I don’t know about this blog post title, it doesn’t quite explain what I needed to do. Anyway.

Months and months ago, I downloaded all the SharePoint 2011 videos (using some PowerShell) and it worked great. However, the videos were all named with their session code, for example SPC201.wmv. See this post on how it was done: http://www.sharepointeer.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=4

The file names are not very descriptive, but luckily a gentleman named Patrick Drews provided a session list in Excel that matched the code with the title. It looked like this:

Armed with this, we should be able to rename the files so they’re descriptive. Here’s what I did.

The first problem is how to interact with this Excel spreadsheet. There are a lot of opinions on this, because natively, there’s no real easy way to do it. Many times, converting to CSV is the easiest. So, I found this function that does just that. It’s available from this site: http://jamesone111.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/how-to-read-excel-files-in-powershell/

Great! The next problem was to figure out the logic. First, lets define some variables:

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$dir = "C:\SPC11"
$xlsessions = gci $dir\SessionList.xlsx | ConvertFrom-XLx -PassThru
$filenames = gci $dir\Videos | select -ExpandProperty Name

I end up with two arrays, $xlsessions which has the codes and session titles and $filenames which is just a list of the filenames. I need to match the filename with the session code for each file.

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foreach ($filename in $filenames)    
        {    
        foreach ($xlsession in $xlsessions)
                {        
                If (($xlsession.CODE + ".wmv") -match $filename)            
                { #Do something }
                }
        }

This was actually the hardest part (for me anyway, because I’m a PowerShell n00b). Basically, we loops through each filename and each time we also loop through each of the session codes. If they match, then we’ll do something. Here’s what we’ll do:

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{
$newname = $xlsession.CODE + " - " + $xlsession.SESSION + ".wmv"
write-host "Renaming $filename to $newname" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Rename-Item -Path $dir\Videos\$filename -NewName $dir\Videos\$newname
}

First, I’ve setup a variable called $newname that sets up the new filename for me. Then, I’m using Rename-Item to rename it. It seems simple enough, but took me a couple hours to get the logic right. Once I ran it, my files were renamed just as I wanted them in a matter of seconds. It would have taken hours upon hours to do this manually, cutting and pasting names from the Excel sheet into Windows Explorer. PowerShell saves the day again! Now take some time and save Live Writer….

This post was created with Windows Live Writer. Save this great tool by signing the petition here. Learn more by following #dontkillwlw on twitter.

In this post I’ll show you how to write a PowerShell script that will delete a single folder from multiple sites. In this case, there’s a folder called "Error Logs" in the Site Pages document library, as shown here:

This folder is generated by some 3rd party tool, which always creates the same folder name in the "Site Pages" Document Library of any site or sub-site. I’d like to simply delete it.

Disclaimer: The method I’m going to show you is just one way to do it and there may be a better way so feel free to write your suggestions in the comments.

So first, let’s just get some constant variables out of the way:

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$url = "http://sharepoint"
$folder = "Error Logs"

$url is my portal URL and all the sites are underneath it. And $folder is the name of the folder I want to delete. The next thing I need to do is loop through each of my Site Collections (an SPSite object), here’s how that looks:

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$sites = Get-SPSite -WebApplication $url | Where-Object {$_.Url -like "$url/sites/*"}
foreach ($site in $sites)
        {
        # Some functions here.
        }

So, I used Get-SPSite to get a list of the Site Collections and also used the | (pipe) symbol to only select sites that had a name like http://sharepoint/sites/

I’m trying to access a Document Library, which is inside a Site (an SPWeb object). So I’ll need to do a loop within a loop to go through every Site, in each Site Collection.

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$sites = Get-SPSite -WebApplication $url | Where-Object {$_.Url -like "$url/sites/*"}
foreach ($site in $sites)
	{
	$siteid = $site | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Url
	$webs = Get-SPWeb -Site $siteid -Limit ALL
	foreach ($web in $webs)
		{
                # Some more functions here.
                }

What I’m doing here is is getting every Site Collection, selecting its "Url" and assigning it to $siteid. Then I use that to get every Site (SPWeb) in the Site Collection and assign it to $webs. Now I can iterate though all the Sites/SPWebs.

Next, I’ll need to grab the Document Library object, and delete the "Error Logs" folder:

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$sites = Get-SPSite -WebApplication $url | Where-Object {$_.Url -like "$url/sites/*"}
foreach ($site in $sites)
	{
	$siteid = $site | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Url
	$webs = Get-SPWeb -Site $siteid -Limit ALL
	foreach ($web in $webs)
		{
                $library = $web.Folders["SitePages"]
		$library.SubFolders.Delete($folder)
                }

That’s all. Now, when you run this, it will work – but you’ll notice some errors, perhaps similar to this:

The reason for this is that not all of my sites have a Document Library called Site Pages. And even if they do, they may not all have a folder called "Error Logs." So, we need some better logic. We’ll use “If” to create that logic.

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	$webs = Get-SPWeb -Site $siteid -Limit ALL
	foreach ($web in $webs)
		{
		$library = $web.Folders["SitePages"]
		$allcontainers = $library.SubFolders | select Name
		Foreach ($container in $allcontainers)
			{
				If ($container -match $folder)
					{
					$library.SubFolders.Delete($folder)
					Write-Host "Deleted `"$folder`" from $web" -foregroundcolor Red
					}
				else {Write-Host "Finished checking $web." -foregroundcolor DarkGreen}
			}
		}

You’ll see here that I’ve created yet another loop! Now, I’m taking all the folder names from "SitePages" Document Library and looping through each one. I have an "If" statement that checks for a match and if it finds one, then and only then will it try to delete it. Otherwise, we just write a message stating we’ve checked the site.

Here’s the final, full script:

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$url = "http://sharepoint"
$folder = "Error Logs"
 
$sites = Get-SPSite -WebApplication $url | Where-Object {$_.Url -like "$url/sites/*"}
foreach ($site in $sites)
	{
	$siteid = $site | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Url
	$webs = Get-SPWeb -Site $siteid -Limit ALL
	foreach ($web in $webs)
		{
		$library = $web.Folders["SitePages"]
		$allcontainers = $library.SubFolders | select Name
		Foreach ($container in $allcontainers)
			{
				If ($container -match $folder)
					{
					$library.SubFolders.Delete($folder)
					Write-Host "Deleted `"$folder`" from $web" -foregroundcolor Red
					}
				else {Write-Host "Finished checking $web." -foregroundcolor DarkGreen}
			}
		}
	}
Write-Host "Finished checking all sites."

Permissions problems are common when accessing Sites this way. I was a Farm Administrator and had rights over the content database for the Web Application I was working on. With the power of loops, you can take all sorts of actions on every Site in your SharePoint farm.

For 2012, the SharePoint Saturday Los Angeles (SPSLA) committee incorporated the Grand Prix racing theme. The Grand Prix occurred the same weekend as SPSLA and a few lucky winners got tickets for the race on Sunday!

In fact, there were several really great prizes given away, including:

• Training classes from New Horizons and TekDog, Inc.
• SharePoint Books from O’Reilly, Axceler, and Microsoft’s User Community.
• Cool gadgets like a Kindle Fire and a personal Scanner.
• Gift cards to Amazon.com

One lucky winner even got a Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) Singing Toothbrush!

There were some competing events going on the same day. The two I’m concerned with are The Grand Prix and SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities. Here’s how those events fared on twitter:

Mark Miller (@EUSP) from EndUserSharePoint.com delivered the keynote speech, in it he compared information workers to penguins (what!?).

Attendees received a wealth of information and were able to network with others in the area. For those of you who couldn’t attend, several people were lighting up twitter with the #SPSLA hashtag.

Excluding @SFVSharePoint (who just re-tweeted everything), Karuana Gatimu (@Karuana) was the top tweeter.

She was also one of the top mentions, beat out only by Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), who gave out and autographed a few copies of his new book for attendees: Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects.

Ooh, and I made the list

The last twitter statistic I want to share is this one, which says it all – zero negativity. Also, our tweets are boring (just kidding folks – I have a small “tone dictionary.”)

Special thanks to my friend and co-chair Nedra Allmond (@nedraallmond) who I think was up 2 days straight finalizing things – get some rest!

Thanks to all the sponsors, speakers, and attendees for making this such a wonderful event! We’ll be posting presentations in the coming days, on the Media tab at SharePointSaturday.org/LA

As a follow-up to the "Get The Point Blog" post of the same title, I wanted to re-share this video as well as some useful links I’ve collected in the past two years.

