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Home Project Description Automated SharePoint 2010 Powershell-based installation script. Coming soon... AutoSPInstaller v3 with numerous enhancements including: Granular SQL server assignment and aliasing for (almost) every service/web app (for control freaks) Centralized, remote installation to all farm servers Ability to specify any XML input file, by passing it as an argument to AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat Several tweaks & fixes

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AutoSPInstaller works with and now leverages enhancements in SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 (with or without the June 2011 CU)! It takes advantage of some of the cmdlet updates in SP1, while remaining backward-compatible with non-SP1 deployments. Versions 2.5.x and up include several updates to the input file XML schema from version 2.0 so make sure you compare any of your existing XML files to the new AutoSPInstallerInput.XML. See below for highlights of changes in v 2.5.x. This project consists of PowerShell scripts, an XML input file, and a standard windows batch file (to kick off the process) which together provide a quick and nearunattended installation and initial config (Service Apps, My Sites) of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Works on both Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 (x64 only of course). Perfect for repeated Virtual Machine-based installs/tear-downs, etc., but also great for production installs where you want to guarantee consistency and minimize data entry glitches. The immediate value is for installing and configuring the first/only server in a farm, but also supports using server-specific input files when running the script on subsequent servers (with parameters - e.g. for the service apps - set according to your desired topology). "But doesn't SharePoint 2010 have a nice wizard now that does all this for me??" - Yes, and it's a huge improvement over what was available in MOSS 2007. However if you've ever seen the 'DBA nightmare' left behind on your SQL server after the Farm Configuration Wizard has completed (GUID'ed databases with inconsistent naming, etc.):

...then you'll see the value in having consistently-named but automatically-created databases:

The scripts (Franken-scripts, really...) leverage previously-available resources (as Powershell has now taken its place as the automation platform for SharePoint) such as: Zach Rosenfield's blog, Jos Verlinde's script for creating a Farm, Gary Lapointe's Enterprise Search script functions and other miscellaneous tidbits in the wild. The scripted process will: Re-launch itself in an elevated process to deal with User Access Control

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Check whether the target server is running Windows 2008 or 2008 R2

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Prompt you to enter all most (in progress) service accounts, passwords and the farm passphrase, unless you opt to just specify them in the SetInputs.xml Validate connectivity and permissions to your SQL instance/alias Validate the farm passphrase (for complexity), as well as the service account/password combinations specified in the input XML file Automatically download and install platform-specific pre-requisites (e.g. IIS, .Net Framework) using the SP2010 Prerequisiteinstaller.exe. You can also pre-download all the prerequisites/hotfixes using this script, then specify <OfflineInstall>true</OfflineInstall> in your SetInputs.xml instead of having Prerequisiteinstaller try to download fixes at script runtime. Optionally disable some unnecessary Windows services, CRL checking and the dreaded IE Enhanced Security Configuration Install the SP2010 binaries using an (optionally, server-specific) config.xml for input Optionally install the Office Web Applications (OWA) binaries using config-OWA.xml for input Create the Farm (Config & Central Admin content databases, Central Admin site, help collections, etc.) Optionally configure and start many SharePoint services and service applications; currently the script can provision: User Profile Service Application User Profile Synchronization Service Metadata Service Application SharePoint Foundation User Code Service State Service Application WSS Usage Application PowerPivot Service Application (Note: For this one, you'd need to first install your farm, then install the PowerPivot component for SQL2008 R2, then re-run the script with <CreatePowerPivot> set to 1) Secure Store Service Search Query And Site Settings Service Enterprise Search Service Application Web Analytics Service Application Outgoing Email Business Data Connectivity Service Application Excel Service Application Access Service Application PerformancePoint Service Application Visio Graphics Service Application Word Automation (Conversion) Service Application The Office Web Applications service apps: PowerPoint Service Application Word Viewing Service Application Excel Service Application (if not already provisioned by virtue of having an Enterprise license) Create the main Portal web app and site collection (will try to provision and/or assign a certificate, too - all you need is an https://-based URL in the input XML) Create/configure your My Sites web app and site collection (will also try to provision and/or assign a certificate if you have an https://-based URL in the Input XML) Launch IE to display the Farm Configuration Wizard, Portal and My Sites, and view the results of your hard work (just in time for your return from lunch) Log all activity to a file on the current user's desktop, and pop open the log file for review when finished. There are several input parameters to define in the input XML file (which illustrates how much stuff you really have to plan & gather during a regular SharePoint install). However this is a one-time-per-install effort, and the trade-off includes hours saved and better spent elsewhere (see lunch above) and an avoidance of the risks involved (typos, missed settings etc.) during manual installations. New in V2.5: The ability to use a single AutoSPInstallerInput.XML file for your entire farm, and simply include the names of servers (comma-delimited) on which you want particular service instances or service applications installed. This works by using the Provision="" and Start="" attributes; for example, to provision the managed metadata service on your 2 app servers, you would specify: <ManagedMetadataServiceApp Provision="SPAPPSRV1, SPAPPSRV2" ... Further, the old way of specifying <ManagedMetadataServiceApp Provision="true"... still works, if you want to continue using a different XML input file for each server. See the release notes associated with the original 2.5 changeset here for a more complete list of changes. New in V2: MAJOR code and XML schema refactoring effort by Andrew Woodward of 21apps to enable (among other things) easier editing and extending via a custom functions script file. Both the launch batch file and the User Profile Service App creation (as farm account) self-elevate so no more need to right-click, Run as Administrator to successfully run AutoSPInstaller on a server with User Access Control (UAC) enabled! Enterprise Search now properly sets both the service account and the crawl (content access) account

