How to Create a Local SharePoint 2010 Development Environment

Introduction

On challenge a lot of people have when wanting to learn SharePoint 2010 is having an environment to do it. Up this point, I have been reliant on getting access to SharePoint 2010 that would run in a hosted environment. The biggest hindrance for running SharePoint 2010 is the dependency of running on 64 bit and having sufficient memory (4GB for development; 8GB for production).

The following are the steps I went through to create a SharePoint 2010 environment that is running locally on my laptop.

Once you have the environment created, read this to do get free development hands on labs.

Host Environment

This is the configuration I have for my laptop.

• Host OS - Currently on my laptop I am running Windows 7 64 bit. I had thought about using Windows Server 2008 on my laptop but decided against in for the long-term.
  


• Memory - I was finally able to upgrade my laptop memory from 4GB to 8GB. That was needed so I could provide the minimum of 4GB.
  

Guest OS

Now I am lucky that I have a MSDN subscription so obtaining all this was very easy <g>

The following is the configuration you will need to do prior to installing SharePoint.

• Hardware/Software Requirements – I first reviewed Hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• OS – I created a virtual environment and installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on it.
  


• Configure OS Server 2008 R2 – I made sure I got the latest updates.
  


• Server Roles – Next I added the Web IIS and Application Server roles.


• Desktop Feature - You will need to turn on the Desktop Experience Feature so Office can save to SharePoint.
  


• Static IP Address – Next you will need to apply a static IP address to the VM for the next step to create a Domain Controller. Otherwise you will get an error saying "This computer has dynamically assigned IP address(es)" when installing the domain controller (http://orbitalrobot.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=3).
  


• Create a Domain Controller – Next you will need to add a Domain Controller. I thought I could get away without having a Domain Controller however you will it later when configuring SharePoint 2010. This is because the service accounts need to belong to a domain. Read these simple instructions to set up a Domain Controller (Setting Up Your First Domain Controller With Windows Server 2008). I called my domain SharePoint.local.
  


• SMTP Service – You will need this for incoming and outgoing email on your development environment. You will need to incorporate this into the solutions you build. To install and configure the SMTP Service use the guidance here - Configure incoming e-mail (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• SQL Server 2008 R2 – Next I installed SQL Server 2008 R2. Note make sure SSRS was installed and I configured it to run in SharePoint Integrated Mode right off the bat.
  


• SSRS Configuration – This was not well documented as part of the installation process for SharePoint. I found this - How to: Configure SharePoint Integration on a Stand-alone Server – specifically focus on the making sure you have the stuff done that you need to do before installing SharePoint 2010. If you are not familiar with Reporting Services configuration you should also check this out - How to: Configure a URL (Reporting Services Configuration). I would recommend creating a new web site in IIS on port 8080 and configure reporting services to run from there. When later configure SharePoint 2010 it will take port 80 on IIS.
  


• SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites – Read Hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Server 2010) which has a list of perquisites you need to install. Several of these will be installed for you when you run the SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites tool. What I did was install several of prerequisites myself. What I am going to try next time is see if I can skip this step and let the SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites tool do it all for me.
  

Install SharePoint 2010 Bits

• Run SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites Tool – Next I ran the SharePoint 2010 prerequisites tool using the following instructions as guidance - Deploy a single server with SQL Server (SharePoint Server 2010). I ended up getting an error first time saying "The tool was unable to install SQL 2008 R2 Reporting Services SharePoint 2010 Add-in". I just reran the Prerequisites Tool again and the error took care of itself.
  


• Create Account Server Farm Account – You will need this during the install. You do not need to give it any permissions; the installation wizard will grant needed permissions. Read the additional references below about all the service accounts that you made need.
  


• Install SharePoint 2010 – Next I installed SharePoint 2010 bits using the following instructions as guidance - Deploy a single server with SQL Server (SharePoint Server 2010). It is very similar to SharePoint 2007.
  

Additional References:

• Administrative and service accounts required for initial deployment (SharePoint Server 2010)
  


• Account permissions and security settings (SharePoint Server 2010) – Very detailed whitepaper on all the users and required permissions they will need.
  

Additional Software

The following is additional software that you will need for your new SharePoint 2010 Development environment!!!!

• Visual Studio 2010
  


• SharePoint Designer 2010
  


• SharePoint Workspace 2010
  

SharePoint 2010 Configuration Wizard

Now comes the fun part of configuring SharePoint 2010, which was significantly quicker than SharePoint 2007.

• Create SharePoint 2010 Service Account – I will need a service account when going through the SharePoint 2010 Configuration Wizard. I just created a new account on my domain with and gave it no permissions and the Configuration Wizard would take care of that for me.
  


• Run SharePoint 2010 Configuration Wizard - Next I needed to run the SharePoint 2010 Configuration Wizard. I followed the guidance in - Deploy a single server with SQL Server (SharePoint Server 2010). I used the new service account and since I had an Enterprise license, I went ahead and installed all the application services so I can play with them. One of the steps in this is to also run the Farm Configuration Wizard in Central Admin. I pretty much turned on all the services that I could.
  

Now you have completed this, you can open Central Admin. One thing you will notice right off the bat is there is a new status bar that is red sitting right in the middle of the screen with issues or errors. I had a couple but none really worth noting because they are not issues because this is a development environment. For instance I am not going to get all wrapped around the axel on making sure service accounts are not shared across services in my local development environment…

Configure SharePoint 2010 Wizard (Highly Recommended)

Once you have run the configuration wizard, even though you have used the new Farm Configuration Wizard in Central Admin to initialize a ton of services, there are still some steps you need to do. The following are highly recommended configurations you should do for your development environment.