The Video:

Some Links:

• Youtube Channel: Get Started with SharePoint
• Microsoft.com: SharePoint Resources for End Users
• SharePoint-Videos.com: Free Videos
• Incworx Blog: SharePoint 2010 Quick Reference Card
• Office.com: SharePoint 2010 Courses
• Microsoft.com Downloads: SharePoint 2010 BI Insights (Labs)

Have any more end user/information worker content? Write a comment to share it!

Remember, you can get amazing SharePoint training by attending a SharePoint Saturday near you. I’m involved in SharePoint Saturday Los Angeles, where I know we’ll focus on information worker content and business solutions. The event takes place on April 14th. Find out more and keep updated by visiting the SPSLA pages:

• Official Site
• Facebook Page
• LinkedIn
• Twitter #SPSLA Updates and @SFVSharePoint

I normally don’t write about my SharePoint User Group meetings, but we had a really good presentation last night. The San Fernando Valley SPUG hosted Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) as he presented "The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity."

One feedback item from our member survey a few months ago was that our presentations were too focused on technology and not enough on the business. So, this presentation made perfect sense. In fact, Christian pointed out early on, that his presentation had very little to do with SharePoint.

The best quote of the evening and the reason for this post was this:

"Social is just a layer of search that provides context."

That may seem like an obvious statement once you’ve heard it but it is thought-provoking as well. It’s one of the best ways to describe exactly what "Social" means for SharePoint.

In fact, if you think about it, the statement is true regardless of platform and its even truer outside the intranet. On the internet, there’s so much data and so many ways to access the data, no one can keep up. Without context, that data is meaningless. However, if a computer system knows me, my behaviors, my colleagues, it can better guess what I’m looking for.

In the most simplistic form it means knowing I want to look at a car, not an insect when I search for "beetle." Or in the corporate world, knowing that I’m looking for Visio diagrams of computer systems when I search for "architecture," not AutoCAD drawings of buildings.

If metadata powers relevant search, then this layer of "Social" provides perhaps the most important piece of metadata: you.

What do you think?

Christian Buckley:

• Presentation: "The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity."
• Blog: buckleyPLANET

Links to SFVSPUG:

• Meetup.com
• #SFVSPUG
• @SFVSharePoint

AutoSPInstaller gets you up and running fast. But, there may be times when the PowerShell functions that are included don’t suit you or your environment. You may also want to automate a few other related tasks.

In this post I’m going to show you a few examples of how to extend AutoSPInstaller to perform additional tasks. I’ll also show you one way to override functions and use your own instead. So, lets get started.

Extending

The context in which I’m using the term “Extended,” simply means adding your own functions to AutoSPInstaller. The best way to do this is to create your functions and place them in the AutoSPInstallerFunctionsCustom.ps1 that comes with the package. As an example, the file already contains one simple function called “GetVersion.”

Let’s take a real life example. In an earlier post AutoSPInstaller: Getting Prepared, I shared a tip on Step 3. The tip is to add some common executable extensions to the “Inclusion list for low file types,” which prevents popups during install. I want to automate that so I don’t forget. So, I’ve created a PowerShell function to do this for us:

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#Region Add Low Risk FileTypes
# ===================================================================================
# FUNC: Add-LowRiskFileTypes
# DESC: Adds the specified extensions to the low risk file types (prevents popups)
# ===================================================================================
Function Add-LowRiskFileTypes(){
 $Lowriskregpath ="HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Policies\Associations"
 $Lowriskregfile = "LowRiskFileTypes"
 $LowRiskFileTypes = ".exe;.msp;.msi;"
 New-Item -Path $Lowriskregpath -erroraction silentlycontinue | Out-null
 New-ItemProperty $Lowriskregpath -name $Lowriskregfile -value $LowRiskFileTypes -propertyType String -erroraction silentlycontinue | Out-null
 Write-Host "Added Low Risk File Types $LowRiskFileTypes"
 }
Function Remove-lowriskfiles(){
 remove-itemproperty -path $Lowriskregpath -name $Lowriskregfile -erroraction silentlycontinue
 }
#EndRegion

Copy and paste that into AutoSPInstallerFunctionsCustom.ps1. Note, that I’m not calling the function anywhere yet, so this by itself won’t even do anything. So let’s call it. For obvious reasons this function should be one of the first things we do, even before installing software. We need to modify AutoSPInstallerMain.ps1 and call this function. In that file, towards the bottom, you’ll see this text:

#Region MAIN - Check for input file and start the install

There’s no need to mess with anything above that really. Find the line “PrepForInstall” and just above it, enter a new line with “Add-LowRiskFileTypes”

That’s it. Now when you run AutoSPInstaller (like normal, using the batch file), this function will be executed.

Customizing

Customizing, for the purposes of this article, means overriding an AutoSPInstaller function, or eliminating it entirely. There may be cases when you either don’t want something to happen or you just need it to happen differently. For the most part, if you want to skip something, you just specify that in your input XML (e.g. parameter=”false”). That is by far the best way to skip something. But not everything is configurable from the XML files so you may need to override it using your own PowerShell function.

Let’s take a look at an example. AutoSPInstaller has a function that will SSL-enable your SharePoint sites (including Central Administration). It’s pretty good! There’s some nice logic in there but it also makes some assumptions that weren’t working for me recently. You can take a look at this function by opening AutoSPInstallerFunctions.ps1 and do a search for “Function AssignCert”

For the most part, I had no problems with the function but it was creating a self-signed wildcard certificate for me based on the last two levels of my domain name. Take this for example:

us.myCompany.corp

The default function will create a certificate with *.myCompany.corp unless it finds one. In my case, I don’t want that because my URLs will include the "us." portion as well, I need a *.us.myCompany.corp certificate (which I have)! My URLs will look something like this: https://sharepoint.us.myCompany.corp/

Now, in my case, my European servers use a domain of eu.myCompany.corp and the good thing for me is that the first “Primary Domain Suffix” on the server matches its domain. This is important for my function since that is what I’m going to use. So here it is:

