Something that was possible in SharePoint Server 2007 has become tricky in SharePoint Server 2010. The complete installation on a single server using non-domain accounts. Something most developers, demonstrators and testers do a lot of suddenly requires the use of domain accounts instead of local machine accounts. Or does it....

The recommendation for a single server build of SharePoint 2010 is to use the Stand Alone installation giving you SQL express and a default configuration. But what if you want to use SQL Server 2008 and to have more control over the build, and to use local service accounts. In this case you need to use complete install and either PowerShell alone or a combination of Windows PowerShell and PSCONFIG(UI).EXE

To begin with carry out your SharePoint 2010 installation using the advanced option and complete as the server type. This is recommended in a farm configuration.

Next you would think to use either PSCONFIG or PSCONFIGUI to create the farm. Well you would be wrong

PSCONFIG.EXE -cmd configdb -create -server neilhw2k8r2 -database sharepoint_2010_config -user neilhw2k8r2\administrator -password ******** -passphrase ********
-admincontentdatabase sharepoint2010_admincontent

Results in

The specified user neilhw2k8r2\administrator is a local account.

Local accounts should only be used in stand alone mode.

So how do we get around this limitation without using the corporate domain or else promoting the server to a domain controller.

Windows PowerShell is your friend, New-SPConfigurationDatabase allows you to specify none domain credentials for the farm.

To execute this command launch the SharePoint 2010 management shell (in the same location as the central admin link) and simply type the command at the cursor and press enter.

The beauty of the Windows PowerShell approach is you get prompted for the missing command line attributes instead of the rather horrible error dialog that PSConfig throws at you

After this completes you will find in SQL a new configuration database and an admin content database (unfortunately the GUID is back but that can be fixed if necessary)

Next the simplest way to complete the installation is revery back to PSConfigUI as you now are starting with the server already joined to the farm.

Follow the wizard through the same options as you had with SharePoint 2007 and complete the installation/configuration with the following screen

Clicking Fiinish launches the central admin website and after agreeing to report back customer experiences to Microsoft (or not) you get your first look at SharePoint 2010 central admin and the configuration wizards.

So wizard - or - manual configuration. That's a subject for another post so come back for more...

Posted at 4:36 PM by Neil 'The Doc' Hodgkinson | Category: SharePoint 2010; PowerShell; Administration; Central Administration | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (6)

Comments

Consultant

Useful post. Many people will run into this issue.

at 10/20/2009 1:49 AM

You can also do this

Thanks for a nice post.

You can also enable local accounts by manually update the registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\WSS\ServerRole == SINGLESERVER

Set it to SINGLESERVER and you can use local accounts.

/Jonas

at 10/22/2009 1:21 AM

You can also do this

Jonas

Couple of points on this approach

1. Modification of the registry in this POST installation is potentially unsupported

2. Converting the installation type to SINGLESERVER could activate with Windows Update process and you could find yourself updating the SharePoint installation when you least expect it.

I suggest caution with this approach

/Neiil

at 10/23/2009 3:54 AM

The user does not exist or is not unique

When I try the steps as outlined above on a fresh install of SharePoint 2010 Public Beta (Nov. 09), after the New-SPConfigurationDatabase collects the info, and cooks for a while ... and the 2 SP Databases are created in SQL Server 2008, the cmdlet errors out in RED with:

New-SPConfigurationDatabase : The user does not exist or is not unique.
At line:1 char:28
+ New-SPConfigurationDatabase <<<<
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share...urationDatabase:
   SPCmdletNewSPConfigurationDatabase) [New-SPConfigurationDatabase], SPCmdle
tException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletNewSPCon
   figurationDatabase

New-SPConfigurationDatabase : The user does not exist or is not unique.
At line:1 char:28
+ New-SPConfigurationDatabase <<<<
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share...urationDatabase:
   SPCmdletNewSPConfigurationDatabase) [New-SPConfigurationDatabase], COMExce
ption
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletNewSPCon
   figurationDatabase

When I go and start the configuration wizard after this, even though the 2 databases have been created, SP 2010 cannot find them when trying to join the newly created farm. After keying in the local server name to find the default instance of SQL Server 2008, and selecting "Retrieve Database Names", the error "Cannot find an existing configuration database located at the specified database server. Please choose a different database server."

I can then manually type in the created Config database name, and it accepts it. But then it asks for the Passphrase next ... After typing in the passphrase I used for the cmdlet to create the base Farm, I get the error "The passphrase you entered is incorrect. Please try again."

And this is as far as I get. So now I've got a partial install.

BTW I chose the SharePoint 2010 Internet Enterprise key.

I'm running on Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bit with SQL Server 2008 Standard installed plus the SQL Server 2008 SP1 Hotfix installed.

Suggestions?

at 11/18/2009 8:37 AM

Problem solved - got New-SPConfigurationDatabase to work ...

It appears that the SharePoint 2010 Public Beta does not install the correct version of the MS Geneva Framework ... which is why the approach you described above failed.

Scroll down to Step 7. of this post (search on "SharePoint 2010 Lab Environment Part 1 – Installing SharePoint on Windows 7"). I uninstalled the Geneva Framework on my Windows Server 2008 R2 VM, then installed the version that was hyperlinked in the SharePoint Solutions/help posting.

Once that was installed, and after cleaning up messes that were left on my server from previous failed attempts (detaching the configuation DB, and dropping it and the content db from SQL Server) the above technique worked.

Hope this helps others with the same issue!

Roy

at 11/18/2009 10:35 AM

Response to the above posts from Roy

Roy

Thanks for the posting and the fix. Its great to see someone come back with a follow up once they resolve the problem. If only more people were like that :)

Glad to got to the bottom of it.

at 11/19/2009 2:11 PM

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