What is AutoSPInstaller?
AutoSPInstaller is an open source set of PowerShell scripts that installs and performs a base configuration of SharePoint Server 2010 or 2013. These scripts were originally authored by Brian Lalancette and Andrew Woodward as well as other community contributors. It configures a single or multi-server SharePoint farm based on a predefined configuration XML file.
AutoSPInstallerGUI is a Windows application that helps you build this configuration XML file with useful tooltips, tabular GUI, and error checking on your inputs. AutoSPInstallerGUI is built and maintained by Ivan Josipovic. Both of these projects are hosted on Codeplex and are free to use.
If your SP servers are not connected to the internet or you need to deploy language packs and the latest CU’s AutoSPSourceBuilder is another PowerShell tool that can be used to download these for you to use with AutoSPInstaller. Together, these tools allow experienced and inexperienced SharePoint farm admins to deploy a fully configured base deployment of SharePoint 2010 or 2013 in a fraction of the time it would take to perform all the steps manually. Using this automated process helps reduce missed steps, misconfigurations, and adheres to community-approved best practices for deploying SharePoint.
What Does AutoSPInstaller Do?
The table below lists out in more detail what AutoSPInstaller does when you’re deploying SharePoint. As you can see these scripts are well thought out and really make this painful process nearly foolproof.
SP Installation and Farm Creation
Farm Configuration
Service Application Provisioning
Misc. Windows Configurations
Other Interesting Abilities
Installs SP Prerequisites (downloads them or uses pre-downloaded files)
Installs SP Binaries
Creates Farm (config db/central admin)
Installs Language Packs (pre-downloaded)
Installs Patches (pre-downloaded)
Configure Diagnostic Logging
Setup Managed Accounts
Configure Outgoing email
Configure Cache Accounts
Configure PDF Search and Icon
Create all Service Apps & proxies
Configure Search Topology
Disable Loopback Check
Removes IE Enhanced Security
Add SP URL to local Intranet Zone in IE
Disable Unused Windows Services (spooler, AudioSrv, TabletInputService,WerSvc)
Disable CRL Check
Configure IIS Logging
Provision SMTP and Setup Domain Alias
Set Windows Power Management to High Performance
Creates a SQL aliasInstalls SP to many servers in parallelInstall Forefront Antivirus
Stores admin credentials in Registry for automatic login & continuation after reboot
Adds and removes farm account to local admin group
Add network service to WSS_WPG group
You can rerun the script without tearing down anything
It fixes the annoying taxonomypicker.acsx bug
Procedure for Using AutoSPInstaller and AutoSPInsallerGUI to Build a SharePoint 2013 Farm:
The process of deploying SharePoint with these tools is pretty straight forward, but there are some prerequisites and gotchas to be aware of. Let’s get started:
Step 1 – Complete the Prerequisite Server Configuration
SQL Installed and Configured (mixed mode\default drives configured, IP accessible, etc)
Create SP Service Accounts and SP Install Accounts with the following permissions
Account
Description
Special Rights Needed
DOMAIN\SP_Install
Account we’ll login to run scripts
Local Admin on SharePoint Servers, DBCREATOR and SECURITYADMIN on SQL
DOMAIN\SQL_Service
Runs MSSQL windows service
Just a domain User
DOMAIN\SP_Farm
Farm admin
Just a domain User (this user is temporarily made a local admin to provision UPA during install)
DOMAIN\SP_AppPool
Runs all app pools
Just a domain User
DOMAIN\SP_Search
Search and content access account
Just a domain User
DOMAIN\SP_SearchContent
Content Access account for Search Crawls
Just a domain User
DOMAIN\SP_UserProfile
Runs user profile service app
Needs “replicate changes” rights in Active Directory. For more info, see TechNet.
DOMAIN\SP_Cache_SuperUser
Cache admin
Just a domain User
DOMAIN\SP_Cache_SuperReader
Cache read
Just a domain User
Give SP install (DB Creator, Securityadmin) rights to SQL
Give user profile account rights in AD (replication)
Turn off security warning on file open (more info)
Step 2 – Download and extract both of the project packages (C:\AutoSPInstaller)
AutoSPInstaller (Extract to C:\AutoSPInstaller for single server.. If multi-server deployment extract to a share accessible by all SP servers)
AutoSPInstallerGUI (Extract anywhere, I put it in the root of C:\AutoSpInstaller\AutoSPInstallerGUI\)
Step 3 – Place your SharePoint Installation files in the required folders (C:\AutoSPInstaller\2013)
Mount the SharePoint ISO or explore the exe and copy all the contents to the “2013\SharePoint” folder.