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#Region Assign Certificate
# ===================================================================================
# Func: AssignCert
# Desc: Create and assign SSL Certificate
# ===================================================================================
Function AssignCert([xml]$xmlinput)
{
	ImportWebAdministration
	Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Assigning certificate to site `"https://$SSLHostHeader`:$SSLPort`""
	# Check for sub-domains
 	$NumDomainLevels = ($Env:USERDNSDOMAIN -split "\.").Count
	If ($NumDomainLevels -gt 2) # For example, corp.domain.net
	{
		# Get only the last two (domain + TLD)
		# Commenting this original method out.
		$TopDomain = $Env:USERDNSDOMAIN.Split("\.")[($NumDomainLevels - 2)] + "." + $Env:USERDNSDOMAIN.Split("\.")[($NumDomainLevels - 1)]
		$dns = Get-WmiObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled -eq $true} | select 
		$TopDomain = $dns.DNSDomainSuffixSearchOrder[0]
		}
	# If our SSL host header is a FQDN containing the local domain (or part of it, if the local domain is a subdomain), look for an existing wildcard cert
	If ($SSLHostHeader -like "*.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN")
	{
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Looking for existing `"*.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN`" wildcard certificate..."
		$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -like "CN=``*.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN*"}
	}
	ElseIf (($NumDomainLevels -gt 2) -and ($SSLHostHeader -like "*.$TopDomain"))
	{
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Looking for existing `"*.$TopDomain`" wildcard certificate..."
		$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -like "CN=``*.$TopDomain*"}
	}
	Else
	{
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Looking for existing `"$SSLHostHeader`" certificate..."
		$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -eq "CN=$SSLHostHeader"}
	}
	If (!$Cert)
	{
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: None found."
		# Get the actual location of makecert.exe in case we installed SharePoint in the non-default location
		$SPInstallPath = (Get-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0').GetValue("InstallPath")
		$MakeCert = "$SPInstallPath\Tools\makecert.exe"
		If (Test-Path "$MakeCert")
		{
			Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Creating new self-signed certificate..."
			If ($SSLHostHeader -like "*.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN")
			{
				# Create a new wildcard cert so we can potentially use it on other sites too
				Start-Process -NoNewWindow -Wait -FilePath "$MakeCert" -ArgumentList "-r -pe -n `"CN=*.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN`" -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1 -ss My -sr localMachine -sky exchange -sp `"Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider`" -sy 12"
				$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -like "CN=``*.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN*"}
			}
			ElseIf (($NumDomainLevels -gt 2) -and ($SSLHostHeader -like "*.$TopDomain"))
			{
				# Create a new wildcard cert so we can potentially use it on other sites too
				Start-Process -NoNewWindow -Wait -FilePath "$MakeCert" -ArgumentList "-r -pe -n `"CN=*.$TopDomain`" -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1 -ss My -sr localMachine -sky exchange -sp `"Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider`" -sy 12"
				$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -like "CN=``*.$TopDomain*"}
			}
			Else
			{
				# Just create a cert that matches the SSL host header
				Start-Process -NoNewWindow -Wait -FilePath "$MakeCert" -ArgumentList "-r -pe -n `"CN=$SSLHostHeader`" -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1 -ss My -sr localMachine -sky exchange -sp `"Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider`" -sy 12"
				$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -eq "CN=$SSLHostHeader"}
			}
		}
		Else 
		{
			Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - `"$MakeCert`" not found."
			Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Looking for any machine-named certificates we can use..."
			# Select the first certificate with the most recent valid date
			$Cert = Get-ChildItem cert:\LocalMachine\My | ? {$_.Subject -like "*$env:COMPUTERNAME"} | Sort-Object NotBefore -Desc | Select-Object -First 1
			If (!$Cert)
			{
				Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: None found, skipping certificate creation."
			}
		}
	}
	If ($Cert)
	{
		$CertSubject = $Cert.Subject
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Certificate `"$CertSubject`" found."
		# Fix up the cert subject name to a file-friendly format
		$CertSubjectName = $CertSubject.Split(",")[0] -replace "CN=","" -replace "\*","wildcard"
		# Export our certificate to a file, then import it to the Trusted Root Certification Authorites store so we don't get nasty browser warnings
		# This will actually only work if the Subject and the host part of the URL are the same
		# Borrowed from https://www.orcsweb.com/blog/james/powershell-ing-on-windows-server-how-to-import-certificates-using-powershell/
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Exporting `"$CertSubject`" to `"$CertSubjectName.cer`"..."
		$Cert.Export("Cert") | Set-Content "$env:TEMP\$CertSubjectName.cer" -Encoding byte
		$Pfx = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Importing `"$CertSubjectName.cer`" to Local Machine\Root..."
		$Pfx.Import("$env:TEMP\$CertSubjectName.cer")
		$Store = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Store("Root","LocalMachine")
		$Store.Open("MaxAllowed")
		$Store.Add($Pfx)
		$Store.Close()
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Assigning certificate `"$CertSubject`" to SSL-enabled site..."
		#Set-Location IIS:\SslBindings -ErrorAction Inquire
		$Cert | New-Item IIS:\SslBindings\0.0.0.0!$SSLPort -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
		Set-ItemProperty IIS:\Sites\$SSLSiteName -Name bindings -Value @{protocol="https";bindingInformation="*:$($SSLPort):$($SSLHostHeader)"}
		## Set-WebBinding -Name $SSLSiteName -BindingInformation ":$($SSLPort):" -PropertyName Port -Value $SSLPort -PropertyName Protocol -Value https 
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: Certificate has been assigned to site `"https://$SSLHostHeader`:$SSLPort`""
	}
	Else {Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Custom: No certificates were found, and none could be created."}
	$Cert = $null
}
#EndRegion

This is essentially the same exact function with minor changes. I’m changing the $TopDomain variable to use the DNSDomainSuffixSearchOrder (and taking the top one, the one in position 0).

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$dns = Get-WmiObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled -eq $true} | select 
$TopDomain = $dns.DNSDomainSuffixSearchOrder[0]

I’ll admit, this is quite poorly written because there are no checks or traps, but I know my environment and this will work for me.

So, I have this function that I want to use instead of the one packaged with AutoSPInstaller. What’s the right way to override it? Well, its not to just go in and edit AutoSPInstallerFunctions.ps1, no, that file should always be left alone. Instead, add your function to AutoSPInstallerFunctionsCustom.ps1 and just give it the same name. By giving it the same name, it will override the original function.

This is an easy way to just skip certain functions as well. So, lets say I don’t want to check the install account because I am running using the Farm account and that warning message really scares me (don’t run the install using the Farm account, by the way). That’s done using a function called CheckInstallAccount. I’m going to just override it so it doesn’t give me a warning. So here’s my function:

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#Region Check Installation Account
# ===================================================================================
# Func: CheckInstallAccount
# Desc: Check the install account and 
# ===================================================================================
Function CheckInstallAccount([xml]$xmlinput)
{
        Write-Host  -ForegroundColor White " - Man! You are so awesome using the Farm account!"
}
#EndRegion

You could even do without the Write-Host (meaning leave it blank) and have it do nothing at all.

In Summary

You can create your own functions and place them in AutoSPInstallerFunctionsCustom.ps1. This file loads after the AutoSPInstallerFunctions.ps1 so any functions with the same name will override the original. If you’ve created functions that you want to run, just add the function name to the AutoSPInstallerMain.ps1 file – in the appropriate place. And finally, its best not to change the AutoSPInstallerFunctions.ps1.

BONUS – Oh Wait, There’s More?

I wanted to give everyone a bonus tip and another example of extended AutoSPInstaller, so here goes!

I’d like to add a bookmark/favorite to Internet Explorer for Central Admin auto-magically. So, I’ve created this function:

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#Region Create CA Favorite
# ===================================================================================
# Func: Create-CAFavorite
# Desc: Adds the Central Administration URL to the Favorite bar
# ===================================================================================
Function Create-CAFavorite([xml]$xmlinput) {
#$url = "https://someone.local/test"
$url = $centraladminurl
#Get IE Version
$iepath = Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer'
$ieVer = $iepath.Version
 
If ($ieVer -like "8*") {
	#Favorites Bar location for IE8
	$favdir = "$env:userprofile\Favorites\Links"
}
Else {
	#Favorites Bar location for IE9
	$favdir = "$env:userprofile\Favorites\Favorites Bar"
 
}
 
$fav = "[InternetShortcut]
`URL=$url"
$fav | Out-File "$favdir\Central Administration.url"
}
#EndRegion

Just some notes before you guys start screaming and yelling at me. This is only adding the IE Favorite to the profile running AutoSPInstaller (your setup account). And I know I may get some missing links in CA unless I run from the start menu, but I like having this anyway.

So again, that’s in my AutoSPInstallerCustomFunctions.ps1 file. Then I add a reference to it in AutoSPInstallerMain.ps1. By the way, here’s a snippet of that file, the only part that I’ve changed:

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Try 
{
	# Some custom functions
	Add-LowRiskFileTypes
	Import-509Certificate # This loads my root CA cert
	Import-PfxCertificate # This loads the wildcard cert for *.us.myCompany.corp
 
	# Default / orginal functions
	PrepForInstall
	Run-Install
	Setup-Farm
	Setup-Services
	Finalize-Install 
 
	# Some more custom functions	
	Create-CAFavorite # This creates an IE Favorite for Central Admin
}

Happy SharePoint-ing!

Introduction

In the two previous related posts (here and here), I showed you how to setup and configure AutoSPInstaller to automate your SharePoint installation. So now, we get to see the fruits of our labor.

In this post, I’ll share the screenshots based on those configurations. You could use these to see what’s supposed to happen and perhaps adjust your settings so AutoSPInstaller completes. For the most part, AutoSPInstaller has good error handling and will let you know what’s failed. Many of the errors are simply what you’d get if you run the PowerShell equivalent of whatever the current process is. Some of these errors are not descriptive or could lead you down the wrong path (for example, "could not contact server" when you just have incorrect credentials).

In Pictures

I’ll have notes following each screenshot:

Here, you’ll note AutoSPInstaller has started a transcript/log. Take note of the location (the desktop by default). It’s also validating your accounts to prevent errors later on. And, its creating your SQL alias if you specified one.

Some more pre-checks here for SQL Server permissions as well as using the correct XML configuration file. I specified disabling services so it does that up front.

This is the prerequisite installer kicking off. Depending on your security policy, you may get a prompt to allow/trust the installer to run. I explained in my previous post how to allow it without a prompt.

After IIS logging is configured, SharePoint installation starts.

Next, Office Web Apps are installed and so are any language packs we specified. There’s also the TaxonomyPicker.ascx fix, a very annoying event log entry if you don’t do this. Also note, we’re adding our Farm account to the local Administrators at this point.

Ignore the "Local farm is not accessible." warning, it’s not accessible because it doesn’t exist; AutoSPInstaller continues joining the farm. Here, we’re creating the Central Admin site as well. I enabled SSL on it so it will assign a certificate.

