How I can install SharePoint server 2013 on windows server 2008 inside a VM

Question

The system administrator in our company provided me with the following 5 ISO images including SharePoint server 2013, Visual studio 2012, Visual studio team foundation server 2012, SQL server 2008 and finally Windows server 2008.:-

1. en_sharepoint_server_2013_x64_dvd
2. en_visual_studio_professional_2012_x86_dvd
3. en_visual_studio_team_foundation_server_2012_with_update_2_x86_x64_dvd
4. SW_DVD5_SQL_Svr_DC_Ent_Std_Wkgrp_Web_SmBiz_Dev_2008_R2SP2_English
5. SW_DVD5_Windows_Svr_DC_EE_SE_Web_2008_R2_64Bit_English_w_SP1

Currently I have the following for my development environment:-

1. PC Machine which have windows 7 professional
2. The above five ISO images

As this will be my first SharePoint installation,so I need to know the following points:-

1. Which ISO image I should start with?

2. Will the above files allow me to have the SP 2013 inside a VM or I should first install a VM on windows 7 and then copy these ISO images to the VM? Appreciate any help.

Best Regards

Answer 1

It's a separate installation for the virtualisation software.

Strongly recommended for windows 7 virtualisation:

http://www.vmware.com/uk/

or if you can get windows 8 this is a better option and much more strongly recommended:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/default.aspx

Your processor will be the thing to look at, as long as it is an i7 or better you will be fine for development, anything lower your deployment times will be to long to Virtualise.

1. Install the virtualisation software
2. Create a new virtual machine
3. Mount the ISO for windows and install making it or adding a DC (Ask your sys admins for help here) - Snapshot
4. Install SQL Server then SharePoint prerequisites - Snapshot/backup
5. Install SharePoint - Snapshot/backup
6. Install Visual Studio & MS Office and other tools - Snapshot/backup

The snapshot/backup steps will let you roll back later on when you need to.

The key parts of the hardware are:

• Processor give as many virtual cores as you can but no more than the host real cores
• Memory give the vm 24GB of the memory
• Hard disk access speed and read/write amounts, if you can raid0 disks or a san array for storage

Answer 2

Yes, the above files will allow you to build a VM with SharePoint 2013. Make sure you're running Windows 7 Pro x64, at least 16GB RAM (if not more, preferably more), and you have 64bit virtualization software (e.g. VMWare Workstation or Player).

Answer 3

Those files will allow you to get started. Here is my typical order of operation.

1. Create a base VM with Windows Server (2008 R2)
2. Configure that server to run AD and DNS
3. Install SQL Server
4. Install SharePoint Pre-Reqs
5. Install SharePoint
6. Install Visual Studio (Note: Also, install update 2)

Answer 4

Andrew Connell has a walk through dev machine guide for SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2008. http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/NOW-AVAILABLE-CPTs-SP2013-RTM-Setup-Guide-for-Developers

Or you could follow my blog on to create a Dev machine for SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2012 http://cann0nf0dder.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/building-your-sharepoint-2013-development-machine-on-windows-server-2012-part-1-introduction/