Installing Standalone SharePoint 2013 Preview on Virtualised Windows Server 2012 RC with SQL Server Express 2012

Over the weekend I decided to try the new SharePoint 2013 Preview. According to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(v=office.15).aspx the minimum hardware requirement is

Single server with a built-in database or single server that uses SQL Server

Development or evaluation installation of SharePoint Foundation 2013 Preview

8 GB

64-bit, 4 cores

80 GB for system drive

Unfortunately the only hardware available to me is a 64-bit, 4 cores machine with 8GB RAM and since I am planning to run it on a virtual machine I can’t assign the whole resource to the VM

So I ended up allocating 5 GB and 3 cores to the virtual machine. So far the performance is okay (not great but acceptable).

So these are the step by step instructions on how to do it:
1. Create a new virtual machine with 5 GB and 3 cores.
2. Make sure you select "Accelerate 3D graphics".

3. Put the Windows Server 2012 iso location in the Installer disc image file.

4. Windows Server 2012 is not one of the options in the available operating system version so I used Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 instead.

 

5. Set the maximum disk size and whether you want to split into multiple files or keep it in a single file.

6. Setup the Network Adapter to use NAT: Used to share the host’s IP address. This is important because SharePoint 2013 requires an Active Directory (it will not work with just workgroup).

 

7. Let the installer installs Windows Server 2012.

8. Next what you need to do is add Active Directory Domain Services role and DNS Server role (AD DS depends on this role) plus .NET Framework 3.5 Features (needed by SQL 2012 Express). When installing DNS server you have to have your VM connected to the internet.

9. This can be done by going to Server manager -> Add roles and features

 

 

10. Then you have to promote the current server into Domain Name Server (make sure the administrator’s password is not blank, not your password).

11. Install the SQL Server 2012 Express.

12. Install the SP Pre-Requisite

13. Install SharePoint Server 2013 Preview and run the Product Configuration Wizard.

14. All 3 steps above should be straight forward. The key things are to add the active directory domain services role first and to install .NET Framework 3.5 before installing SQL Server 2012 Express.

Screenshots from SharePoint 2013:

I would probably update this post soon (when SharePoint 2013 finally released).

Have a great day.

Evan