The certificate handling is excellent. Note that it didn’t find one, so its creating a new self-signed certificate. We also configure ULS at this point.

This is where we start to configure language packs. Basically, we’re running PSCONFIG.

Things don’t always go perfectly, but AutoSPInstaller has some good error handling. Here, the upgrade for Language Packs didn’t work using PowerShell cmdlets (known issue) so we start the GUI. If you do not include Service Pack 1 for any language packs, you can avoid this and have a truly unattended install. Just install the Service Pack later manually and re-run PSCONFIGUI

So, AutoSPInstaller launches the GUI (PSCONFIGUI). Just hit next. It will ask if its OK to stop some services, press Yes and the install will continue in GUI. After it completes, you’ll have to hit Finish.

We simply add managed accounts here and start creating the Web Applications.

From the above screenshot, you can see that AutoSPInstaller is doing some cool things while creating our Web Apps. It includes setting up managed paths, SSL certificate assignment, setting locale and time format, applying the object cache accounts, etc. Doing all of this manually or even with PowerShell, would be quite tedious.

After the Web Apps are created, including the MySite host, we start provisioning some Service Applications.

More Service Applications, including properly provisioning the User Profile Service. This part could take some time, just wait. The most common cause for this taking too long is that the server doesn’t have sufficient resources (at least 2 vCPU and 8GB of RAM).

Even more Service Applications here as well as Usage Logging.

Continuing Usage Logging configuration and starting Web Analytics.

Creating and configuring Secure Store – doing this manually is really a pain, especially setting up the keys. We’re also adding our Service Application account to some built-in Windows groups.

Provisioning Enterprise Search and all of its components plus configuring the actual search topology. This could also take some time, be patient.

A bunch more Service Applications including BDC and Excel Services. Some of the Excel Services configuration is done for us, such as setting the unattended account credentials and adding your "Portal" Web Application as a trusted source.

More Enterprise Service Applications being provisioned such as Access and Visio services.

More Service Applications, including PerformancePoint, Word Automation and PowerPoint services. Note that the script also gives the Farm account the proper permissions to the PerformancePoint database, which isn’t done by default when manually provisioning via PowerShell.

Here you can see that Outgoing Email is configured and we start configuring Adobe PDF iFilter. Since the installer wasn’t present, AutoSPInstaller will download it for me.

Still transferring. The script uses BITS protocol for the transfer.

All done with the PDF iFilter, several configuration steps are completed, including renaming the icon and modifying SharePoint’s DOCICON.XML file.

After an IIS restart, it’s time to install Forefront Protection for SharePoint. Notice the STSADM command prompt window. It’ll auto-close.

Some final things are executed, such as running the Health Analyzer jobs and launching Central Admin before being complete.

After you press a key, the log file will also automatically open in WordPad (by default) and the PowerShell window will close. Review the log for any errors or warnings.

We’re done. Let’s take a look at our databases:

Neat! As you can see, my databases are prefixed with SOPS, like I wanted and the default underscore character was used as a separator. Also notice, there are no GUIDs and everything has a nice descriptive name. I enabled pretty much every service and installed everything on one server for demonstration purposes. I’d never advise to do on a production server. Choose your topology appropriately depending on your needs (for example, use dedicated servers for Search and separate servers for Web Servers (WFEs)).

Conclusion

Sometimes, you’ll get errors and the script will abort. This happened to me because I didn’t create a MySite, but tried to start the User Profile Service. The script needs both. All you need to do is adjust your settings, in my case I set UPS to false in the XML file and then re-run the script. It will skip the parts that are already done.

And as a reminder, although I don’t mind answering questions or responding to comments on my blog, if you have specific questions related to AutoSPInstaller, its best to use the discussion boards there: http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/discussions

I do respond there and so do others, so your chances of getting an answer, more quickly, are much greater.

This is a continuation of my previous post titled “AutoSPInstaller: Getting Prepared”

In my previous post, I showed you how to stage all the software. Do this once, you’re set for life! OK, maybe not for life, but at least for any SharePoint server installs you’ll need to do now or later. Next, we need to configure several files.

Configuration Files

Here’s the list of files we need to configure:

• answerfile-ForeFront.xml – Optional. This is the configuration file if you’re installing ForeFront Protection 2010 for SharePoint.
• config.xml – Required. This is the settings for the SharePoint installer.
• config-OWA.xml – Optional. This file is used to configure Office Web Apps.
• AutoSPInstallerInput.xml – Required. This is the file where we’ll configure all the options for AutoSPInstaller, the actual configuration of SharePoint.

The main file we need to configure (AutoSPInstallerInput.xml) is also the most complex, so let’s save it for later. Use your favorite XML editor, avoid Notepad or WordPad, they make things harder. Personally, I like Notepad++ which can be downloaded here.

ForeFront

AutoSPInstaller will call “answerfile-ForeFront.xml,” which replaces the “answerfile.xml” that you’ll find in the ForeFront folder. Most of the options are self-explanatory so I just want to point out one section:

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<SharePointInformation> 
<UserName>COCOLYNN\svc.spFarm<UserName/> 
<Password>pass@word1<Password/> 
</SharePointInformation>

Specify a user account and password for database access. This account should be entered using the Domain\Account format when the server is part of a domain. This account needs a lot of privileges, it must:

• Be a member of the Local Administrators group on the SharePoint server(s).
• have SharePoint Farm Administrators privileges.
• Be a member of the SQL sysadmin role on the database server.

These fields must be populated with valid credentials or unattended installations will fail. I’m using the Farm account. Why? Because it requires similar permissions. The Farm account needs to be a local administrator at least for provisioning User Profile Service. Even after initially installing UPS, it needs that right to be able to restart (re-provision) after backups. It needs to be a Farm Administrator (of course) and although it doesn’t require sysadmin role on the database server, it does require dbcreator, securityadmin and dbo on all the databases. Sysadmin role is not a far stretch from that.

In the end, I’d rather give my Farm account a bit more permissions to run ForeFront than to have another account with very high privileges. Now, I just need to secure/audit this one account.

For detailed information on all the options in this configuration file, check out the TechNet article here.

SharePoint Installer

The “config.xml” is the same as the one found on the SharePoint DVD or ISO file. It’s where we configure SharePoint installer options. Let’s look at some of the options.

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<INSTALLLOCATION Value="%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Office Servers\" /> 
<PIDKEY Value=""/>

The INSTALLLOCATION tells SharePoint where to install the binaries (bits). For example, if you wanted to install to a non-system drive (e.g., E:\), this is where you’d change it. I recommend leaving the default.

The PIDKEY Value is your key for SharePoint, so you’ll enter 25-character license key here. This is required!

Don’t worry about the terminology in this file, such as “spswfe” or SERVERROLE Application. These will not determine your server roles and don’t need to be changed. To find out more about what can be configured here, check out the TechNet article here.

For my install, I’ve kept all the defaults and just added my 25-character license key for “PIDKEY Value”.

Office Web Apps

The “config-OWA.xml” contains the configuration options for Office Web Apps. It replaces the “config.xml” files in the OfficeWebApps folder (under the Setup sub-folder). This is similar to the file above. You must edit this with your license key, just like config.xml. So, I’ve updated this file with my 25-character license key for PIDKEY Value and kept all the other defaults.

AutoSPInstaller Configuration

Recently, the configuration file for AutoSPInstaller has matured and is now heavily commented. So, I won’t go through all of the options but I’ll highlight a few of them here.

Before we get to that though, let me explain how this works. When you’re ready, you’ll launch AutoSPInstaller using the “AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat” batch file. The batch file will check for an XML file with the following names, in order:

• AutoSPInstallerInput-COMPUTERNAME.xml
• AutoSPInstallerInput-DOMAIN.xml
• AutoSPInstallerInput.xml

My preference is to use one configuration file for each server in my farm. You can also just use one file but I’ve seen people have problems with this method. So, I’ll make a copy of the file and name it AutoSPInstallerInput-SHARECLOUD.xml

Note: You will not be passing the xml file as a parameter to AutoSPInstaller so you must name it according to one of the options listed above.

So, lets start.

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<Configuration Environment="Prod" Version="2.5.7">

Change this to your environment. I often have Dev, Test, and Prod environments so I like to specify one of those. It’s just here for your personal reference. I’ll change mine to Prod and leave the version alone. The Version is for the version of AutoSPInstaller you’re using. You must use the XML configuration file for the version of AutoSPInstaller being used, don’t mix and match.

