Installing WSS | Software Testing Fundamentals: Methods and Metrics

By now, you have the necessary information to start the installation of WSS. The following section describes the exact steps required to install WSS in all three combinations possible. Before you start following these steps, make sure that nobody is using this server for anything else, at least not during the installation. If you have other applications installed on the same server, make a backup before you start. That way you will be prepared in the unlikely event that something goes wrong and the server gets messed up beyond repair!

During the installation of WSS, the setup program will create a web application for its web-based Central Administration tool named SharePoint Central Administration v3, configured to use a randomly selected TCP port over 1023. This web application will be connected to a new application pool with the same name as the web application.

The Config and Content Databases

There are two types of databases that WSS will use: the configuration database and the content database. During the installation of WSS, you or the setup program will create these, depending on how complex the installation scenario is. These two database types contain the following information:

q Configuration Database: Contains all the configurations for this SharePoint environment. It is shared among all WSS servers (if more than one) and the SQL databases (if more than one). There is always only one configuration database, regardless of the number of WSS and SQL databases. For WSS installations using the MS SQL Server (not SQL Server 2005 Express), you will name this configuration database; the default name is SharePoint_Config.
q Content Database: This database contains all data and information that belongs to the WSS web sites, such as news lists, document libraries, and the web site itself. It also includes management data, such as user names and permission settings. Initially, you have one single content database, but you can create as many as you need. Large organizations may have more than a thousand content databases. The first WSS content database will get the default name WSS_Content. You will name any new content database that you add.

In the following sections, you will find all three possible configurations of WSS. Each configuration is completely described, including detailed steps on how to perform this type of installation. Many of these steps are identical in two or all of the installation scenarios. I recommend that you focus on the type of installation that is most interesting to you at this moment. Later on, you can come back to this chapter when you need to perform another type of installation.

Installing a Single Server with the SQL Server 2005 Express

Installing a WSS using a MS SQL Server 2005 Express database is very straightforward and easy. You can do it within 10 minutes without much hassle. Follow the steps in the next Try It Out to install both the WSS application and the database on the same server.

Try It Out Install WSS and SQL Express on a Single Server

Log on as an administrator to the Windows 2003 server you will use for your WSS and MS SQL Server 2005 Express installation.
Make sure that Windows 2003 Server has the latest service packs and security patches installed by going to Start All Programs Windows Update.
Download and run the .NET Framework 3.0 package from Microsoft's web site, which will add Windows Workflow Foundation and ASP.NET 2.0 as core features of Windows 2003 Server:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and enter dotnetfx3setup.exe in the search field.
2. From the resulting files click Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package to open its download page.
3. Before you download this file, make sure to select the language of your Windows 2003 Server; by default it will be English.
4. You can now click Download to start the download a "bootstrap file" (a file that will start the download of the actual package) or you can scroll down on this page, and click either X86 Redist Package (32-bits Windows Server; 50 MB) or X64 Redist Package (64- bits Windows Server; 90 MB) to download the full setup file.
5. When downloaded, run this file to install the .NET Framework 3.0. Select the option "I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement" (if you do), and click Install. This will start the setup, which will take several minutes to complete, depending on your hardware. When done you will get a message that the setup has been completed successfully.
Download the latest version of WSS from Microsoft's web site:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and enter Sharepoint.exe in the search field.
2. From the results click either the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for a 32-bit Windows Server or the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 x64 for a 64-bit Windows Server.
3. Make sure to select the default language you need for your WSS 3.0 installation, using the Change Language menu on this page. (Note that in this example we assume that it will be an English version!) Then click Download to start the actual download (77 MB for the 32-bit version or 85 MB for the 64-bit version).
Verify that you have ASP.NET installed, as previously described in the section "Software Requirements."
Start the installation by running the SharePoint.exe file you downloaded:
1. The first dialog page is about the license agreement. If you accept the terms, select "I accept the terms of this agreement" and click Continue.
2. The next page is important. Click Basic to use the SQL Server 2005 Express database that comes with WSS 3.0. If you instead click Advanced, you will want to use an MS SQL Server database, as shown in Figure 2-1. In this example, however, be sure to click Basic.
  
