Installing SharePoint 2013: Part 1

Installation of SharePoint 2013 is an interesting experience if you don't mess it up. As a first step we need to understand the hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2013.

Hardware and Software Requirements

We need to know hardware and software requirement before we start any software installation , when we are working on SharePoint it plays a BigPart interns of cost and planning. You could read more "Hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2013"

Planning SharePoint Environment

Planning is an interesting exercise if we do it right way.You could read more about planning at "Plan for SharePoint 2013"

Now we are ready to start the installation. SharePoint 2013 shows the following screen that guides us through the installation.

1. Install the software prerequisite first before we start the installation. We need to install the following software prerequisites:
    
   • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
   • Windows Management Framework 3.0
   • Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role
   • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Native Client
   • Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
   • Windows Server AppFabric
   • Microsoft Identity Extensions
   • Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client
   • Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.0
   • Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB2671763)
      
2. The above prerequisites are available with an installation package. Click on "Install software prerequisites".
   
   
    
3. Click Next to start the installation of prerequisites.
   
   
    
4. Accept the Agreement.
   
   
    
5. You will be able to see the progress of each prerequisite installation.
   
   
    
6. Prerequisite Completion.
   
   
    
7. Restart the System.

Now the time to start the real fun of the installation.

1. Click on install SharePoint Server
   
   
    
2. Enter the product key
   
   
    
3. Accept the agreement
   
   
    
4. Select the type installation, if we are doing a standalone quick installation then choose Standalone Installation. One drawback of this installation is it will automatically install SQL Express and set up the configuration and content the databases to the SQL Express instance. So even if you are setting up a developer environment it's better to choose complete installation.
   
   
    
5. Click on the file location tab and make sure you are installing it in the proper drive. People often forget to click on the file location and instead install in the C drive which might not be the desired drive.
   
   
    
6. Click on "Next" and it will take you to the installation progress screen
   
   
    
7. Wait for 10 to 20 minutes; it will take that long to get the installation completion wizard.
   
   
    
8. In this step you need to decide if you want to run the configuration wizard immediately to guide you through the installation.
   

   The decision is based on the answer to the following questions:
   

   1. Do you want to install without a domain user?
      If the answer is yes then uncheck the "Run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard now" option and use the Powershell to do the initial setup and run the config wizard after that. You could read more about it in my article Installing SharePoint 2013 without Domain User.
      
      
   2. Do you want to setup the Config DB and Admin DB Manually?
      
      If you want to control the advanced aspect of a database like database growth, distributing the data files into multiple lungs, setting the log file into the proper lung etc. then this could be done only by setting up the database manually and run the initial setup through the powershell script. Follow my article to set up the SharePoint Database manually.
      
      
9. You could Follow Part 2 of this article; it will guide you through the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.