Installation Windows Sharepoint Services [WSS] 3.0

Installing Only WSS 3.0

Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 Installation is farely easy but very complicated to resolve if it errors out. There are 2 types of Installations which are described in detail below. WSS 3.0 is freely downloadable from Microsoft site. [ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d51730b5-48fc-4ca2-b454-8dc2caf93951&DisplayLang=en ]

Pre-requisites before Installing Windows Sharepoint Services.

1. Windows 2003 OS with ASP.net + IIS 6.0. SMTP is required if you are deciding to use Email Enabled Document Libraries, not otherwise.
2. Service Pack 1 or higher.
3. ASP.net 3.0 framework.
4. Service account created in Active Directory, recommended to be a member of Domain Admins groups. This service account should not change the password according to group policies, otherwise everytime the password is required to change, Sharepoint sites will go down once the password is changed. If you dont want the Service account to be a member of Domain Admins group, it has to be the member of the local administrators group on the server you will be installing Sharepoint.

Types of Installation of WSS 3.0

1. Basic
2. Advanced

Basic Installation Detail Description

1. You run the sharepoint.exe file which you can download from the above link. You will get the License agreement page. Accept it and Click on Next.
2. On next Page It will give you 2 buttons 'Basic' and 'Advanced'. We are going to select 'Basic'
3. After selecting Basic it will continue with the installation process and at the end it will stop at 'Run the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now'. This is inshort referred as 'PSConfig' wizard.
4. Make sure that the checkbox is selected and click on the Close button. PSConfig Wizard will start.
5. Click on Next, it will give a warning of restartint the IIS Services -> click on Yes. It will run 1 to 10 steps in PSConfig wizard.
6. Once all the steps are completed Click on the Finish button and default page http://servername/ site will open automatically.

Description of above steps

1. Step 1:- Log on to the server using the Service account created. If the pre-requisites of IIS and ASP.net 3.0 framework is not met, it will error out and you will not get the EULA page. Before coming to the EULA page, pre-requisites are checked.
2. Step 2:- Basic Installation will not prompt for any configuration settings. Using Basic installation SQL Express Edition is installed and Sharepoint Databases are created in SQL Express Edition. By Default there is not GUI mode to manage those databases, you will have to separately install SQL Management Studio Express [ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c243a5ae-4bd1-4e3d-94b8-5a0f62bf7796&DisplayLang=en ] and once installed connect to the database using "\\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query" (without quotes).
   In this step only the binaries and some registry keys are installed and configured.
   
   Binary files are located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin
   
   SQL Express Databases .mdf and .ldf files are located at C:\Windows\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSQL.2005\MSSQL\Data
   
   Registry Key location is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\WSS. Important Registry keys are 'Server Role' and 'Setup Type'. If Basic Installation is done, "Server Role" will be mentioned as "SINGLESERVER" and "Setup Type" will be mentioned as "CLEAN_INSTALL"
   
3. Step 3:- PSConfig wizard is when Sharepoint is Basically configured. Untill you run this wizard, Sharepoint Administration site or any functionality related to Sharepoint will not be possible. Description of the PSConfig Steps, I will Post it Separately.

Once the Installation and PSConfig Config wizard is completed successfully, Open up IIS console and you will find that the 'Default Web Site' will be stopped and the default Sharepoint Site created is also at port 80 [ Sharepoint - 80 ]. So if you have Exchang running on the same server, OWA will stop working as OWA is extended on the 'Default Web Site' in IIS. Exchange and WSS 3.0 only is supported by Microsoft but Exchange and MOSS 2007 on the same server is not Supported.

You will also find the Sharepoint Central Administration V3 site, which is the Sharepoint Central Administration Site IIS Virtual site. This Site will be created at a random port no. which will be taken during PSConfig wizard. From the above registy path, you can also get the 'CentralAdministrationURL' which specifies the Central Admin site URL with the Port no.

There will be 3 Default groups created 'WSS_WPG', 'WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG', 'WSS_ADMIN_WPG'. The user account using which you installed Sharepoint will be the member of these groups by default. It is recommended you log-on to the server as the service account first and then proceed with the Installation.

By Default at the database location you will find 4 Sharepoint Databases created in Basic Installation.

1. Sharepoint_Config_bigGUID [ Sharepoint Farm's Configuration database].
2. Sharepoint_AdminContent_bigGUID [ Sharepoint Central Administration database].
3. WSS_CONTENT [ Sharepoint - 80 sites database].
4. WSS_Search [ Windows Sharepoint Search Service Database, By default Search Service will be started in Basic Installation.]