  Figure 2-1
3. The installation takes a few minutes; when completed you will see a page where the option Run the SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration Wizard now is preselected. Click Close to close the setup program, and start the Configuration Wizard.
The Configuration Wizard will set up the configuration needed to run WSS, such as creating the Central Administration tool and the web application needed to host the first site collection. It is important that you run this wizard. Follow these steps:
1. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.
2. You will get a dialog box that informs you that the IIS and other related services will be started or reset during the configuration. Click Yes to continue. The configuration wizard now starts and performs a variety of tasks. It will take 5–15 minutes to complete, depending on the server hardware.
3. When completed, you will (hopefully) see the message "Configuration Successful." Click Finish and the site created by the Configuration Wizard will open (see Figure 2-2). This site is now ready to be used.

image from book
Figure 2-2

Checking the Installation

Before going on, it is a good idea to investigate what new things were installed on the server:

Start by opening the IIS manager: Start Administration Tools Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager.
Expand the server node and then the Web Sites node. Note that you have three IIS virtual servers here:
- q Default Web Site: This site is stopped, since another virtual server using TCP port 80 will be used. The reason for this is increased security; the files and locations for the default web site are well known and therefore are an easy target for malicious code like viruses.
- q SharePoint – 80: A new virtual server created by the Configuration Wizard, which listens on TCP port 80. It is used by SharePoint for all user web sites, such as project sites, team sites, and so on.
- q SharePoint Central Administration v3: Used by SharePoint for the administration web site.
Right-click virtual server SharePoint – 80, and select Properties.
Switch to the Home Directory tab; note what application pool name this virtual server is using. The default is SharePoint – 80. Close the properties for this virtual server.
Expand the Application Pools node in the left-hand column of the IIS Manager.
Right-click the application pool SharePoint – 80 (used by the virtual server SharePoint – 80) and switch to the Identity tab. Note what security account this application pool is using. By default, it is the predefined Network Service.

Do the same with the virtual server for the SharePoint Central Administration web site:

Right-click on its node.
Check the Home Directory tab to see its application pool (which should be the SharePoint Central Administration v3).
Open the properties for that application pool, and check that its security account on the Identity page also is the same predefined Network Service account.

Important

This security account is granted access to the SQL Server 2005 Express database and is used by WSS whenever it needs to read or write to or from databases.

To summarize this, WSS uses two virtual IIS servers: one for the web sites that your SharePoint users utilize and one for the central administration of SharePoint. These two virtual servers use separate application pools. Both these application pools use the same security account.

Installing a Single Server with a Local MS SQL Database

You may recall that previous sections mentioned that the SQL Server 2005 Express should only be used for organizations up to 1000 users, and that this database must be installed on the same computer as SharePoint itself. This is a strong reason for selecting the full MS SQL Server (2000 or 2005) for larger organizations. That database edition also has powerful management tools for configuration, security settings, and backup procedures.

The following sections describe how to install both the WSS application and a MS SQL Server database on the same server. Note that for the MS SQL 2000 version you must install Service Pack 3a or later before using it for WSS. You can also use MS SQL 2005 Server as the database server for WSS 3.0.

The following example assumes that you have an MS SQL 2000 Server installed and running on the server where you will install WSS 3.0. Make sure that you have MS SQL Server installed and running before performing the following steps. In order to get the indexing and search functionality to work in WSS, you must also make sure that MS SQL Server has the Full-Text Search option installed.

