My Experience with @BrianLala SharePoint AutoInstaller – I like it 3

So… as an avid user of Twitter I noticed a few tweets going back and forth between Spence @Harbars and Brian @BrianLala about this tool on CodePlex called AutoSPInstaller.  I have heard about it in the past but most recently and after speaking to Spence about what he ‘coined’ the Idiot Button i.e. the Farm Configuration Wizard; I have been on the quest to find a way to automate creating Service Accounts after installing the SharePoint bits.  Spence does have a few blogs on the topic which i have used to great success, but in the end PowerShell is there for a reason, i just needed to know how to use it.  As a DEV, I wasnt looking forward to learning PowerShell, though i know I have to, but this #AutoSPInstaller utility allows me to cheat – at least for a time – and I get the best of both worlds.

I felt it necessary to blog my experience because there are at least two gotchas that I am aware of but overall my experience was satisfactory.

So after downloading the tool, the first thing i will encourage you to do is.. yes.. Read the “ReadMe” file that is included. It details what you need to do to fire off the script.  The tool comes with a few XML files that you will have to modify; by that I mean, configure. However, these configuration steps is just a matter of providing nomenclatures for your Databases, your Account Names for Service Accounts, your Passwords for those accounts, and whether you want to install features by indicating 1 or 0 (zero). 

There is a Launch.bat file which executes the PowerShell (*.ps1) file; which inturn interrogates a Setup(optionalfilename).XML file for configuration specifics.  In my modifications to my Setup.XML i also renamed to file to include the NETBIOS name of the Server, this allows me to have a specific file for each server in the Farm.

The First Gotcha I encountered had to do with the Installation of the Bits; the script provides for executing the PreInstaller which does work; however I had an issue whereby one of the packages failed so that didnt allow the SharePoint Install to run after the PreInstaller completed. Basically, the script didnt have a graceful exception rule for instances where the PreInstaller fails.  What I got was a generic error BUT, the script log file did tell me where the error was encountered and I did notice it was in the [Region] for the PreInstaller. So I just ran the AutoInstaller by itself and then re-ran the AutoSPInstaller Launch.bat file

The Second Gotcha I met was right after I executed the batch file.  The error is below in the screen shot.  

The Error isnt that descriptive but after going back to Twitter and on CodePlex I saw that I either had to do one of the following

1. Do a “Run-As” and run the batch file as an Administrator or
2. Turn off User Access Control (UAC)

What I found particularly interesting is that  although I ran the file on the SharePoint box; which is where I got the error, it was actually referencing an issue on a separate Box, i.e. the SQL Box 

So, I elected to make the changes to UAC because I also don’t like the interruptions when i am installing products.

After I completed those issues with my mitigation techniques; it was smooth sailing. I have included below some screenshots of the process and the resultant logs

Below is the Command Window iterative logs; which is also captured in a log file

Below are all my Sites that were created. 

So in Conclusion.

You are going to have questions on this blog, the first one may be..Well Fabian “What do i do if I wan to build out a Farm that Includes more than one Server (in-fact I fielded a question on Twitter already on this one)..

the answer is to create another specific Setup[YourNameHere]Inputs.xml file and this time it will JOIN the already created farm rather than create a new Farm.  There are several “If Exist” statement in the PowerShell script that does checks for that. Now though I did this in my Lab fortunately this week, I am on a project where I need to do a Base Install of SharePoint 2010 and I plan to use the tool for that. I will let you know how it goes…

As usual, I welcome any Comments, Questions,

Cheers!