• Configure Usage and Health Data – Configure Usage and Health Data Collection for SharePoint 2010 using the following as guidance - Configure usage and health data collection (SharePoint Server 2010). Now you may say you do not want to turn this on in your development environment because it will build up stats consuming space however you may want it on. So this is optional.
  


• Configure Diagnostic Logging – Make sure this is configured because you will live and die using these logs to debug issues that will arise in your development environment. Read the following for guidance - Configure diagnostic logging (SharePoint Server 2010). There are some good best practices that you should follow if there is a production environment. What I did was select all of the services and selected Events Log Levels to Error and Trace Log Levels to High. I also restricted the trace log to only build up 5 days worth and restricted the trace log disk space usage to a 1 GB. There is no real point in building this up in a development environment.
  


• Configure Incoming Email – Next thing you will need to consider configuring is Incoming Email using the following guidance - Configure incoming e-mail (SharePoint Server 2010). Additionally you can read - Plan incoming e-mail (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• Configure Outgoing Email – Use the following guidance to configure Outgoing email - Configure outgoing e-mail (SharePoint Server 2010) and Plan outgoing e-mail (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• Search Configuration – Here is some guidance on how to get this started - Post-installation steps for search (SharePoint Server 2010). This is geared towards a single server install. In this posting there are instructions for how to review reports, configuring search, and configuring people search. Here is some additional reading however if you are familiar with SharePoint Search you are fine on skipping this - Enterprise search administration (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• User Profile Service Configuration – I ran into a lot of problems getting that initially configured. You need this big time so you can create accounts in AD, import them into SharePoint and they test permissions of solutions you are building. Here is the complete reference but I did not use much of it User Profile Service administration (SharePoint Server 2010). However I read a bunch of things and stumbled across this blog - How To Setup SharePoint 2010 Public Beta User Profile Synchronization with Active Directory on Windows Server 2008 R2. Even though this is based on a "beta" build, it will show you all the steps you need, including configuring the service account to replicate changes from AD. Below are some additional links you make want to check out if you run into problems:
  
  
  
  
  
  • How to set Replication Directory Changes, User Profile Synchronization Service failed to start – Give user profile service proper permissions.
    
  
  
  • Error after clicking on User Profile Service Application in SharePoint 2010 - UserProfileServiceUserStatisticsWebPart:LoadControl failed – if you are getting errors when clicking on the User Profile Service Application – you must do an iisreset after starting the User Profile service.
    
  
  
  • Manage profile synchronization (SharePoint Server 2010) – additional reading.
    
  
  
  • Rational Guide to implementing SharePoint Server 2010 User Profile Synchronization
    


• My sites – I would just read this blog - Configuring My Site in SharePoint 2010. Here is additional reading - Create and manage a My Site host location (SharePoint Server 2010)
  

Configure SharePoint 2010 Wizard (Optional)

Much of the configuration below is optional because the Farm Configuration Wizard took care of most of it. You may have to mess with these configurations when you are developing a solution so here are some references you should skim over to get familiar with things.

• BCS configuration – I did not need to do anything but here is the reference - Business Data Connectivity service administration (SharePoint Server 2010)
  


• Access Services Configuration – I did not need to do anything but here is the reference -Access Services administration. Additional Add In you may need but I did not.
  


• Document Conversion Configuration – Nothing needed here - Manage document conversions (SharePoint Server 2010)
  


• Excel Services Configuration – Nothing needed here yet - Excel Services administration (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• Managed Metadata – Nothing here yet but will be needed later big time - Managed metadata administration (SharePoint Server 2010)
  


• PerformancePoint Configuration – Nothing needed yet because I am not using this for a bit. Here are some good references: PerformancePoint Services administration, Overview of PerformancePoint Services architecture, Set up and configure PerformancePoint Services (step-by-step).
  


• Secure Store Configuration – Not using this yet but may want to mimic logging into other systems down the road - Configure the Secure Store Service (SharePoint Server 2010). The following are some deployment considerations you should be thinking about - Plan the Secure Store Service (SharePoint Server 2010).
  


• State Service Configuration – Remember this is used to store state information across HTTP requests in a SQL Server database. InfoPath, Visio, and BI components use it. This is automatically configured - Manage the State Service (SharePoint Server 2010). Interesting considerations about hosted deployments and InfoPath scaling.
  


• Visio Service Configuration – Not using yet - Visio Graphics Service administration (SharePoint Server 2010)
  


• Reporting Services Integration – This was not clear and had to dig. Recommend reading this - How to: Configure SharePoint Integration on a Stand-alone Server. You may need to install this but I did not need it.
  
  
  
  
  
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Additional Resources:

• Multiple servers for a three-tier farm (SharePoint Server 2010) – Guide for how to do this across multiple servers.
  


• Add a Web or application server to the farm (SharePoint Server 2010) – Guide on how to add additional servers to the farm.
  


• Configure services (SharePoint Server 2010) – Great place to start reading about configuring all the services you just installed.
  


• Office Web Apps (Installed on SharePoint 2010 Products)
  


• Configure a mobile account (SharePoint Server 2010)
  


• Configure and use the Exchange connector (SharePoint Server 2010) – To crawl email in exchange.
  


• Install and configure Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) – You will not need this in a development environment.