The first installation decision you'll make is to select the appropriate SharePoint product for your implementation. In general, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 offers only collaboration tools, but is covered by the operating system license. SharePoint Server 2007 is offered in two editions: Standard and Enterprise. The binaries installed are the same for both the Standard and Enterprise editions, but some features are disabled in the Standard edition. The same installation source is used for both editions, and the choice of Standard or Enterprise is determined by the Product Key entered during installation. An installation of Standard Edition can be upgraded to Enterprise in Central Administration without performing additional installation. To change from Enterprise to Standard however requires an uninstall and reinstall of the product.
Following table provides a feature comparison of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the two versions of SharePoint Server 2007.
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Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
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SharePoint Server 2007 Standard Edition
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SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
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Services
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Central Administration
Site Administration
Incoming Email
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Application
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Web Content Services: Publishing, Content Deployment, Variations
Portal Services: Profiles, Audiences, Personalization
Document & Records Management
Office Search
Document Conversions
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Excel Server
InfoPath Forms
Line Of Business Interoperability (Business Data Catalog)
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Features
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Mobility Shortcut URL
Team Collaboration Lists
Standard Content Type Definitions
Standard Field Definitions
Issue Tracking Workflow
Alerts
Discussions
RSS Feeds
Data Connection Library
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Document Center Enhancements
Translation Management Library
Publishing
Slide Library
Office Server Standard (User profiles, Search, Personalization, and so on)
Workflows (Approval, Collect Signatures, Collect Feedback, Disposition, Translation Management)
Reporting
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Office Enterprise:
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Business Data Catalog, Forms services, Excel services, Key Performance Indicator and various Business Intelligence Web Parts
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Site Templates
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Blank, Team, Document Workspace, Wiki, Blog, Meeting Workspaces
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Records Center, My Site Host, Document Center, Personalization, Site Directory, Report Center, Search Center, Search Center with tabs, Publishing Portal, Collaboration Portal, Publishing, Publishing with workflow
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Hardware Recommendations
Before you install and configure SharePoint Server 2007, make sure your servers have the recommended hardware and software. For a small server farm, you need at least one server performing all SharePoint roles and one server acting as a database server. The server computers should meet the following requirements:
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Web server and application server Dual-processor computer with processor clock speeds of 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) or higher and a minimum of 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM.
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Database server Dual-processor computer with processor clock speeds of 2.0 GHz or higher and a minimum of 2 GB of RAM.
Field experience shows us that nearly everyone now is purchasing hardware with a minimum of 4 GB of RAM. This amount is preferred and should be considered a best practice in all but the smallest environments.
Preparing for Installation
Before installing SharePoint Server 2007, you'll also need to consider three different server roles: Web application server, database server, and Active Directory.
Web/Application Server
The server hosting the SharePoint components must have the following minimum software configuration:
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Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, or Web Edition) with Service Pack 1 (SP1).
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Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 installed, which includes Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation
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Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) in IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode, with Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 installed and enabled. IIS 6.0 is in the correct mode unless you upgraded the Web server from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003. Upgraded Web servers default to IIS 5.0 mode and need to be changed to IIS 6.0 mode.
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NTFS file system.
Database Server
SharePoint requires SQL databases and prefers Windows Authentication. SharePoint is hardware agnostic, so the hardware configuration, physical location of the SQL server, and location of the databases-such as a storage area network (SAN)-is fine with SharePoint as long as SharePoint can communicate efficiently with its databases. SharePoint is unaware of any non-SharePoint databases on the SQL server. If you have multiple named instances of SQL, identify the instance you are using for SharePoint as part of identifying the SQL server.
Therefore, the SQL Server configuration characteristics are flexible and include the following:
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Any operating system version that supports Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005.
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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later.
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The database server does not have to be dedicated to SharePoint.
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Optionally, the database server can be an SQL cluster.
Active Directory
Planning is essential for every part of implementing SharePoint. A crucial part of preparing for installing SharePoint Server 2007 is planning the various Active Directory accounts that will be needed throughout your implementation, not just for the installation process. The time that you spend on this process will be appreciated when you do not have to modify the accounts later.
User and Service Accounts
It is strongly recommended that you use a dedicated account to log in and install Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Server 2007 servers. This account can also be used as the identity of the Central Administration site application pool, or it can be unique. By design, the Welcome menu displays "system account" if that account is used to log on to any application pool or Web site. This behavior continues even if the application pool identity is changed to the Network Service. This means your administrator account should not be used as an application pool identity or to install an SharePoint Server 2007 server.
Running Through the Installation
To begin the installation process for SharePoint Server 2007, complete the following steps:
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Log in to your computer using the installation account that was previously created.
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Start the SharePoint Server setup program from your source files, which are located on either a network or CD.
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Enter your product key on the Enter Product Key page. Note in Figure 1 that the page confirms the correct key before permitting you to proceed.
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Accept the end-user license agreement (EULA) on the End-User License Agreement page.
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Next you need to decide which installation type is required for your system. (See Figure 2.) Your decision will determine the number of configuration pages you see during installation, as well as the installation process and results.
Figure 1: Enter Product Key page
Figure 2: The Installation Types page
The Basic, or single-server, option installs the product on a single server with no options of later adding other servers or building a farm. This limitation exists because this option installs and uses Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition. A basic installation does not present any opportunity to change from the default options. Use the basic installation only when you know your deployment will not grow very large and will not ever need to scale out with additional servers.
