Installing SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview

BY A V I V R O T H ON J U L Y 9 , 2 0 1 3 2 6 C O M M E N T S IN S H A R E P O I N T , W I N D O W S

EDIT: This has changed a little for Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM, so make sure that you also read my follow-up post before spending time on the below. I was all excited when I found out that you could try out Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview for a free 30 day trial on Windows Azure. So I proceeded to instantiate a virtual machine and also to attempt to install SharePoint 2013 Foundation. It didnt go so well. The main problem is that you cant install the SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites using the standard install wizard, since it doesnt recognize Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview as a valid supported OS. It displays an error: There was an error during installation. This tool does not support the current operating system:

I did finally get it to work, but it was not trivial at all. First of all, you have to install the prerequisites semi-manually. Then, you need to make sure that permissions are set properly on certain files and directories so that the SharePoint Configuration Wizard can successfully complete. But dear friends, I am here to walk you through the process step by step.

I. INSTALL PREREQUISITES MANUALLY

A. INSTALL WINDOWS ROLES/FEATURES
First, make sure that you have installed the following roles and features in Windows 2012 Server R2 Preview: ROLES:

Application Server

Web Server (IIS) EDIT: IIS 6 Management Console (h/t Darma) ASP.NET 4.5 Windows Identity Foundation 3.5

FEATURES:

If you can do this on your own, go ahead and do it, and then skip to the next section. Otherwise, heres the step by step: 1) If its not already up (it starts by default in 2012), bring up the server manager, Dashboard view. It should look like this:

2) Click on Add roles and features. 3) On the Before you begin page, click Next. 4) Select Role based or feature based installation and click Next. 5) If it isnt already selected, select Select a server from the server pool, and the server that you are currently working on. Then click Next. 6) On the Select server roles page, check Application Server, Web Server (IIS), and (EDIT:) IIS 6 Management Console (under Web Server (IIS)->Management Tools->IIS 6 Management Compatibility->IIS 6 Management Console. h/t Darma). NOTE: When you

check Web Server (IIS) or IIS 6 Management Console, another dialog will pop up, asking Add features that are required for <feature name>? Click on the Add Features button here. This will return you to the Select Server Roles page. After adding all 3 roles, click Next. 7) On the Select features page, expand .NET Framework 4.5 Features group by clicking on it. In here, check ASP.NET 4.5. 8) On the same page, check Windows Identity Foundation 3.5. Click Next. 9) On the Application Server page, click Next. 10) On the Select role services page, check Web Server (IIS) Support and click Next. 11) When the Add features that are required for Web Server (IIS) Support? dialog pops up, click on Add Features. 12) Click Next again to go to the next page. 13) From the Web Server Role page, click Next. 14) From Select role services, click Next. 15) On the Confirm installation selections page, I suggest that you check Restart the destination server automatically if required. (Youre going to need to reboot eventually anyway.) 16) Click Install. 17) Wait for feature installation to complete. When it does, you can click close. If the server doesnt restart automatically, reboot it.

B. DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL SHAREPOINT PREREQUISITES

OK, heres the fun part. You can easily download and install the prerequisites that SharePoint needs, but you have to do a little more than just download and run the install wizards.

The good news is that Craig Lussier has written three scripts to both download and install the SharePoint 2013 prerequisites. The bad news is that only the download script works on Windows Server 2012 R2 (they probably work fine on vanilla 2012), because the install scripts use Prerequisiteinstaller.exe, which throws the same This tool does not support the current operating system error that we saw above. So well only take advantage of the download script, and do the rest manually. So the steps: 1) Download the scripts from http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/DownloadInstallSharePoint-e6df9eb8. 2) Unzip to a directory of your choosing. 3) If you want to save the files to a new directory of your choosing, create that directory now. 4) Run PowerShell as an administrator. 5) In PowerShell, type Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted and hit enter. This is required because the scripts are unsigned and wont run otherwise. 6) cd to the directory where you unzipped the scripts. They should be .ps1 files. 7) Type .\Download-SP2013PreReqFiles.ps1 and press enter. 8) At the Security Warning, type r for Run once. 9) When prompted to Please enter the directory path to where you wish to save the Sharepoint 2013 Prerequisite Files:, type the directory of your choosing (which you may have created in step #3), and press enter. 10) The files will take some time to download, but there will be a text indicator that shows the download progress. 11) When you are done, the install files will be in the directory you chose. Leave the PowerShell window open, since youll need it in a few steps. 12) Click on each file to run the installers, EXCEPT:

Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe AppFabric1.1-RTM-KB2671763-x64-ENU.exe

(In fact, you can even delete Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu. I couldnt get it to run successfully on Windows 2012 R2 no matter what Google told me. Besides, its for installing WIF, which you installed above in step A.8, so we wont be using it at all.) 13) Go back to PowerShell. cd to the same directory as the install files. 14) To install AppFabric, type the following at the command line:
.\WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe /i CacheClient","CachingService","CacheAdmin /gac

NOTE that there are quotes surrounding the commas. These are important in PowerShell. (h/t to Doug Hemminger for this tip). 15) Wait a minute or two for AppFabric to install. Unfortunately, except for the cursor hourglass, there isnt much of a cue that its done. 16) Now you can click on AppFabric1.1-RTM-KB2671763-x64-ENU.exe to install the AppFabric patch. 17) Reboot the server. All the prerequisites should now be installed, and you should be able to install SharePoint 2013.

II. INSTALL AND CONFIGURE SHAREPOINT 2013

A. INSTALL SHAREPOINT 2013
If you already know how, just install SharePoint the standard way that you know how (not the prerequisites, of course, which youve just installed), and skip to the next section. If youre new to SharePoint, here are the directions to install SharePoint 2013 Foundation (I have no idea how SharePoint Server differs): 1) Click on the SharePoint installer (sharepoint.exe). 2) On the SharePoint Foundation 2013 screen, click on Install SharePoint Foundation. 3) Follow the prompts through the wizard. It should be relatively intuitive. (Note: For this example, I installed SharePoint as a stand-alone server type, since I was on Windows Azure

and didnt want to install a complete SQL Server database. You can configure the Server Type however you like, though. If you dont know what to do, Id recommend stand-alone for now.) 4) Do run the SharePoint Products Configuration wizard at the end of the installation. Just note that it will fail during configuration task 8 of 10 (Creating sampledata), with the error: The SDDL string contains an invalid sid or a sid that cannot be translated.:

This is fine for now, as we will run the configuration tweaks below to fix that. But we need the wizard to set up the initial databases and users for us to tweak first, so make sure that you do run it to failure, and click Close to exit the Wizard.

B. CONFIGURATION TWEAKS

If you go to Administrative Tools->Services, youll see that the AppFabric Caching Service is not running. This is because it does not have proper permissions to a number of resources Well need to set these and then start the service (as well as configure it to start automatically).

1. Set DATABASE permissions for NETWORK SERVICE

(I dont remember the source for the below, but something similar was posted here.) 1) You will need SQL Server Management Studio so that you can access the database directly and set the permissions properly. If you havent already installed SQL Server itself, then download and install SQL Server Management Studio Express for SQL Server Express 2008 R2 from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=22985 (note that the version of SQL Express that SharePoint 2013 installs is 2008 R2, not 2012. I know.). NOTE: When installing SQL Server Management Studio Express, you will likely get warnings that say This program has compatibility issues. Just click on Run the program without getting help and continue the install. 2) Run SQL Server Management Studio, and connect to the SharePoint database instance. If you installed a stand-alone configuration, this server name you need to connect to is localhost\SHAREPOINT:

3) Expand the database, and expand the Security folder. You should see the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE user

4) Right click on this NETWORK SERVICE user and select Properties. 5) Select Server Roles on the left, and check the sysadmin role on the right:

5) Click OK. You can exit SQL Server Management Studio now.

2. Set config file permissions for the AppFabric Caching Service

(h/t: David Pokluda) 1) In the Windows File Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\. 2) Right click on DistributedCacheService.exe.config and select Properties. 3) On the Sharing tab, click Edit

4) Click Add 5) In the white textbox on the bottom, type in NETWORK SERVICE and then Check Names. It should resolve to an underlined NETWORK SERVICE. 6) Click OK. 7) With NETWORK SERVICE selected, check the Full Control checkbox in the Allow column. 8) Click OK. 9) Click OK to exit the dialog box.

