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SharePoint 2013: Step by step automated unattended scripted SharePoint installation with AutoSPInstaller

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AutoSPInstaller is one of the great projects that facilitate Automated SharePoint installation. Though SharePoint is a great product everybody agrees it is not applying to SharePoint Product Configuration Wizard, isn't it? 

Earlier there were difficulties when working with AutoSPInstaller because of an XML file. But with the AutoSPInstallerGUI it is amazing..! 

Let's illustrate How to install three tier SP Farm with Medium Security and automatically provisioned some necessary services using AutoSPInstaller.

The Deployment Layout

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You can refer to minimum and recommended requirements here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485.aspx 

For security, you need following service accounts created in AD:

Setting Up AD ACCOUNTS (These accounts need to be created in Active Directory)

User Task Machine Rights SQL DB Rights Doman Rights
spadmin Use for setup and configuration Local Admin All Servers (DB,WFE,APP) SQL DB Creator and Security Admin Rights

DOMAIN User
spfarm sp timer service , Central Admin Application Pool, Other Configurations    

DOMAIN User
spservices Service and Pool account user    

DOMAIN  User
spsqlservice Run services in SQL Server
(MSSQLSERVER, SQLSERVERAGENT)		    

DOMAIN User
spsearch SP search service , crawlers , search related    

DOMAIN User
spprofile user profile synchronization account     Need Replicating Directory Changes

Note: Add Replicate Directory Changes to User

This is quite easy. First, you need to go run dsa.msc in Run Windows or open Active Directory Users and Computers.

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Then right-click the domain and click Delegate Control.

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Click next and select spprofile user.

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Click next and select Custom Task Delagate and click Next.

Select **This folder, Existing objects in this folder, and creation of new objects in this folder **and click Next.

Select Replicating Directory Changes and proceed to finish the wizard.

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Setting Up  DB Server (Login as spadmin)

Windows Server 2012 is installed in the DB server. After installing the OS you need to install SQL Server. The following are the steps you need to perform additionally.

In the feature selection, you can select Database Services and Management Tools – Basic, Management Tools – Complete. Other than these features you can select other related ones if needed.

You can add spadmin as an administrator for management.

And you should add spsqlservice as service accounts running credentials for MSSQLSERVER, SQLSERVERAGENT.

Complete the installation and** Enable TCP/IP**. Start the SQL browser in SQL configuration management.

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Getting Ready with AutoSPInstaller

Extract AutoSPInstaller to a suitable location (assume C:\. Now you have the following folder structure:

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AutoSPInstaller can be run either in Offline mode or Online Mode. In Offline mode you need Prerequisites files. First, we will prepare SharePoint 2010 installation.

Prepare SharePoint 2010 Environment

  • Download SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites – These are available PowerShell scripts that will automatically download prerequisites. (link1 , link2)
  • When you are done, put prerequisites files inside PrerequisitesInstallerFiles (SP->2010->SharePoint->PrerequisitesInstallerFiles)
  • Then Download PDF Filter and Download PDF Icon.
  • Put PDF filter installation and PDF icon inside the PDF folder (SP->2010->SharePoint->PDF) (PDF filter downloads as a zip file. You need to extract it and put it in the folder.)

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  • Then open your SharePoint 2010 installation (CD or folder) and copy it to SharePoint Folder. (SP->2010->SharePoint)

Prepare SharePoint 2013 Environment

Initial Server (Login as spadmin) [ We added this user as a Local Admin ] Setup

Application server Server , Web Front End Server

  • **OS : **Windows Server 2012

If you are installing SharePoint 2013, you need to install .NET Framework 3.5 to the server.

Ref : http://www.danielclasson.com/install-net-framework-35-server-2012/

       http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/w/wiki/4146.installing-net-3-5-framework-on-microsoft-windows-server-2012.aspx

DB Server

  • **OS : **Windows Server 2012
  • SQL Server 2012

After setting up initial servers you need to configure you service accounts in the installation. For that, extract the AutoSPInstallerGUI. Then open the **AutoSPInstallerInput.XML (inside the AutoSPInstaller) **using the AutoSPInstallerGUI.Exe

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After opening the file we need to configure.

Here we already have prerequisites, thus you can select Offline Install. And you can select either 2010 or 2013.

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Then go the second tab:

  1. Specify the farm account
  2. We need to enter manage accounts and passwords here (spsearch , spprofile , spservices)
  3. Here we need to enter the cache account. Since we have not created an account for it, we can use spservices account. Or you can create a spcache domain account and add it in here (we normally do it for full security installation)
  4. You need to put DBserver Machine name here (Fully qualified name)
  5. This is central admin DB name you can put any readable name.
  6. This is config DB name. You can put any sensible name.
  7. Optionally you can configure Email and logs.

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  1. Here we need to specify web applications we need. There are two web apps defined in default. Portal and Myhost. By selecting those from dropdown you can specify name, pool name, URLs and port.
  2. Here you need to specify app pool account name (we have spservices so use it)
  3. Here you need to specify SharePoint admin user (spadmin)

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Third tab has service applications configuration. Most services work with default configuration. We need to specially configure User Profile and Search service.

  1. Sync account is the account use for AD synchronization. Therefore add spprofile account.
  2. Here we need to specify Database names for profile, Sync and Social

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  1. Here select the Search Service account (spsearch)

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  1. We need to specify the spsearch account here
  2. We need to select spsearch account here.

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Now save the file. You are ready.

Installing Servers

You need to copy the entire folder structure to app, wfe. (SP Folder with all sub folders) and then run the SPAutoInstallerLaunch

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Note: AutoSpinstaller makes all the servers WFE servers. If you need to make a server an a App server, turn off SharePoint Foundation web service