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<OfflineInstall>true</OfflineInstall>

In my first post, I downloaded the prerequisite files, so I’m going to set this to true.

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<Disable> {...} </Disable>

I’m going to set all of these to true. Although disabling LoopbackCheck isn’t exactly the proper way, adding BackConnectionHostNames is too much work for what I’m doing here, trying to automate. See this article for more information.

The same reasoning applies to CRL Checking and IE Enhanced Security. For me, these do more harm than good but set the options according to your preference.

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<Account AddToLocalAdminsDuringSetup="true" LeaveInLocalAdmins="true">

The principle of least privilege prescribes that accounts should not be given more privileges than necessary. So, why am I setting LeaveInLocalAdmins to true? Two reasons. For me, its too much of a pain to add the Farm account back in every time I do a backup or troubleshoot UPS. Second, and more importantly in this case, I’m using the Farm account for ForeFront which requires local administrator rights.

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<DBServer>Alias_SPSQL</DBServer> 
<DBAlias Create="true" 
         DBInstance="SQL2008R2" 
         DBPort="" />

OK, so I do want to create a SQL alias because I always do. I’ve written about this before, here and here. Basically, there are times when you NEED an alias and other times when you don’t. Instead of trying to remember when, I just create one and use a naming convention that tells me its an alias. That way, the next guy won’t be looking for a server name “SPSQL” somewhere on the network.

For DBInstance, you’ll either put the SQL Server name (as I have) when you’re using the default instance, or put the SERVERNAME\INSTANCE when you’re using a named instance or a cluster. I left DBPort blank so that the default port of 1433 will be assigned.

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<DBPrefix>SOPS</DBPrefix>

Just a note on DBPrefix; by default the XML file has “localhost” which will be changed to the computer name. You’ll probably want to change this. Set it to blank for no prefix. You don’t need to put a separator value here, it will append an underscore ( _ ) automatically. If you want to change that separator value, see this posting for a tip.

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<ClaimsToWindowsTokenService Start="true" />

The Claims To Windows Token Service (C2WTS) must be started locally on any server where you have a service (such as Excel Services) that will use it. AutoSPInstaller won’t check this for you, so keep that in mind. In my case, I’ll be starting Excel Services on my Web Server (and perhaps Application Server) so I’m setting it to true.

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<ManagedAccounts>   
	<ManagedAccount CommonName="spservice">
		<username>COCOLYNN\svc.spapps</username> 
		<Password>pass@word1</Password>
	</ManagedAccount>
	<ManagedAccount CommonName="portalapppool">
		<username>COCOLYNN\svc.spapppool</username> 
		<Password>pass@word1</Password>
	</ManagedAccount>
	<ManagedAccount CommonName="mysiteapppool">
		<username>COCOLYNN\svc.spmypool</username> 
		<Password>pass@word1</Password>
	</ManagedAccount>
	<ManagedAccount CommonName="searchservice">
		<username>COCOLYNN\svc.spsearch</username> 
		<Password>pass@word1</Password>
	</ManagedAccount>
</ManagedAccounts>

The “CommonName” cannot be changed. AutoSPInstaller uses the names to reference these accounts. I recommend filling in the passwords, you could leave them blank and be prompted for them later but that defeats the automation aspect. I’d rather find another way to secure the configuration file, such as zipping them up with a password or use encryption software.

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<WebApplications AddURLsToHOSTS="true">

I want my URLs added to my servers hosts file. In most of my configurations, I’m using a load balancer and I want to avoid directing SharePoint services through it, plus I need to be sure when I’m on the server that it’s using itself. This is especially useful for the crawler (my crawl server is always a web server as well).

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<LogDiskSpaceUsageGB>20</LogDiskSpaceUsageGB>

By default, this parameter is blank which means unlimited. I’m wary of setting anything to unlimited. Since I’m not changing my log location (to something other than the system drive), I certainly need a limit here. Without one, I risk running out of disk space, potentially causing my machine not to boot.

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<WebApplication type="Portal"
		name="Collaboration"
		applicationPool="Collab"
		applicationPoolAccount="COCOLYNN\svc.spAppPool"
		url="https://collab.cocolynn.com"
		port="443"
		AddURLToLocalIntranetZone="true"
		databaseName="Collab_Content"
		useClaims="false"
		useBasicAuthentication="false"
		useOnlineWebPartCatalog="false">

AutoSPInstallerInput.xml is very well commented for this section so I’ll just reiterate some points. First, don’t change the type. In this case, consider the type to mean “first web app.” It doesn’t have to be a portal, in my case it’s just going to be a team site. However, since it is the “first web app,” AutoSPInstaller will take some “nice to have” actions for you. For example, it will add this web app to the Excel Services trusted file location and as a “Portal Site Collection.” If you don’t need it, either comment it out (this section) or just remember to go back in later and delete the web app; that’s the easiest way.

In my case, I do want this as sort of a “root” site and I want it to be SSL-enabled. So I’ve updated the URL and port. The script will try to find the correct certificate and assign it in IIS. It can also create self-signed certificates if no match is found! However, you should check it afterwards and correct it if needed. I believe a limitation in IIS/Certificate PowerShell cmdlets make it impossible to specify a certificate name to assign.

I’m not using Claims. Here’s a tip, if you don’t NEED Claims, don’t use it. If you don’t know if you need it, you don’t. You can always convert to Claims later, but you can’t convert back (not supported).

I will use the same settings for URL, name, etc. in the next section for Site Collection (not shown). That section is also where you specify the template and I’ll change it from the default of SPSPORTAL#0 (Collaboration Portal) to STS#0 (Team Site). For a nice post on templates, including a list of what’s what, check out this blog post.

The same advice applies to the MySite section. Don’t change the type and in this case, also don’t change the Template for the Site Collection.

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 <UserProfileServiceApp Provision="true"
			Name="User Profile Service Application"
			ProxyName="User Profile Service Application"
			EnableNetBIOSDomainNames="false"
			StartProfileSync="true"
			CreateDefaultSyncConnection="false"
			SyncConnectionAccount="DOMAIN\UPSync"
			SyncConnectionAccountPassword="" >

I’m going to provision the User Profile Service (UPS). If you do want to provision this, make sure you’ve created your My Site Host earlier. If you don’t, the script will error out. I’ve left the defaults of starting UPS Sync and not creating default sync connections. I recommend not automating the sync connections because its far from perfect and unsupported:

Please note that these cmdlets are only intended for use within SharePoint Online environments by SharePoint Online engineers. Their use in on premises deployments is NOT supported.

That’s taken from Spence Harbar’s (@harbars) post on the topic.

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<CrawlServers>
    <Server Name="localhost" />
</CrawlServers>

I’m going to make this server a Crawl and Query server as well. I can always change the topology later. Remember, anywhere you have “localhost,” it will be changed automatically to the local server name.

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<OfficeWebApps Install="true" ConfigFile="config-OWA.xml">

In the OfficeWebApps section, I’m setting Install to true and will also provision all of the Office Web Apps to true as well, EXCEPT Excel. I’ve already created an Excel Service app, you don’t need two unless you just really want two. For this and any other service, follow the capacity planning guidance available on TechNet.

I’ve skipped over a lot of settings because I believe they need no further explanation. Here’s a copy of the AutoSPInstallerInput configuration file I’ve configured, with the comments removed for easier readability. Click the arrow to expand.

