VPC 2004 w/SP1 installed. Check.
W2K3 installed with SP1. Check.
SQL2005 installed. Check.
WinFX beta 2 runtime installed. Check.
SharePoint 2007 installed. Check.
So, with everything installed I opened up Central Administration - which turns out to be an actual WSS site. In 2003 it was just an ASP page, so it's nice to see some dogfooding/reuse here. Also in 2003, I probably spent weeks just trying to get it to install (until I figured out the installation order & requirements - damnit).
First thing you see is an Administrative Tasks webpart with three tasks
- Initial Deployment: Add Servers to Farm
- Initial Deployment: Assign Services to Servers
- Configure Farm's Shared Services
I couldn't figure out to add a server... but since I intended everything to be on the same box, I tried assigning services (like search since it wasn't configured by default in 2001). But clicking around got me nowhere. I decided to just dive in and create a site, than a WSS site. I setup a db account and a portal account, and then went to Application Management | Create or extend Web Application. I enter all the appropriate details (using default site, db/portal accounts, etc.) and click submit. A snazzy spinning graphic indicates that it's working... It finally comes back (1-2 minutes) and says that the application has been created. So far so good!
When I tried loading the portal page - it failed. Here's where everything screeches to a halt. I got the default IIS page... and no portal. Huh? So I checked IIS, and it turns out that it didn't create the pool, or add anything to the website. Confused, I realized that the site was stopped (I assume that it is stopped by default after installation of windows) and started it.
I deleted the web app (Delete Web Application) and started over. A few minutes later I checked it... and sure enough sharepoint hasn't done anything. So I tried again. This time I got an interesting error during creation that talked about some pipe issue (not the database kind). With shades of crappy Microsoft SMS on my mind (where magic happens behind a curtain... sometimes 15-20 minutes AFTER you have specifically asked it to do something right NOW), I decided to create a web app on a new virtual root. Same thing, it completes without a problem - but doesn't actually do anything. I double check the services... and sure enough everything is up and running (but search - no surprise - is off by default). A quick look at SQL 2005 shows that the content databases are indeed being created. IIS is even servicing ASP.NET 2.0 sites.
Pulling my hair out at this point I decide to try creating a WSS Site (Maybe portal no longer has a UI?). After 10 minutes of utter confusion, I try “Create site collection“. Turns out it's a good guess. The link pagename is createsite.aspx... and it creates a site (regardless of being called “Create site collection“). This finishes... and when I try to load the page what do I get? Nuthin!
Ahhhhhhhhh.
I'm done. Stick a fork in me.
First Impressions? It needs work. A lot of work. B2 doesn't even seem functional (unlike b2 of IE7 that runs - most of the time). Anyone else get the beta to work? If so let me know... and we can compare notes.
posted @ Friday, June 09, 2006 11:46 AM