Professional SharePoint 2013 Administration

Chapter 3

Installing and Configuring SharePoint

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• SharePoint prerequisites
• Installing SharePoint 2013 Enterprise
• Creating and configuring the farm
• Creating web applications and site collections

Just as we urged in the 2010 edition of this book: Please read this chapter! After many years of reviewing SharePoint farms, we can count on one hand the number that were built correctly. It isn’t because SharePoint is especially hard to install and configure, it’s just very particular about numerous settings.

The focus of this chapter is installing SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise — using the least-privilege security model and meaningful database names. This approach is the opposite of the two most commonly used approaches. The first is to use an account for everything, assign it super administrator privileges, and then use all of the wizards, which results in a train wreck. At the other extreme is the second approach, which is to just download a PowerShell script and run it to magically create a SharePoint farm. While that is undoubtedly handy, you don’t learn anything from the process, so the first time you hit a bump in the road you are stuck. No train wrecks or magic occur in this chapter, just a clear, production-level install done in a slow, deliberate fashion that explains all the steps.

PREPARING THE ENVIRONMENT

Before starting the SharePoint installation and configuration for this environment, several servers were built with dedicated roles to make it easier ...