Creating a MOSS / Office Demo setup (using Beta 2)

Because of the upcoming Sharepoint 2007 events I am going to deliver , I decided to create a native installation of MOSS to do my demos on.

In fact, I aimed for a setup containing:

·         Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2

·         Office 2007 Professional Beta 2

·         Sharepoint Designer

·         Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server

·         Visual Studio .NET 2005

·         Visual Studio Tools for Office “v3” June CTP

This proved to be very difficult! Below I have described how I put my setup together. You can use it as an installation guide if you want to create your own MOSS installation.

Installing Windows Server 2003

·         Start with a default installation of Windows Server

·         Install all the available updates from Windows Update

·         Add the following components:

o   IIS 6

o   ASP.NET

o   DNS

o   SMTP

·         Install the Microsoft Loopback network adapter and assign it a fixed IP address of 192.168.1.1

·         Start DCPromo and create a new Active Directory Forest

o   For my setup , I created a moss.contoso.com AD

o   If the Wizard asks you for the DNS settings, allow it to create and set up your DNS

·         Start the DNS MMC

·         In the DNS MMC, create three new CNAME Records pointing to your DC A record for the 192.168.1.1 IP, call them:

o   Portal.moss.contoso.com

o   Team.moss.contoso.com

o   SharedServices.moss.contoso.com

·         Start the Active Directory Users And Computers Snap-in

·         Add a new user

o   Name: SqlService

o   Member of:

§  Distributed COM Users

·         Create a copy of this user and call it

o   Name: MossService

·         Add the pop3 component from Add / Remove Programs

o   Setup the pop3 component, make sure it is integrated with your active directory

o   Create a mailbox for administrator

o   Start the service from the pop3 mmc snap-in

·         Edit the ‘Microsoft POP3 Service’ in the Services Snap-in, set it to start automatically.

·         Open the Domain Controller Security Policy from Administrative Tools

·         At the Local Policies, User Rights Assignment level

o   Allow SqlService and MossService to act as part of the Operating System

o   Allow Domain Users to log on locally

·         Download and install the StandAloneDCWorkaround.msi here

Installing Visual Studio .NET 2005

·         Install Visual Studio make sure you install:

o   C# and / or VB.NET

o   SQL Express

·         Install WinFX which you can download here

·         Install Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2_2.exe (download here)

Installing Office 2007 Professional Beta 2

·         Install a normal Office 2007 professional installation

·         Start at least one application and activate the installation.

·         Go to Add / Remove programs and select ‘Change’ for the Office 2007 Professional installation

·         Select the Infopath .NET Programmability feature to be installed.

Installing VSTO

·         Download and Run the vsto3ctp_package.exe (download here)

·         Perform the workaround described in this blog posting :

o   Create a new Registry key named Indigo at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWinFX RunTime3.0Setup

o   Create a new DWord value in the Indigo key with a value of 1

·         Install the vsto3ctp.exe from the installation directory of the vsto3ctp_package.exe

·         Install the InfoPathVSTool_setup.exe from the installation directory of the vsto3ctp_package.exe

Installing MOSS

·         Start the MOSS installation.

·         In the Wizard select the ‘Complete Installation’ option

·         In the Database screen:

o   Use the SQLExpress instance for the MOSS database (name is: SharedServicesSQLExpress)

o   Use SQLService as the account to connect to this instance

Setting additional user rights

  • Because of a bug in Beta 2 it is necessary for the app pool account  of the Shared Services website to be an administrator on the Web server (according to this readme: click here) In our case, that is the SqlService account.

Setting additional user rights

  • Because of a bug in Beta 2 it is necessary for the app pool account  of the Shared Services website to be an administrator on the Web server (according to this readme: click here) In our case, that is the SqlService account.

Configuring MOSS Services

·         On the Sharepoint Central Administration 3.0 site:

o   Select Operations

o   Select Services on Server

·         Start the “Windows Sharepoint Services Web Application”

·         Start the “Windows Sharepoint Services Search”

o   Use the MossService account for all the credential questions

·         Start the Office Sharepoint Server Search

o   Set administrator@moss.contoso.com for the e-mail address

o   Use the SqlService account for the credential question

·         Start the Excel Calculation Services

Configuration MOSS Shared Services

·         On the Sharepoint Central Administration 3.0 site:

o   Select Application Management

·         Select “Create or configure this farm’s shared services”

o   Select “New SSP”

o   Select “Create a new web application”

·         Setup the new webapplication:

o   Use port 80

o   Use SharedServices.moss.contoso.com as the hostheader name

·         Use the MossService account for the Application Pool credentials

·         Select the available index from the dropdown box

·         Press Ok, you’ll see a new screen now in which you can create the Shared Service Provider

·         Use  the SqlService account for the SSP Credentials

·         Select the available index server

After you finished this screen, the server will take some time to create your shared services!

Using  the DCWorkAround

·         In %PROGRAMFILES%DCWorkAround start the Workaround.bat

Creating the Team site

·         On the Sharepoint Central Administration 3.0 site:

o   Select Application Management

o   Select “Create or extend Web Application”

·         Select the default web application

o   Set the host header for the default web application to Team.moss.contoso.com

·         Press Ok

·         Create a new Site Collection

o   Set the title to “WSS Team site”

o   Set the owner to administrator

o   Select the Team site template

Creating the Portal site

·         On the Sharepoint Central Administration 3.0 site:

o   Select Application Management

o   Select “Create or extend Web Application”

·         Select “Create a new web application”

·         Setup the new webapplication:

o   Use port 80

o   Use portal.moss.contoso.com as the hostheader name

·         Use the MossService account for the Application Pool credentials

·         Select the available index from the dropdown box

·         Press Ok

·         Create a new Site Collection

o   Set the title to “Portal”

o   Set the owner to administrator

·         Select the enterprise tab and select the available site template

Now you have created:

A team site at http://team.moss.contoso.com

A portal site at http://portal.moss.contoso.com

A Shared Services provider at http://sharedservices.moss.contoso.com

Now finish your installation by creating demo users to use on your portal and team sites. You can use Outlook 2007 to connect to the pop3 and smtp services to use the alert and e-mail functionality.

 There is now an updated installation script available, click here

Bart Gunneman