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<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Configuration Environment="Prod" Version="2.5.7">
    <Install>
        <ConfigFile>config.xml</ConfigFile>
        <OfflineInstall>true</OfflineInstall>
        <Disable>
            <LoopbackCheck>true</LoopbackCheck>
            <UnusedServices>true</UnusedServices>
            <IEEnhancedSecurity>true</IEEnhancedSecurity>
            <CertificateRevocationListCheck>true</CertificateRevocationListCheck>
        </Disable>
    </Install>
    <Farm>
        <Passphrase>pass@word1</Passphrase>
        <Account AddToLocalAdminsDuringSetup="true" LeaveInLocalAdmins="true">
            <Username>COCOLYNN\svc.spFarm</Username>
            <Password>pass@word1</Password>
            <Email>helpdesk@cocolynn.com</Email>
        </Account>
        <CentralAdmin Provision="true">
            <Database>AdminContentDB</Database>
            <Port>7777</Port>
            <UseSSL>true</UseSSL>
        </CentralAdmin>
        <Database>
            <DBServer>Alias_SPSQL</DBServer>
            <DBAlias Create="true"
                     DBInstance="SQL2008R2"
                     DBPort="" />
            <DBPrefix>SOPS</DBPrefix>
            <ConfigDB>Config</ConfigDB>
        </Database>
        <Services>
            <SandboxedCodeService Start="true" />
            <ClaimsToWindowsTokenService Start="true" />
            <SearchQueryAndSiteSettingsService Start="true" />
            <SMTP Install="true" />
            <OutgoingEmail Configure="true">
                <SMTPServer>SHARECLOUD</SMTPServer>
                <EmailAddress>helpdesk@cocolynn.com</EmailAddress>
                <ReplyToEmail>spadmin@cocolynn.com</ReplyToEmail>
            </OutgoingEmail>
        </Services>
        <ManagedAccounts>
            <ManagedAccount CommonName="spservice">
                <username>COCOLYNN\svc.spApps</username>
                <Password>pass@word1</Password>
            </ManagedAccount>
            <ManagedAccount CommonName="portalapppool">
                <username>COCOLYNN\svc.spAppPool</username>
                <Password>pass@word1</Password>
            </ManagedAccount>
            <ManagedAccount CommonName="mysiteapppool">
                <username>COCOLYNN\svc.spMySitePool</username>
                <Password>pass@word1</Password>
            </ManagedAccount>
            <ManagedAccount CommonName="searchservice">
                <username>COCOLYNN\svc.spSearch</username>
                <Password>pass@word1</Password>
            </ManagedAccount>
        </ManagedAccounts>
        <ObjectCacheAccounts>
            <SuperUser>COCOLYNN\svc.spCacheUser</SuperUser>
            <SuperReader>COCOLYNN\svc.spCacheRead</SuperReader>
        </ObjectCacheAccounts>
        <Logging>
            <IISLogs Compress="true">
                <Path></Path>
            </IISLogs>
            <ULSLogs Compress="true">
                <LogLocation></LogLocation>
                <LogDiskSpaceUsageGB>20</LogDiskSpaceUsageGB>
                <DaysToKeepLogs></DaysToKeepLogs>
                <LogCutInterval></LogCutInterval>
            </ULSLogs>
            <UsageLogs Compress="true">
                <UsageLogDir></UsageLogDir>
                <UsageLogMaxSpaceGB></UsageLogMaxSpaceGB>
                <UsageLogCutTime></UsageLogCutTime>
            </UsageLogs>
        </Logging>
    </Farm>
    <WebApplications AddURLsToHOSTS="true">
        <WebApplication type="Portal"
                        name="Collaboration"
                        applicationPool="Collab"
                        applicationPoolAccount="COCOLYNN\svc.spAppPool"
                        url="https://collab.cocolynn.com"
                        port="443"
                        AddURLToLocalIntranetZone="true"
                        databaseName="Collab_Content"
                        useClaims="false"
                        useBasicAuthentication="false"
                        useOnlineWebPartCatalog="false">
            <ManagedPaths>
                <ManagedPath relativeUrl="help" explicit="true" />
            </ManagedPaths>
            <SiteCollections>
                <SiteCollection siteUrl="https://collab.cocolynn.com"
                                owner="COCOLYNN\svc.spFarm"
                                name="Collab"
                                description="Collaboration Services"
                                SearchUrl="https://collab.cocolynn.com/search"
                                CustomTemplate="false"
                                Template="STS#0"
                                LCID="1033"
                                Locale="en-us"
                                Time24="false">
                </SiteCollection>
            </SiteCollections>
        </WebApplication>
        <WebApplication type="MySiteHost"
                        name="MySite Host"
                        applicationPool="MySites"
                        applicationPoolAccount="COCOLYNN\svc.spMySitePool"
                        url="http://mysites.cocolynn.com"
                        port="80"
                        AddURLToLocalIntranetZone="true"
                        databaseName="MySites_Content"
                        useClaims="false"
                        useBasicAuthentication="false"
                        useOnlineWebPartCatalog="false">
            <SiteCollections>
                <SiteCollection siteUrl="http://mysites.cocolynn.com"
                                owner="COCOLYNN\svc.spFarm"
                                name="My Site Host"
                                description="Root site for hosting MySites"
                                SearchUrl="https://collab.cocolynn.com/search"
                                CustomTemplate="false"
                                Template="SPSMSITEHOST#0"
                                LCID="1033"
                                Locale="en-us"
                                Time24="false">
                </SiteCollection>
            </SiteCollections>
            <ManagedPaths>
                <ManagedPath relativeUrl="personal" explicit="false"/>
                <ManagedPath relativeUrl="sites" delete="true" />
            </ManagedPaths>
        </WebApplication>
    </WebApplications>
    <ServiceApps>
        <ManagedMetadataServiceApp Provision="true"
                                   Name="Managed Metadata Service"
                                   ProxyName="Managed Metadata Service">
            <Database>Metadata</Database>
        </ManagedMetadataServiceApp>
        <UserProfileServiceApp Provision="true"
                               Name="User Profile Service Application"
                               ProxyName="User Profile Service Application"
                               EnableNetBIOSDomainNames="false"
                               StartProfileSync="true"
                               CreateDefaultSyncConnection="false"
                               SyncConnectionAccount="DOMAIN\UPSync"
                               SyncConnectionAccountPassword="" >
            <ProfileDB>Profile</ProfileDB>
            <SyncDB>Sync</SyncDB>
            <SocialDB>Social</SocialDB>
        </UserProfileServiceApp>
        <EnterpriseSearchService Provision="true"
                                 ContactEmail="helpdesk@cocolynn.com"
                                 ConnectionTimeout="60"
                                 AcknowledgementTimeout="60"
                                 ProxyType="Default"
                                 IgnoreSSLWarnings="true"
                                 InternetIdentity="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT; MS Search 6.0 Robot)"
                                 IndexLocation="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Data\Office Server\Applications"
                                 PerformanceLevel="PartlyReduced"
                                 Account="COCOLYNN\svc.spSearch"
                                 Password="pass@word1"
                                 ShareName="SearchIndex">
            <EnterpriseSearchServiceApplications>
                <EnterpriseSearchServiceApplication Name="Search Service Application"
                                                    DatabaseServer="Alias_SPSQL"
                                                    DatabaseName="Search"
                                                    FailoverDatabaseServer=""
                                                    Partitioned="false"
                                                    Partitions="1"
                                                    SearchServiceApplicationType="Regular"
                                                    ContentAccessAccount="COCOLYNN\svc.spCrawl"
                                                    ContentAccessAccountPassword="pass@word1">
                    <ApplicationPool Name="SharePoint Search Application Pool" Account="COCOLYNN\svc.spSearchPool" Password="pass@word1" />
                    <CrawlServers>
                        <Server Name="localhost" />
                    </CrawlServers>
                    <QueryServers>
                        <Server Name="localhost" />
                    </QueryServers>
                    <SearchQueryAndSiteSettingsServers>
                        <Server Name="localhost" />
                    </SearchQueryAndSiteSettingsServers>
                    <AdminComponent>
                        <Server Name="localhost" />
                        <ApplicationPool Name="SharePoint Search Application Pool" Account="COCOLYNN\svc.spSearchPool" />
                    </AdminComponent>
                    <Proxy Name="Search Service Application" Partitioned="false">
                        <ProxyGroup Name="Default" />
                    </Proxy>
                </EnterpriseSearchServiceApplication>
            </EnterpriseSearchServiceApplications>
        </EnterpriseSearchService>
        <StateService Provision="true"
                      Name="State Service"
                      ProxyName="State Service">
            <Database>StateService</Database>
        </StateService>
        <WebAnalyticsService Provision="true"
                             Name="Web Analytics Service Application">
            <ReportingDB>WebAnalyticsReporting</ReportingDB>
            <StagingDB>WebAnalyticsStaging</StagingDB>
        </WebAnalyticsService>
        <SPUsageService Provision="true"
                        Name="Usage and Health Data Collection">
            <Database>UsageAndHealth</Database>
        </SPUsageService>
        <SecureStoreService Provision="true"
                            Name="Secure Store Service"
                            ProxyName="Secure Store Service">
            <Database>SecureStore</Database>
        </SecureStoreService>
        <BusinessDataConnectivity Provision="true"
                                  Name="Business Data Connectivity Service"
                                  ProxyName="Business Data Connectivity Service">
            <Database>BusinessDataCatalog</Database>
        </BusinessDataConnectivity>
        <WordAutomationService Provision="true"
                               Name="Word Automation Services"
                               ProxyName="Word Automation Services">
            <Database>WordAutomation</Database>
        </WordAutomationService>
    </ServiceApps>
    <EnterpriseServiceApps>
        <ExcelServices Provision="true"
                       Name="Excel Services Application"
                       UnattendedIDUser="COCOLYNN\svc.spUnattend"
                       UnattendedIDPassword="pass@word1">
        </ExcelServices>
        <VisioService Provision="true"
                      Name="Visio Graphics Service"
                      ProxyName="Visio Graphics Service"
                      UnattendedIDUser="COCOLYNN\svc.spUnattend"
                      UnattendedIDPassword="pass@word1">
        </VisioService>
        <AccessService Provision="true"
                       Name="Access Services"
                       ProxyName="Access Services">
        </AccessService>
        <PerformancePointService Provision="true"
                      Name="PerformancePoint Service"
                      ProxyName="PerformancePoint Service"
                      UnattendedIDUser="COCOLYNN\svc.spPerfPoint"
                      UnattendedIDPassword="pass@word1">
            <Database>PerformancePoint</Database>
        </PerformancePointService>
    </EnterpriseServiceApps>
    <OfficeWebApps Install="true"
                   ConfigFile="config-OWA.xml">
        <ExcelService Provision="false"
                      Name="Excel Web App"
                      ProxyName="Excel Web App"
                      UnattendedIDUser="DOMAIN\ExcelUser"
                      UnattendedIDPassword="">
        </ExcelService>
        <WordViewingService Provision="true"
                            Name="Word Viewing Service"
                            ProxyName="Word Viewing Service">
        </WordViewingService>
        <PowerPointService Provision="true"
                           Name="PowerPoint Service Application"
                           ProxyName="PowerPoint Service Application">
        </PowerPointService>
    </OfficeWebApps>
    <AdobePDF>
        <iFilter Install="true" />
        <Icon Configure="true" />
        <MIMEType Configure="true"/>
    </AdobePDF>
    <ForeFront Install="true"
               ConfigFile="answerfile-ForeFront.xml" />
</Configuration>