Try It Out Install WSS and MS SQL on a Single Server

Log on as an administrator to the Windows 2003 server you will use for your WSS and MS SQL Server 2005 Express installation.
Make sure that Windows 2003 Server has the latest service packs and security patches installed by going to Start All Programs Windows Update.
Download and run the .NET Framework 3.0 package from Microsoft's web site, which will add Windows Workflow Foundation and ASP.NET 2.0 as core features of Windows 2003 Server:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and enter dotnetfx3setup.exe in the search field.
2. From the resulting files click Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package to open its download page.
3. Before you download this file, make sure to select the language of your Windows 2003 Server; by default it will be English.
4. You can now click Download to start the download a "bootstrap file" (a file that will start the download of the actual package) or you can scroll down on this page, and click either X86 Redist Package (32-bits Windows Server; 50 MB) or X64 Redist Package (64-bits Windows Server; 90 MB) to download the full setup file.
5. When downloaded, run this file to install the .NET Framework 3.0; select the option "I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement" (if you do), and click Install. This will start the setup, which will take several minutes to complete, depending on your hardware. When done you will get a message that the setup has been completed successfully.
Download the latest version of WSS from Microsoft's web site:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and enter Sharepoint.exe in the search field.
2. From the results click either the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for a 32-bit Windows Server or the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 x64 for a 64-bit Windows Server.
3. Make sure to select the default language you need for your WSS 3.0 installation, using the Change Language menu on this page. (Note in this example we assume that it will be the English version!) Then click Download to start the actual download (77 MB for the 32-bit version or 85 MB for the 64-bit version).
Verify that you have ASP.NET installed, as previously described in the section "Software Requirements."
Start the installation by running the SharePoint.exe file you downloaded:
1. The first dialog page is about the license agreement. If you accept the terms, select "I accept the terms of this agreement" and click Continue.
2. The next page is important. Click Advanced to prepare WSS to use a SQL Server database (see Figure 2-1).
3. On the Server Type page, select the option Web Front End. Switch to the tab Data Location, and select the disk and folder where the WSS files will be stored. Remember that best practice is to install any application, such as WSS, in a disk other than C: because that is the default disk used by the Windows Server to store the system page file. When you are done, click Install Now to start the actual installation.
4. The installation takes a few minutes. When it is completed, you will see a page where the option Run the SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration Wizard is now preselected. Click Close to close the setup program, and start the Configuration Wizard.

The Configuration Wizard will set up the configuration needed to run WSS, such as creating the Central Administration tool and the web application needed to host the first site collection. It is important that you run this wizard. Follow these steps:

On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.
You will get a dialog box that informs you that the IIS and other related services will be started or reset during the configuration. Click Yes to continue. The Configuration Wizard starts.
On the Connect to a server farm page, select the option "No, I want to create a new server farm." The other option, "Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm," is used when you install the next WSS server and want to join the same farm as the first server. But for now, make sure to select No here, then click Next.
On the page Specify Configuration Database Settings (see Figure 2-3), enter the server database's name, which in this example is the same server as the WSS server (for example rv1). Accept the default database name, SharePoint_ Config. In the section Specify Database Access Account, you must enter an existing user account, plus its password, which SharePoint will use when communicating with MS SQL Server. In this example, you will use the existing account Filobit\WSS_service. Click Next when ready.

Figure 2-3
On the page Configure SharePoint Central Administration web application, you can accept the default TCP port number, but I recommend that you set a port number that is easy to remember, such as 5000. Accept the default NTLM as the authentication provider. Click Next to continue.

On the page Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, you will see a summary of the settings you have selected. If they are okay, then click Next to start the Configuration Wizard.

Important

If you want to enable Active Directory Account Creation Mode for this WSS installation, click Advanced, enable this mode, and configure its settings. You will learn more about this in Chapter 3.

The Configuration Wizard now starts and performs a variety of tasks. it will take 5–15 minutes to complete, depending on the server hardware.
When it is completed, you will (hopefully) see the message "Configuration Successful." Click Finish and the Central Administration tool will open (see Figure 2-4). The installation of SharePoint is now done, and the next step is to complete the configuration of WSS and then create your first web site.

image from book
Figure 2-4

When you choose the Advanced installation mode, you get more control over the installation than with Basic installation. However, you also have to answer more questions, such as what database you want to use, what user account WSS will use when communicating with the SQL Server, and so on. Even when the Configuration Wizard is completed, you will still have to configure some more settings, such as outgoing e-mail settings. This is why the Central Administration tool displays a list of administrative tasks, as shown in Figure 2-4.

