1. Make sure you are still logged into the SharePoint server as your install account — Contoso\sp_install in this example.
2. Open the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell.
3. When the
window opens you will see an error message at the top: “The local farm
is not accessible. Cmdlets with FeatureDependencyId are not
registered.” This is expected, as you have not yet created the farm.
Although you can ignore this error for now, keep in mind that it should
not appear after you create the farm.
4. At the prompt, run the following PowerShell command and press Enter. You need to change the DatabaseServer parameter value to your server’s name. In this example, the SQL server is named sql, so that is what is used. You can also use Figure 1 to check your work.
New-SPConfigurationDatabase -DatabaseName SharePoint_Config -DatabaseServer sql
-AdministrationContentDatabaseName SharePoint_Admin_Content
PINNING THE SHAREPOINT 2013 MANAGEMENT SHELL TO THE TASKBAR
You will be using the SharePoint 2013
Management Shell constantly throughout your SharePoint career, so here
is a trick to make your life easier: Pin the Management Shell shortcut
to the taskbar. To do so, right-click the file in the Start menu and
select Pin to Taskbar. After doing that, you need to set the shortcut
to always run as administrator. You will never do anything with the
SharePoint 2013 Management Shell that doesn’t require you to run as an
administrator. After it is pinned, hold down the Shift key and
right-click it to expose the properties option. When the properties
panel opens, click Advanced. Now you have the option to always have the
program run as administrator.
5. A dialog
will appear in which you enter your Windows PowerShell credentials. A
common mistake is entering the wrong account here. It doesn’t want your
username and password; it wants your farm account’s username and
password. This needs to be a dedicated account, as it is the most
fragile in the farm. Use Contoso\SP_farm.
This account needs to be created in AD, and at this point it only needs
to be a domain user. Enter the domain\username and password and then
click OK.
6. Now you are
returned to the Management Shell to enter the farm passphrase. This
passphrase is used to allow servers to join and leave this SharePoint
farm. In order to qualify as a secure passphrase, it must meet the
following guidelines:
- It must contain at least 8 characters.
- It must contain at least 3 of the following 4 character groups:
- English uppercase characters (A through Z)
- English lowercase characters (a through z)
- Numerals (0 through 9)
- Non-alphabetic characters: “! “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~
Type in your passphrase and press Enter. Be sure to make note of it, as you will need it later if you add more servers.
Now would be a good time to take a break.
This will run for a while, as it is doing a lot of heavy lifting behind
the scenes, such as creating your configuration database and the
Central Admin database.
7. When the
commands are done running, your Management Shell will return to the
slow blinking cursor and in typical PowerShell fashion you will not see
any messages, which is a good thing. Open the SharePoint 2013 Products
Configuration Wizard from the Start menu.
8. At the Welcome to SharePoint Products dialog, click Next.
9. A pop-up will appear warning you that some services will be stopped or restarted. That’s fine; just click Yes.
10. In the
Modify server farm Settings dialog, leave the default of “Do not
disconnect from this server farm,” and click Next. Seeing any other
screen at this point is a bad thing and means something went wrong in
steps 1-6.
Most likely the farm failed to create and
you got an error message. You will need to go back and work through
that error message. If any databases were created when you got the
error message, you will probably need to delete those from the SQL
server on your own.
11. In the
Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application dialog,
click Specify port number and enter any number you can remember.
12. Under
Configure Security Settings, use the default of NTLM. Keep in mind that
this is asking if you want Central Administration to use NTLM or
Kerberos. It is not asking if you want Kerberos anywhere in your farm.
You always want NTLM for Central Administration. Confirm your settings
using Figure 2 as an example. If everything looks good, click Next.
13. On this
screen quickly double-check all of your settings and then click Next to
finish creating this fabulous farm. You might notice the progress bar
goes straight to step 4 of 9. This is because you did the earlier steps
using PowerShell.
14. After a couple of quick minutes you should get a Configuration Successful screen. Click Finish.