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Much better multi-server farm support. Services can be tweaked to start on the servers you wish, and service applications won't be erroneously re-created on subsequent servers, etc. Portal super user and super reader accounts can now be configured per best practices Overall the install experience and results are more in line with community best practices; as always, this is a community-inspired and driven effort! In addition to the scripts, you should create an installation source (local or shared) containing the entire extracted contents of the SP2010 install package. The zip package will by default create most of this folder structure when you extract it. When you're done, your folder structure should look something like this (Note: updated for V2.5): \SP2010\SharePoint\<installation files & folders> \SP2010\SharePoint\PreRequisiteInstallerFiles\ \SP2010\SharePoint\Updates\ (extract Service Pack / Cumulative Updates here) \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerInput.xml \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerMain.ps1 \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerFunctions.ps1 \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerFunctionsCustom.ps1 \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\config.xml \SP2010\AutoSPInstaller\README.rtf \SP2010\LanguagePacks\xx-xx\ (optional) \SP2010\LanguagePacks\xx-xx\Updates\ (extract Language Pack Service Pack / Cumulative Updates here) (optional) OR \SP2010\LanguagePacks\<ServerLanguagePack_XX-XX.exe> (optional) \SP2010\OfficeWebApps\ (optional) \SP2010\PDF\ (optional) \SP2010\ForeFront\<ForeFront Protection 2010 for SharePoint install files> (optional) Spaces in the path to AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat will cause the script to blow up, so avoid them. Useful references: Config.xml reference (SharePoint Server) List of SharePoint Templates Codes and description ULSViewer - best SharePoint log viewer out there, displays events in real-time and super useful for troubleshooting farm, service and service application provisioning issues. I also highly recommend slipstreaming SharePoint 2010 service packs, cumulative updates and hotfixes into your installation source too, to further automate the process. Just place extracted patches in the \Updates\ path listed above, and they'll be automatically applied during the SharePoint binary installation process! Todd Klindt provides a great overview of the process here.

Finally, I highly recommend working on your XML input file using a good editor like Notepad++ or good old Visual Studio - this helps a ton, especially to highlight any errors. Be especially mindful of invalid characters such as $ & " in your passwords etc.! Many script blow-up errors can be attributed to illegal characters or syntax errors in the XML. Finally, once you've populated your XML file with your environment/server specifics and before you attempt to run the script, pass the XML through a validator like this. See the readme.rtf for more info.
Last edited by AndrewWoody on 2/6/2012 8:58:03 AM, Version: 50

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