Another difference between these two installation options is that Advanced mode will not automatically create any site. At first, you may think that this is disturbing, but in fact it is not. This will give you a chance to select the type of site you want for your first site. Although all WSS sites have the same code base, they can look very different. For example, one site may be perfect for sharing information within a team or group, while another site may be suitable for storing meeting details. The difference between these sites is in the site template. Every time you create a new site, you will also select a specific site template for that site, and that gives the site its initial look and feel. You can then modify that initial design to make it suit your needs. WSS 3.0 comes with a number of site templates, and you will later learn more about all these templates.

Let's look at the administrative tasks listed in Figure 2-4. Their purpose is to guide you through the steps necessary to get a fully functional WSS environment. Following is a short description of each of them, but you will learn more about them in Chapter 3:

q READ FIRST – Click this link for deployment instructions: Open this task, and click on its link, Read the Quick Start Guide, which explains most of the administrative actions and tasks available in WSS 3.0. This guide can also be displayed by clicking on the blue question mark icon at the top-right part of any page in the Central Administrative tool and then clicking Getting Started Quick Start Guide.
q Incoming e-mail: This administrative task will contain a link to the Operations page and its link Configure Incoming e-mail Settings, where you configure if and how SharePoint will receive incoming e-mail. You can choose to open that configuration page in either way shown. This task is only necessary to complete if you want to activate this WSS feature.
q Outgoing e-mail settings: This administrative task contains a link to the Operations page and its link Outgoing e-mail settings. Use this configuration page to define outgoing e-mail settings.
q Create SharePoint Sites: This administrative task contains a link to the Application Management page and its link Create or Extend Web Application. This is the first step you must take when creating the first WSS site. It also contains the second step, which is to create a site collection.
q Configure Workflow Settings: This administrative task contains a link to the Application Management page and its link Workflow Settings. Use this link to control whether user-defined workflows are enabled and whether workflows will send e-mail notifications to users who are assigned tasks but do not have access to the site running this workflow.
q Diagnostic logging settings: This administrative task contains a link to the Operations page and its link Diagnostic Logging. Use this configuration page to control the settings for diagnostic logging.
q Add anti-virus protection: This administrative task contains a link to the Operations page and its Antivirus link. Use this configuration page to define the antivirus settings. Note that you must purchase a SharePoint aware antivirus solution before this page is useful to configure.

To create the first WSS site, you must complete at least one of these administrative tasks: the Create SharePoint Sites. The general steps for creating the first site are these: Create a web application, then create a site collection, and select the site template for the first site. This is exactly what the Configuration Wizard did to create the Central Administrative tool, when you first ran it after the initial installation. Creating a user web site is no different from creating the Central Administrative web site! The steps for creating the first web site are described in detail in Chapter 3.

Installing a Single Server Using a Remote MS SQL Database

Most of the steps in this configuration are similar or identical to the previous configuration with a local MS SQL Server. The reasons for using a remote MS SQL Server are these:

q Increased performance: The WSS server can handle many more users.
q Fault tolerance: It is possible to connect WSS to an MS SQL cluster.
q Better economy: You can use a previously installed MS SQL Server.

The following sections describe how to install WSS 3.0 on one computer named SRV1 and connect to an existing MS SQL database on a server named DC1. Both of these servers are members of the domain Filobit.

Make sure that you have the MS SQL Server installed and running on DC1 before performing the following steps. To get the indexing and search functionality to work in WSS, you must also make sure that the MS SQL Server has the Full-Text Search option installed.

