SPinaBox - SharePoint in a Box - Alpha One release

  • Article

SharePoint 2010 is an Enterprise class environment, and as such presents a wide range of installation options.  SPinaBox (which can be pronounced as spin a box) provides an extensible installation meta-framework for simplified SharePoint installations in small configuration environments.  It installs and configures all the SharePoint required infrastructure (such as Active Directory and SQL Server), then uses other frameworks to perform  installation and configuration of SharePoint 2010 itself.  In short: SharePoint easily installed!

The framework provides for:

  • Configuring and creating the Active Directory (AD) server
    • Setting fixed IP
    • Installing PowerShell ISE
    • Converting (via dcpromo) a standard Server 2008 machine to be a domain controller
    • Modifying UAC settings
    • Registering licence keys for Windows Server 2008
  • Installing and configuring SQL Server 2008 R2
    • Setting UAC off
    • Installing PowerShell ISE
    • Registering licence keys
    • Joining to the domain controller
    • Creating appropriate local and domain users for managing SQL Server
    • Assigning rights (such as "logon as a service") via ntrights.exe
    • Updating the default SQL Server configuration to enable TCP on network interface
  • Installing and configuring SharePoint 2010
    • Creation of domain users for SharePoint
    • Updating sections of the autospinstaller configuration file from the local SPinaBox configuration file

The framework requires a minimal number of configuration changes as follows in order to complete an installation of SharePoint, SQL Server and Active Directory

adminPassword

The administrator password (which is used for many of  the passwords within the system by default).   Note that each of these passwords can be changed separately to  increase security. Please also review  the concept of managed accounts.

myDirectory

This is the ‘home directory’ for the scripts – once within the Operating System  to install to, so typically this is a drive such as “Y:”.

domain_core

The domain name of the organisation

ou_name

The organisational unit name – eg “payroll”,  or “IT”. This may also be simply “Entire company”

dc_ip_address

The domain controller IP address. Note this will be a fixed IP address.

dc_licence_key

The domain controller Operating System  licence key

sp2010_license_key

The SharePoint 2010 installation licence  key

sp_owa_pidkey

The Office Web Application licence key

 dc_ethernet_adaptor_name

 Note that only part of the name is required. This is a regular expression. For example if there were two Ethernet adaptors in a server with names "Intel 82577" and "Intel(R)Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN" then a simple word such as "82577" would identify the first one, and "6300" would uniquely identify the second one.

 

Please feel free to try out SPinaBox today - we're keen for comments and / or bugs!

  • Status: With the out of the box settings and two blank VMs - it installs SharePoint 2010 in under an hour and a half, and with about 10 minutes of "enter" keypressing from the user. 
  • It comes with a 33 page detailed installation manual (largely screenshots).  The user has to type about 10 short commands to fully install SharePoint 2010.
  • Prerequisites: Access to MSDN or SharePoint / SQL Server / Server 2008 installation media.