Almost done. It’s common for typos and syntax errors to pop up because the XML file is so long and has so much information. We need to run it through a validator. So, head over to http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_validator.asp and paste your entire XML in the validator.

No errors? Now, we’re ready to go! In the next post in this series, I’ll show you how to run this and how it looks as it progresses.

Service Accounts

As a reference, here are the service accounts I’ll be using and what they get assigned using the default options in the XML configuration file.

And as a reminder, although I don’t mind answering questions or responding to comments on my blog, if you have specific questions related to AutoSPInstaller, its best to use the discussion boards there: http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/discussions

This post will focus on how to get started with AutoSPInstaller. Along the way, I’ll write some tips that I’ve learned and hope to give readers some more details on how to most effectively use AutoSPInstaller. Tobias Lekman (@tobiaslekman) also has a step-by-step guide on his blog here.

AutoSPInstaller is a CodePlex project started by Brian Lalancette (@brianlala). The aim of the project is to provide a set of unified scripts to install SharePoint by following best practices. You can find more on the project by visiting http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/

Assumptions

• You have at least one SQL Server (or cluster) up and running that will be used for the SharePoint databases.
• You have a Windows Server 2008 R2 server up and running. The server is joined to your domain, has network connectivity and the firewall is turned off. No pre-requisites, server roles, or features are installed yet.
• You have access to a file share (could be a local drive) where we’ll stage the software.
• You have (at least) SharePoint 2010 Foundation. In this example, I’m going to use Enterprise edition and additional software such as Office Web Apps. These are not required though.

Scenario

• I’m going to install SharePoint using AutoSPInstaller and my locale is en-US (United States).
• My SQL Server name is SQL2008R2 and I have a default instance installed (MSSQLSERVER).
• My SharePoint server is called SHARECLOUD and I have set the PowerShell policy to Unrestricted (Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted).
• My install account is svc.spsetup; always use a common install account. This account is a local administrator on my SharePoint server(s).
• My file share is mapped to the Z: drive, svc.spsetup (my install account) has Full Control.

Preparing the file share

The first step is to prepare the file share.

Step 1. Extract AutoSPInstaller:

I’m going to start with AutoSPInstaller. Download a copy from http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com and extract the files to your file share.

Step 2. Copy SharePoint bits:

Once extracted, AutoSPInstaller gives you the proper folder structure. You have to stick to this because the scripts use relatives paths (for example: ../../xyz.exe) in many places.

So now, I’m going to take a copy of my SharePoint DVD or extract the contents of my SharePoint ISO to the SP2010\SharePoint folder, as shown here:

Tip: If you have an ISO, consider using 7-zip to extract its contents.

Step3: Tweak Windows settings (optional)

I do this to prevent pop-ups regarding untrusted locations. Without this, your install can’t really be unattended because you’ll have to click Continue (or Cancel) when the warning for Open File Security shows up. This happens when you copy files from the internet (as we’re doing with the AutoSPInstaller scripts) or from file shares, even a DVD (as with the SharePoint bits).

• First, make sure you are logged in as the setup account. This is a user-based setting. Click Start –> Run –> gpedit.msc –> Press Enter or OK
• Browse to User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Attachment Manager –> Inclusion list for low file types.
• Add .exe;.ps1;.bat to the list, as shown.

Step 4. Copy SharePoint Prerequisites:

Since I may be installing a large farm, I don’t want to keep downloading the prerequisites each time. I want to keep a copy of the files and use the offline installation method (faster).

I’m going to go back to http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com and click on the Downloads tab. On the right-hand side, under "Other Downloads" there’s a script to download all the prerequisites. Download and save that somewhere. I choose to put it in the SP2010\SharePoint folder.

Now run the PowerShell script. It will ask for a folder, I’ve specified current folder in my screenshot. The script will use the existing PrerequisiteInstallerFiles folder or create one if there isn’t any in the folder you specify. This is how it looks while its running.

When its done, you’ll see all the files downloaded to the folder you specified. They should be in the SP2010\SharePoint\PrerequisiteInstallerFiles folder.

Step 5: Slipstream Updates

Your media may already have SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1, mine doesn’t so I’m going to slipstream it. I’ll also slipstream the latest cumulative update (CU) that I’ve tested. Find out more information on SharePoint 2010 at the Update Resource Center.

First, I need to download the update for SharePoint Server 2010 (link). I’ll save this to my desktop (or a temp folder). Next, I’m going to grab the CU, which should be optional and is intended to fix an issue you’re experiencing. However, this statement posted on the KB for Service Pack 1 encourages installing a CU:

"After you install SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1 or SharePoint Server 2010 SP1, you must also install the corresponding June 2011 Cumulative Update refresh package."

As of this writing, the latest is the October 2011 CU. However, this contains regressions that I don’t want to deal with. For a list of known regressions, Todd Klindt (@toddklindt) has been keeping track on his blog: http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Regressions/Home.aspx

I’m going to go with the August 2011 CU. This also means that I don’t need two packages (one for SharePoint Foundation and one of SharePoint Server). Prior cumulative updates required both packages. So, the August CU is available here, lets download that to the desktop as well.

In a command prompt, I’m going to type in the following:

officeserver2010sp1-kb2460045-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:Z:\SP2010\SharePoint\Updates

Then:

office2010-kb2553048-fullfile-x64-glb.exe /extract:Z:\SP2010\SharePoint\Updates

If you’d like a walk through, Todd Klindt comes to the rescue again. View his blog post here: http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=295

Step 6: Download Adobe PDF iFilter (optional)

I want to be able to search and index PDF files so I’ll need the Adobe PDF iFilter. AutoSPInstaller can set this up for me. I just need to do a couple things to prepare.

• First download the iFilter zip from here and place it in the SP2010\PDF folder.
• Second, download the PDF icon from here and place it in the same folder. Rename it to icpdf.gif

UPDATE: Brian informed me that the PDF function in AutoSPInstaller will do all of this for you. So, if you want the PDF stuff, just enable it in the configuration. There are no preparatory steps needed.

Step 7: Extract Office Web Apps (optional)

If you’d like to install Office Web Apps, download and extract the installation to the SP2010\OfficeWebApps folder. Office Web Apps is generally available to enterprise customers, you can’t just go online somewhere and download it, so if you’re interested talk to your Microsoft licensing representative.