Try It Out Install WSS and MS SQL on Separate Servers

Log on as an administrator to the Windows 2003 server you will use for your WSS and MS SQL Server 2005 Express installation.
Make sure Windows 2003 Server has the latest service packs and security patches installed by going to Start All Programs Windows Update.
Download and run the .NET Framework 3.0 package from Microsoft's web site, which will add Windows Workflow Foundation and ASP.NET 2.0 as core features of Windows 2003 Server:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and enter dotnetfx3setup.exe in the search field.
2. From the resulting files click Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package to open its download page.
3. Before you download this file, make sure to select the language of your Windows 2003 Server. By default it will be English.
4. You can now click Download to start the download a bootstrap file, (a file that will start the download of the actual package), or you can scroll down on this page, and click either X86 Redist Package (32-bits Windows Server; 50 MB) or X64 Redist Package (64- bits Windows Server; 90 MB) to download the full setup file.
5. When it is downloaded, run this file to install .NET Framework 3.0. Select the option "I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement" (if you do), and click Install. This will start the setup, which will take several minutes to complete, depending on your hardware. When it is done, you will get a message saying that the setup has completed successfully.
Download the latest version of WSS from Microsoft's web site:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and enter Sharepoint.exe in the search field.
2. From the results click either the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for a 32-bit Windows Server or the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 x64 for a 64-bit Windows Server.
3. Make sure to select the default language you need for your WSS 3.0 installation, using the Change Language menu on this page. (Note that in this example, we assume that it will be English!) Then click Download to start the actual download (77 MB for the 32-bit version or 85 MB for the 64-bit version).
Verify that you have ASP.NET installed, as previously described in the section "Software Requirements."
Start the installation by running the SharePoint.exe file you downloaded:
1. The first dialog page is about the license agreement. If you accept the terms, select "I accept the terms of this agreement" and click Continue.
2. The next page is important. Click Advanced to prepare WSS for using a SQL Server database. (See Figure 2-1).
3. On the Server Type page, select the option Web Front End. Switch to the Data Location tan, and select the disk and folder where the WSS files will be stored. Remember that best practice is to install any application, such as WSS, on a disk other than C: because that is the default disk used by the Windows Server to store the system page file. When done, click Install Now to start the actual installation.
4. The installation takes a few minutes. When it is completed, you will see a page where the option Run the SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration Wizard is preselected. Click Close to close the setup program, and start the Configuration Wizard.

On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.
You will get a dialog box that informs you that the IIS and other related services will be started or reset during the configuration. Click Yes to continue. The Configuration Wizard starts.
On the Connect to a server farm page, select the option "No, I want to create a new server farm." The other option, "Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm," is used when you install the next WSS server and want to join the same farm as the first server. But for now, make sure to select No here, then click Next.
On the page Specify Configuration Database Settings (see Figure 2-3), enter the server database's name, which in this example is the server DC1. Accept the default database name SharePoint_Config. In the section Specify Database Access Account, you should enter an existing domain user account (although you can also use the built-in account Network Service), plus its password, which SharePoint will use when communicating with MS SQL Server. Note that this account must be granted the SQL Server permissions Security Administrators and Database Creators, as described in step 8 below. In this example, you will use the existing account Filobit\WSS_service. Click Next when ready.
On the page Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application, you can accept the default TCP port number, but I recommend that you set a port number that is easy to remember, such as 5000. Accept the default NTLM as the authentication provider. Click Next to continue.

Important

If you want to enable Active Directory Account Creation Mode for this WSS installation, first click Advanced, enable this mode, and configure its settings. You will learn more about this in Chapter 3.

The Configuration Wizard now starts and performs a variety of tasks. It will take 5–15 minutes to complete, depending on your server hardware.
When completed, you will (hopefully) see the message "Configuration Successful." Click Finish, and the Central Administration tool will open (see Figure 2-4). The installation of SharePoint is now done, and the next step is to complete the configuration of WSS and then create your first web site.

The security account you defined in step 7d above must be granted access to MS SQL Server, including built-in accounts like the Network Service account. This is done automatically by SharePoint's Configuration Wizard, but just to let you know how to do this manually, the steps are described here (this example assumes that you are using an MS SQL 2000 Server):
1. Open the management tool for SQL by navigating to Start All Programs Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
2. Expand the local SQL Server, then expand the Security node.
3. Right-click Logins and select New Login.
4. Enter the name and domain for the user you defined for the application pool, as illustrated in Figure 2-5. (For the Network Service account, you must type the full name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE.)
  
  Figure 2-5
5. Switch to the Server Roles tab, and check the two options Security Administrators and Database Creators, as shown in Figure 2-6.
  
  Figure 2-6
6. Click OK to save this. Then close SQL Enterprise Manager.