Lately a lot of people ask me about how best to set up a SharePoint 2010 sandbox environment. I encountered this few months ago while working with SharePoint 2010 beta and again with the public release in May. Since this topic has been pretty well documented over the internet, I will just summarize my personal experience in this blog and provide a list of resources (see my delicious bookmarks). This should save you some detours and hair-pulling moments.
Hardware
First and foremost, you will need a 64-bit machine. SharePoint 2010 mandates 64-bit hardware. Either a desktop or laptop will work. As I deliver presentations and attend speaking events frequently, I decided to get a Lenovo W510 (8GB RAM, 256GB Solid State Disk) laptop. The SSD is a little pricey but the performance gain is well worth it. The bootup time is blazing fast, and the noise factor is much lower. Make sure you load up on RAM and disk storage when purchasing the system. It is best to run the VM from a separate spindle from the host OS. If your budget allows, get two SSDs or at least a secondary high-speed disk drive. You will be grateful of the increased productivity and thank me later.
Virtualization
Once the hardware requirements are satisfied, you have to decide on the operating system configurations. SharePoint 2010 requires Windows 2008, but most systems come preinstalled with Windows 7. Your options include dual boot and virtualization. For maximal flexibility and convenience, I went with the virtualization route. The major virtualization options are Microsoft Hyper-V, VM Ware, and Sun VirtualBox. I have been using and liking the freebie VirtualBox since SharePoint 2010 beta came out few months ago. However, Hyper-V and VM Ware are probably more flexible. This comes down what you have available at your fingertips.
Architecture Topology
If portability is more important than scalability, a stand-alone installation will probably suffice as a sandbox solution. Otherwise, consider running a complete installation in case you need to ever delegate different application roles to numerous other servers/VMs.
Resources
http://delicious.com/kennethlo/sharepoint2010+sandbox
Above is my delicious bookmark collection that points to additional details on this topic. I followed Andrew Connell’s hardware recommendations. If you are using VirtualBox, Eric Harlan’s How to Install SharePoint 2010 Guide will be especially handy. Thank you, Andrew and Eric!
I had the great pleasure of presenting at the Capital Area.NET SharePoint Interest Group (SSIG) Meeting on June 9 and SharePoint Users Group of Washington DC (SUGDC) the day after. The featured presentation was named “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”.
The presentation was designed for beginner/intermediate level architects and system administrators. We dived in the needs to sustain and optimize enterprise SharePoint 2007, architecture & topology, hardware and software configurations, monitoring. We wrapped up the evening with a live demo of SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
Once again, I would like to thank the organizers, sponsors and volunteers for hosting me, and the audience for the animated discussion. It was a blast presenting to you; I look forward to seeing you again very soon! By the way, SUGDC is now held at the new HireStrategy office in Reston Town Center. They have some awesome orange Eames chairs!
The presentation is now available on the Downloads section. I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments.
First week of each month is filled with users group meetings. In addition to the CapArea meeting on Wednesday night, I will be presenting at the SharePoint Users Group of Washington DC (SUGDC) meeting on June 10 at 7pm. The presentation is titled “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”. A brief session description follows:
For every organization that has committed to upgrading SharePoint 2010, there are many more organizations that still need to sustain their existing enterprise SharePoint 2007 systems. In order to keep the existing systems healthy, you will need to learn about the arts of tuning SharePoint. In this session, we will go over hardware and software architectural designs you encounter in your daily operations, optimization and tuning techniques, as well as industry best practices. This session will also include a 20-minute demo of Microsoft SharePoint tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 and SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
The presentation deck will be uploaded to the Downloads section of my blog. Cheers!
Wednesday is just around the corner! I will be presenting at the Capital Area.NET SharePoint Special Interest Group (SSIG) meeting on June 9 at 7pm. The presentation is titled “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”. A brief session description follows:
For every organization that has committed to upgrading SharePoint 2010, there are many more organizations that still need to sustain their existing enterprise SharePoint 2007 systems. In order to keep the existing systems healthy, you will need to learn about the arts of tuning SharePoint. In this session, we will go over hardware and software architectural designs you encounter in your daily operations, optimization and tuning techniques, as well as industry best practices. This session will also include a 20-minute demo of Microsoft SharePoint tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 and SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
Please visit the official Capital Area.NET SSIG website for more details. Twitter fans can follow @CapAreaDotNet. Ciao!
I am very pleased to be presenting at the SharePoint User Group of Washington DC (SUGDC) meeting on June 10. The presentation is titled “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”. A brief session description follows:
For every organization that has committed to upgrading SharePoint 2010, there are many more organizations that still need to sustain their existing enterprise SharePoint 2007 systems. In order to keep the existing systems healthy, you will need to learn about the arts of tuning SharePoint. In this session, we will go over hardware and software architectural designs you encounter in your daily operations, optimization and tuning techniques, as well as industry best practices. This session will also include a 20-minute demo of Microsoft SharePoint tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 and SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
For more details, visit the official SUGDC website.
I’d like to invite you to SharePoint Saturday DC on May 15. SharePoint Saturday DC is a FREE, community driven, 1-day event that provides education around SharePoint at all levels.
You wouldn’t want to miss this event as there will be around 89 speakers and 84 sessions that will be delivered. Touted as the biggest SharePoint event in Washington, DC right after SharePoint 2010 is launched, 800 people are expected to attend. Get to network with SharePoint experts and get a chance to win raffle prizes such as Apple iPad, Netbook, Zune HD, SharePoint books, training passes, Access to online content from Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference 2009, and many more!
So what are you waiting for? Register now http://bit.ly/spsdc3
I am extremely pleased to have been picked as one of those speakers at the upcoming SharePoint Saturday DC in the Microsoft Reston office. The presentation is titled Secret Ingredients of Successful SharePoint Project Management.
In this session we will be going over time-proven project management techniques that will:
- Generate executive support
- Control schedules and finances
- Keep project teams aligned
- Encourage user adoption
- Lead teams to successful deployments
About SharePoint Saturday:
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft SharePoint Technologies for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at the Microsoft Technology Center on Sunset Hills Road Reston, VA. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!
The long-awaited SharePoint 2010 Beta was finally released this week. It has set the entire community on fire! Many new features have been added and existing ones improved. I will be posting a series of blog posts next few weeks as the adventures take place. Stay tuned!
Before you start installing the beta in your sandbox environment, you will need to have the 64-bit hardware ready. Below is a list of the minimum requirements:
- Windows Server 2008 64-bit with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later OR Windows Server 2008 R2
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 64-bit with SP2 or later OR SQL Server 2008 64-bit
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1
Level 1 Internet browser options running on the Windows operating system:
- Internet Explorer 7 32-bit
- Internet Explorer 8 32-bit
- Firefox 3.x 32-bit
Level 2 Internet browsers options:
- Internet Explorer 7 64-bit
- Internet Explorer 8 64-bit
- Firefox 3.x on non Windows operating system
- Safari 3.x
For the complete and updated list of prerequisites for installing SharePoint Server 2010, see “Determine hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Server 2010)” (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=166546) on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.
This is where you will get the first hand information about SharePoint events and conferences. The events will be periodically updated. Please email me if you would like your events here. Thanks and enjoy!
Calendar developed and supported by Kieran O'Shea