3. Set permissions on Analytics_<GUID> directory.

(h/t: Kancharia Srikanth) 1) If you are running SharePoint Foundation, navigate in the Windows File Explorer to C:\Program Files\Windows SharePoint Services\15.0\Data. If you are running SharePoint Server, navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server. 2) Youll see a folder in this directory called Analytics_<some GUID>, for example, Analytics_939ab742-745f-456c-8623-fddca9b02334 (your GUID will be different, of course). 3) Right click on the folder and select Properties. 4) Click on the Sharing tab, and then click on Advanced Sharing. 5) Check the Share this folder checkbox. Leave the default share name. 6) Click on the Permissions button near the bottom. 7) Click the Add.. button. 8) In the white textbox on the bottom, type NETWORK SERVICE; WSS_ADMIN_WPG. Then click the Check Names button to make sure that the users resolve. 9) Click OK.

10) Select each user that you just added (NETWORK SERVICE and WSS_ADMIN_WPG), and check the Full Control checkbox in the Allow column. 11) Click OK to save the permissions. 12) Click OK to save the share settings. 13) Click Close to exit the dialog box. 4. Re-run the SharePoint Product Configuration Wizard. 1) From the Windows Start screen, type SharePoint 2013 Products Wizard 2) Click on the result that comes up. The wizard will start running. 3) Click Next to run the wizard. 4) When the warning The following services may have to be started or reset during the configuration: pops up, just click on the Yes button. 5) Youll notice that the wizard begins at task 4, but will successfully pass through task 8 to the last task (task 10), and complete successfully.

C. DEFAULT WEB APPLICATION PROVISIONING

At this point, SharePoint is successfully installed! BUT: the permissions will be all messed up on the default web application, to the point that it will be unusable (or at least, thats what I found). You will have to delete and re-create the default SharePoint web application for it to be accessible. Steps: 1. Delete and re-create the default web application. 1) From the Start screen, type SharePoint 2013 Central Administration.. Click on the result that comes up. 2) IE will come up with Central Administrations home page. 3) Under Application Management, click on Manage web applications. 4) You will see two web applications: the default (which is probably called SharePoint 80) and SharePoint Central Administration v4. Select the default SharePoint web

application. CAUTION: Do NOT select the Central Administration web application! 5) On the ribbon, click on the Delete button. 6) When the Delete Web Application dialog comes up, select Yes for *both* Delete Content Databases and Delete IIS Web Sites. 7) Click the Delete button. 8) When the Are you sure you want to delete this Web application? warning comes up, click OK. 9) Youll have to wait a moment for the web application to be fully deleted, and for the Central Admin page to refresh, now showing only the Central Admin web application. NOTE: Clicking the Delete button does *not* refresh the page for me. I dont know why, and I can only assume its a SharePoint bug. If it looks like nothing is happening, just close the warning dialog by clicking on the X on the upper right, and hit Ctrl+r to refresh the Web Applications page in Central Administration. At *that* point, you should see that the default web application is gone, but Central Administration is still there. 10) Create a new web application by clicking the New button on the ribbon. 11) If you dont know what to do at this point, just keep the defaults. One thing you *will* have to do is go to Select a security account for this application pool and select predefined, which will probably display Network Service. If you are an experienced SharePoint user, and you know what kind of web application settings you want, set them as you please. 12) Click OK. Youll see the This shouldnt take long message, even though, of course, it will take quite some time for the web application to be created. NOTE: Here, once again, you may have to X out of the dialog and refresh the Central Admin page to see the changes. 2. Create a default site collection in the new web application. 1) Under Application Management (on the left), find and click on Create Site collections (on the right).

2) Fill in as desired. I would advise that one of the site collection administrators be the admin account that you used to install SharePoint. 3) Click OK to be returned to the Central Admin page, or click on the URL of the site to be redirected there (the site may take a while to come up on its first call).

Ta-Da! That wasnt too long, was it? But now you have the latest and greatest SharePoint 2013 to play with on Windows Server 2012 R2. Hope that this helps. Please feel free to comment with questions or corrections.