRead group).

5. Click OK.

6. Confirm that the appropriate user is now listed on the Members tab, and then click OK.

After you have created the required user accounts and groups and populated the groups in the Active Directory directory service, you can start to install software. The first step is to install SQL Server 2008. See the next article, Set up SQL Server for a BI test environment.