I am planning to write the next few posts to show you how you can setup a farm with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – from scratch! I am currently working with Windows 7 with Virtual PC. I will be using only Virtual PCs and I intend to create four machines as follows…

DC – This will be my Domain Controller and SQL Server.

WFE1 – First Web Front End. I will also configure NLB on the same machine.

WFE2 – Second Web Front End.

AS – My Application Server that contains Indexing and other Services. This will also act as my client machine since this will have MS Office 2007 installed on it.

So, let’s begin…

I am assuming that you know how to work with Virtual Hard Disks and Virtual PC. I am also assuming that you have appropriate software with you.

REQUIREMENT

I have ONLY 1 VHD file to begin with. It is a plain vanilla Win 2k3 – R2 with SP 2.

First of all, let’s change the IP. Go to All Programs –> Control Panel –> Network Connections –> Local Area Connection. Click on Properties. Type in the following IP addresses and click Ok.

 

And by the way, I use BgInfo to show the details. Notice that in the screen shot below, the machine name is Win2K3

Today, I will rename this server (since it is called Win2k3 in the VHD that I created) and call it DC. If you have a machine with IIS installed, you may follow this post to rename the IIS server. I have no intentions to install IIS on my DC, and hence for me renaming the machine should be straightforward. Once done with the rename, I will promote this machine to a domain called “DotNetScraps”

    Rename the machine if required and reboot.
    Start –> Run –> type DCPromo –> Ok

    Click Next twice
    Select first option “Domain controller for a new domain” and click Next.

    Select Domain in a new forest and click Next

    Select No, just install and configure DNS of this computer and click Next

    Type dotnetscraps.com in the textbox and click Next

    Leave the default… and click Next – 4 times.

    Specify a password… and click Next Twice.

    You will see an Active Directory Installation Wizard. It may ask you for a disk…

    Provide the path, and let it complete. Click Finish and Restart your machine.

    Keep in mind that in your Virtual Machine settings, you must select Internal Network for Networking.

    Next time when you login, select dotnetscraps.

    So, we started with…

    And now we have…

    That was easy!
    Next step would be to create three more machines… WFE1, WFE2 and AS and bring them on the same network.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society. - Judith Martin