Here, I’ve downloaded the Office Web Apps installer to my desktop and am extracting it to the SP2010\OfficeWebApps folder.

en_office_web_apps_x64_517488.exe /extract:Z:\SP2010\OfficeWebApps

Since I’m installing Service Pack 1 for SharePoint, I need SP1 for Office Web Apps too. I downloaded it from this site, and extract it to the “Updates” folder under SP2010\OfficeWebApps.

wacserver2010sp1-kb2460073-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:Z:\SP2010\OfficeWebApps\Updates

Step 8: Extract Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint (optional)

Similar to Office Web Apps, you may not have this or may chose not to use it. SharePoint can use anti-malware software from several vendors. In this case, I’ve downloaded Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint to my desktop and am extracting it to the SP2010\ForeFront folder. It’s an ISO in my case, so I’m using 7-zip to extract it. That gives me the setup file. I still need to extract that so, in the command line I type in:

C:\Users\svc.spsetup\Desktop>FOREFRONTSHAREPOINTSETUP.EXE /extract:Z:\SP2010\ForeFront

Step 9: Slipstream Language Packs (optional)

I saved this for last because it can be complex and there are a couple ways to do this. However, I’m going to show you my preference. I like this method because it ensures that Service Pack 1 for my language packs also get installed properly.

For my example, I’m going to use French and Spanish language packs. To make things easier, I’m going to use another CodePlex project. The SharePoint 2010 Language Pack Downloader here. I simply select my languages and the folder.

• I’ll download the original language packs for each language I want and then download the service pack for each of those.
• Next, I need to extract them to a subfolder that I’ll create. The subfolder will be named for the "Culture Short Code" of the language. For a list of culture short codes see this MSDN article.

For example: SpanishLanguagePack.exe /extract:Z:\SP2010\Language Packs\es-es

• Finally, I need to extract the service pack for each language into the "Updates" folder for that language pack.

For example:

SpanishLanguagePack_SP1.exe /extract:Z:\SP2010\LanguagePacks\es-es\Updates

Here’s how my four commands look:

For now, we’ve accomplished our goal of preparing our file share. From here, we have everything ready to install a single server or 10 servers, in the same farm or multiple farms. Our SP2010 folder is now over 4 GB.

In the next post in the series, we’ll continue by configuring several files that will help automate our SharePoint deployment.

And as a note, although I don’t mind answering questions or responding to comments on my blog, if you have specific questions related to AutoSPInstaller, its best to use the discussion boards there: http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/discussions

I do respond there and so do others, so your chances of getting an answer, more quickly are greater.

Spence Harbar discussed the User Profile Service and considerations for Enterprise Deployments. Right off, he stated that the MCM class spends 6 hours on UPS! Certainly, 90 minutes is not sufficient to cover everything but I took some notes that you’ll find in this article.

Spence spoke about Identity Management as a key foundation for UPS and the fact that it’s a very political topic (10% technology, 90% business/politics). To help ensure a good identity management foundation exists, we need to answer some key questions:

• Ownership: Who owns the data? Where’s the authoritative source?
• Data Quality: Does the data exist? Is it up to date and accurate? Is it compliant?
• System Quality: What’s the health of systems managing the data (AD Health?)
• Access: How do you authenticate and access the systems managing identity data.

Tip: Be friendly to your directory services management team. You’ll need coordination, communication, and change control.

Architecture

There are 3 related databases for user profiles:

• SocialDB: This holds things like tags, notes, and ratings.
• ProfileDB: Hold the profile data for users and the organization and activity feeds. Should grow very large if your SharePoint deployment is focused on social networking.
• SyncDB: Hold configuration and staging information for synchronization data.

The User Profile Application (UPA) talks directly to SQL, this is why it’s not supported over the WAN (as a federated service).

SharePoint includes FIM “light,”  provisioning UPS Service Instance is effectively installing and configuring FIM.

Tip: The SyncDB is a temporary holding area for synchronization data. Deleting (and re-creating) it should not be an issue. All the important (actual) data is stored in the other two related databases, SocialDB and ProfileDB.

Provisioning

Using Central Administration for provisioning UPS is not recommended. Using PowerShell for UPA provisioning provides more options, control and provides a repeatable process (since issues could easily arise). However there are some limitations or problems when using PowerShell to create the User Profile Application.

Limitations:

When using PowerShell to create the UPA, there is a Default Schema issue. The Farm Account default schema is set incorrectly in Sync DB, UPS will never start under this case. Because the user is logged in as the server administrator, that account will be dbo (rather than the Farm account).

Workarounds

1. Log on to machine as Farm Account and under UAC elevation run the PowerShell to create UPA; not recommended.
2. Fix default schema manually (not supported) using SQL Server Management Studio or TSQL; not recommended.
3. Best method is to start PowerShell process using RunAs, pass the Farm Account credentials, and run the PowerShell script to create UPA. Essentially, you’re running a PowerShell script from a PowerShell script. AutoSPInstaller uses this method (I believe). See Spence’s post here for details: http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx

Deployment Guidance

Planning is paramount! Define what properties you’ll need and how “social” features will be used in your organization. Plan, plan, plan.

Ensure the data is accurate (remember: garbage in, garbage out) and ensure systems managing the user directory are healthy. Consider using Microsoft services to deliver an Active Directory Risk Assessment (AD RAP) when deploying large scale social deployment.

Design Constraints

You can only have one UPS Service Instance per Service Application. “Effectively replaces the Index role (from MOSS 2007) as the single point of failure.” The only way to get high-availability (HA), is to start UPS on another machine (will automatically un-provision on first machine).

Keep in mind that you cannot log ship Sync DB (its unsupported – see this article for other databases that cannot be log-shipped). Clustering is the only option to get some level of high availability. Since the Sync DB is just a temporary staging environment, you can easily create a new UPA and use your existing Profile and Social DB with no data loss.

Deploy Sync DB on dedicated SQL instance (it loves RAM) to get best sync time for large number of users.

MySites

• MySite Host can only be in a single language. Recommend using primary language of your organization. Only the default will be used for phonetic matching during search.
• Pre-creating MySites is not recommended, you’ll end up with tons of empty or unused site collections. Its very unlikely that every user will try to create a MySite during the launch of your new SharePoint Farm.
• Limit the profile properties you want to manage, it can add too much complexity and unnecessary load. Get the important things but don’t go overboard.
• Using the full version of FIM to change configuration settings with SharePoint puts your in unsupported state.
• You can use distributed MySites by creating multiple farms and  a UPA in each Farm. Each MySite is added to Trusted MySite Locations. Audiences are used to redirect users to correct host. Multiple UPAs in a single Farm is not supported.

Considerations for Claims

The following are some considerations when using a SharePoint Farm in Claims-mode:

• Audiences can only be property based. No groups.
• Mapping to claims user requires manual configuration. FULL Sync required after configuration.
• You’ll need custom code for people picker to work as expected.
• Outlook Social Connector is Windows authentication only.

Tip: Deploy Service Pack 1 and the June 2011 Cumulative Update (CU) for SharePoint 2010 as these provide enhancements related to the User Profiles.

Service Pack 1 provides many enhancements including the following:

• Activity feed enabled by default
• Performance increase during synchronization
• Organization Browser fixes
• Customized security trimming

In addition, the June 2011 CU provides enhancements including the following:

• A 33% performance improvement during sync
• Improved ULS logging

Major Farm Lifecycle Events

Finally, Spence addressed some consideration for major farm lifecycle events (such as upgrades, updates, and backups). For example, installing a Cumulative Update (CU) requires re-provisioning of UPS. There is no “pause” method for UPS and PSConfig is not aware of Sync DB. Therefore,  schema updates are taken care of during UPS provisioning.

UPS is stopped before a backup occurs and requires re-provisioning with many 3rd party backup solutions. Farm account must be a local admin during provisioning. If not, it will not provision (correctly).

Maintaining databases is important, however be careful. The SyncDB can become large, don’t use TSQL to fix – it’s unsupported. Spence mentioned there are scripts on the interwebz that show you how to do this but remember, they are unsupported. So, what can you do?

Just throw away UPA and recreate, use existing ProfileDB and SocialDB, no data loss incurred.

Conclusion

This was truly a 400-level session and there was much too much information to consume and regurgitate! I hope I’ve captured some key points and hope this is helpful. Spence did say that TechNet is an excellent resource. In addition, visit Spence’s blog and the resources listed here:

• Spencer Harbar’s Blog
• Rational Guide to Implementing SharePoint Server 2010 User Profile Synchronization
• “Stuck on Starting”: Common Issues with SharePoint Server 2010 User Profile Synchronization