Blogging about SharePoint

I recently upgraded my laptop OS from WinXP x86 to Windows Server 2008 x64.  My laptop is a Dell D620, and is a dual core 64bit machine, and since we’ve been told that SharePoint 2010 will be 64 bit only, I figured now was as good a time as any to make the jump to 64 bit and get familiar with HyperV rather than Virtual PC or Virtual Server..

So I am now in the process of building a 64 bit MOSS VM.  I did an install of Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition as the guest OS, installed the Hyper V integration services, and had to force the guest OS to detect the Hardware Abstraction Layer by using msconfig’s advanced options. 

I then ran Microsoft Update to pull down a large volume of updates.  Next, I gave it a static IP address and made it use itself for DNS lookup even though it was not yet a DNS server.  Then I used a simple answer file to turn it into a domain controller in its own isolated forest.  The answer file:

[DCINSTALL]
InstallDNS=yes
NewDomain=forest
NewDomainDNSName=demo.local
DomainNetBiosName=demo
ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain
ForestLevel=3
DomainLevel=3
DatabasePath="C:\Program Files\ActiveDirectory\DB"
LogPath="C:\Program Files\ActiveDirectory\Log"
RebootOnCompletion=yes
SafeModeAdminPassword=YourPasswordHere!

The command to use it:

dcpromo /unattend:"C:\spinmoss\dcpromo.answers.txt"

I install IIS with these three commands wrapped in a batch file:

servermanagercmd -i Web-Server -allsubfeatures
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 servermanagercmd -remove Web-Mgmt-Compat
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 shutdown /r /t 5 /d p:2:4 /c "Removal of unneeded IIS bits"

Next I began to download all the MOSS install bits.  Since SP2 has been released, this is actually a shorter list than it was just prior to SP2’s release.

To do a clean install of MOSS, right now you need:

1. The MOSS trial version – you can grab the smaller RTM install rather than the SP1 install because you will be installing SP2 that has all the intermediate bits as well.  When I do the install, I use my MSDN license key rather than the one that is provided for the trial.
2. SP2 for WSS 3
3. SP2 for MOSS

The Update Resource Center on TechNet has links to all the above downloads.

Next you have to slipstream (TechNet article) them so you only do one install, not three.    I’m still waiting for SP2 for MOSS to finish downloading, so that’s where i will end this for tonight.

--Michael