If you are installing ForeFront or Language packs place them in their appropriate folder
Note – PDF is setup OOB with SP 2013
Step 4 – Use AutoSPInstallerGUI to build the XML configuration file
Locate C:\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerInput.xml
Make a copy and name the copy AutoSPInstallerInput-ServerName.xml
Launch AutoSPInstallerGUI.exe
NOTE: hover your mouse over a field to see a useful description
Go To File > Load XML > ~\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstallerInput-ServerName.xml (no spaces)
Install Tab
Environment: “SP” or something else
Enable Auto Admin Login and put in the Admin Password
Check to disable all commonly unneeded windows functions/services
PID: Enter SharePoint 2013 product key
Farm Tab
Enter Passphrase
Check to leave farm account a local admin
Enter in appropriate SP_Farm credentials
Enter in SQL ALIAS name for “DB Server”
Check the check box to Create SQL Alias
For Instance enter the SQL Server name – This wasn’t straight forward but after trial and error I figure out where the SQL server name and Alias is supposed to go
Enter “SP” for DB Prefix
Managed Accounts
Remove the default ones in the drop down
For SP_Services change the user name to domain\SP_AppPool
Click Add
Repeat for rest of managed SP Service Accounts
Outgoing Email
Set SMTP Server to mail.servername and your preferred email addresses
Object Cache Accounts
Set to the two cache accounts we created earlier
Logs
Change the log location to a different drive if you do not want them written to C:\
Web Applications
Edit the two template web applications info (recommend not deleting then creating.. Caused an use with user profile provisioning)
Service Applications
Go through each tab
Provision: true (all servers) false (no servers) localhost (just this server) server1 server 2 (provision on these 2 servers listed)
Note we always provision certain service apps (Search, State, Secure Store, MMS, UPS)
Search
Service Instance
Choose service account (SP_Search)
Enter in custom index location (i.e. D:\SearchIndex)
Service Application
Enter Content Access Account (sp_searchcontent)
Select App Pool service accounts
Select Servers for each Search component (localhost for all on one server)
**NOTE – Some service apps have “create sql alias checked” Uncheck these these if you want to use the default SQL alias
Enterprise Service Applications
Specify which services to provision
Other
Leave defaults
File > Save XML
Close AutoSPInstallerGUI
Step 5 – Run AutoSPInstaller to provision the SharePoint farm
Navigate to C:\AutoSPInstaller\AutoSPInstaller\
Double click “AutoSPSInstallerLaunch.bat”
If you named the config xml file properly this beings the install
It rebooted once then said another reboot is required
Click reboot again
Run the Batch file again
Step 6 – Verify the environment and complete your service application configuration
AutoSPInstaller automatically loads your mysite, central admin, and the portal homepage.. Make sure they load correctly
Finish configuring the service applications as required (search should be fully functional… may need to check crawl schedules)
Make a copy of the install report (file is generated on desktop)
Disable SP_Install in AD
Remove Auto SP Installer folder from machine
Step 7 – Take a look at some other useful SharePoint-related Codeplex tools!
While playing around on Codeplex, I also found a number of other useful SharePoint administration tools. I have listed and linked them below for your viewing pleasure.
SharePoint Managed Metadata Navigator – A Windows application that allows you to easily build out your managed metadata term sets and export them to a reusable CSV file which can be directly imported into the MMS
SharePoint Feature Administration and Clean Up Tool – A Windows application that allows to explore the installed features in your SharePoint farm and completely remove improperly uninstalled orphaned features
SharePoint Manager 2013 – A Windows application that provides an expandable tree view of your SharePoint farm to view each objects’ properties
SPBestWarmup - A set of PowerShell scripts which “warm up” SharePoint sites by sending http requests to each one which allows page compilation and caching before end users do. Whenever a server reboot or IISRESET runs, the initial page loads within SharePoint may take a while – this helps with that end user experience
SharePoint Health Analyzer Rules – A set of configurable health rules that extend the OOB rule set adding additional alerts for SharePoint admins regarding possible negatively impacting SharePoint farm issues
BlobCache – Additional configuration pages within Central Administration that modify a web applications web.config file for configuring the BLOB cache
Reviewing AutoSPInstaller
AutoSPinstaller, together with AutoSPInstallerGUI, makes the daunting task of properly deploying SharePoint and all the related intricacies much easier. Using PowerShell in general for SharePoint deployments is highly recommended for a number of reasons – streamlined deployment, reduce human error, generate farm configuration documentation, and repeatable procedures for deploying staging and development environments to mirror production.
At Fpweb.net we provide customized SharePoint Server farm hosting for companies and individuals of all sizes and use cases. If you are interested in learning how to leverage cloud SharePoint hosting without jumping all in from the start consider a hybrid approach.
Related Procedural Posts for further Reading on the Interwebs:
Step By Step Automated Unattended Scripted SharePoint 2010/2013 Installation Using AutoSPInstaller – Melick
Automated SharePoint Intallations: Step-by-Step – Tobias Lekman
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