Advanced Options
If you choose the Advanced option, you are presented with a page that has three tabs: Server Type, File Location, and Feedback.
Figure 3: The first of the advanced options tabs
The Server Type tab presents three installation options. The first option we'll mention is the Stand-alone option. This option is the same as Basic on the previous page except that you now have the options on the other two tabs to configure along with setting up a basic server. The second option is the Web Front End option. This option installs only the services required for Web services and features. This option will require a reinstall if you need to support other services on this server later. You should have a Complete installation on one server before starting a WFE installation so that the Shared Services Provider (SSP) services will be available for the WFE.
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Note: |
In most cases, you'll not want to choose the Web Front End option because it limits your ability to quickly change a server's role without reinstalling the SharePoint binaries on the WFE server.
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Finally, the Complete installation option installs all the SharePoint binaries on the server necessary to perform any or all roles and to deploy either a Standard or Enterprise edition of this product in your environment. Services and features can be turned on and off as needed on each server that has a Complete installation when you expand or shrink your farm.
Both Web Front End and Complete will require the selection of an SQL server, preferably a remote server. For a small environment or for test purposes, you can install SharePoint Server 2007 on a server that is running as a domain controller, SQL server, and Exchange Server services. But except in rare circumstances, it is not a best practice to do this.
The remaining two tabs can be used to customize your installation as follows:
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File Location Allows you to choose alternate locations for your binaries. Choices made on this tab will not affect the installation location of the common files, which will be discussed later in this chapter during the review of installation changes to your system.
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Feedback Allows you to choose whether or not to participate in the Microsoft feedback program.
Installation Complete
This will be the first indication that, to permit separation of roles, this product is very modular in its installation and configuration. At this point, you have only installed the binaries. No databases have been created, and no modifications have been made to IIS.
The Configuration Wizard
The Welcome page (shown in Figure 4) explains the information you will need to provide during the configuration.
Figure 4: Configuration Wizard Welcome page
When you click Next, a warning dialog box is displayed explaining that some services will need to be restarted during the configuration. This does not present issues if you are working with a new, dedicated Web server. However, if your server is currently serving other Web sites, restarting the Web services will disrupt services, which might be unacceptable during certain time periods. If this is the case, you'll need to perform this action during off-hours. Also, it is highly recommended that you check network connectivity and DNS resolution from the server to the SQL server prior to running the wizard.
Server Farm Connection
Farm membership is defined by servers that are registered with the same configuration database. To join an existing farm, the server must use the same configuration database that the other servers are using. (See Figure 5.) If you want to set up a new farm, you need to create a new configuration database. You also need to know the SQL service account and password to join it to the farm. As was discussed earlier, in most instances this will be a domain account.
Figure 5: Farm connection choices
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Best Practices: |
Best practice is to always use domain accounts to install, configure, and secure your SharePoint deployment. If you use local server accounts and then later want to move to a domain environment, all your accounts in the farm and the Web applications need to be reassigned to domain accounts. This can be a challenging activity that can be avoided by simply using domain accounts initially.
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Create a New Farm
When you configure a new farm, you must specify a SQL Server instance and a new configuration database name. (See Figure 6.) At this point, you should have a naming convention in place not only for the configuration databases, but also for the other databases that will be configured later. You also need the SQL account username and password that has db_creator and db_security admin permissions on your SQL server. If this is your first SharePoint deployment, you need to ensure this account is also a member of the local Administrator's group on the SharePoint server.
Figure 6: Specify Configuration Database Settings page
The username being requested on this page also will be used by the application pool in the Central Administration Web site. This is the same application pool account that was discussed earlier that has the appropriate rights on the SQL server and on all members of the farm. This is the security context for central administrative functions in SQL. In other words, all the system calls between the SharePoint servers and the SQL server will be committed within the security context of the Central Administration application pool account.
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Note: |
Remember that in SharePoint, user accounts should always be entered as domainname\username to distinguish them from local accounts.
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Create the Central Administration Web Application
On the next page (shown in Figure 7), you instruct setup to create the Central Administration Web application. On this page, you can use the randomly generated port number or specify your own port number. In addition, you can choose if you want the Central Administration Web site to use Kerberos or NTLM authentication.
Figure 7: Configuration page for the Central Administration Web application
Complete Wizard Input
At this point, the Configuration Wizard has sufficient information to begin. Review the accuracy of the information (shown in Figure 8) before you click Next. If necessary, back up and make changes.
Figure 8: Completing the wizard
Once you click Next, a progress screen displays while the following actions are taken:
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Initialize SharePoint products and technologies configuration.
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Create configuration database.
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Install Help collections.
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Secure SharePoint resources.
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Install and register SharePoint services.
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Install and register SharePoint features.
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Provision the SharePoint Central Administration Web application.
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Install Web application files.
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Finalize SharePoint products and technologies configuration, followed by IIS reset.
Moving to Central Administration
When the installation has been successfully completed, the wizard presents a report on its actions. When you click Finish, you are directed to the SharePoint Central Administration Web page. To open the Central Administration page, you need to add it to your Trusted Sites zone in Internet Explorer. The default settings of Internet Explorer require authentication for all Trusted Sites. To pass through your current logon credentials, you need to either modify the settings for Trusted Sites zone in Internet Explorer or add the Web site to the Local Intranet zone using the Sites button. If you are using a proxy server to access the Internet, ensure that your local sites are listed as local addresses in the Bypass Proxy Server For Local Servers dialog box.
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