Clean Deploy of Central Admin

SharePoint 2010 is a really fun platform to administer, but configuring it can be a challenge, both technically and socially. If your organization is like mine and has a team of DBA’s administering your SQL instance/s for SharePoint, you’ll want to know how to deploy SharePoint 2010 as clean as possible.

What is a Clean install of SharePoint?

SharePoint 2010 can be installed and configured in a very short amount of time using the configuration wizards which basically will do almost all of the work for you. If you value your relationship with your DBA’s… DON”T DO THIS!!

Using the configuration wizard will inevitably create a slew of SQL databases with horrible names that include a long GUID at the end. This can be a real nightmare for maintenance and just plain ugly. (see below)

This is default SharePoint 2010 Foundation Database configuration. Standard/Enterprise are much worse by default.

This article will just address that of deploying and configuring the SharePoint Farm and Central Administration web application so as to keep that aspect of the installation clean.

This is what SharePoint 2010 Foundation could look like with some extra effort. Standard/Enterprise can be cleaned up as well.

If I can’t use the wizard, what do I use?

In order to do this, you will need to use the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell to do this as there is no clean way of doing it via a GUI interface that I know of.

But don’t get too nervous just yet, because even though it’s powershell, it’s pretty easy, and if you follow my steps, you can do it with little to no powershell experience. Leave a comment if you’re interested in downloading a script that makes these steps even easier.

NOTE: I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with PowerShell if you plan on administering SharePoint.

SQL Steps

• Install SharePoint on your server
• Skip to SharePoint Steps Section if not using Pre-Created Databases (i.e. are you or DBA’s creating empty databases, if so continue to next step)
• Run SQL Server Management Studio 
• Connect to SQL Instance SharePoint will reside
• Click New Query
• Enter the following commands

CREATE DATABASE “SharePoint_Config” COLLATE LATIN1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS
CREATE DATABASE “SharePoint_AdminContent” COLLATE LATIN1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS

• Press F5 key when ready to execute
• Verify the new Databases “SharePoint_Config” and “SharePoint_AdminContent” were created successfully

SharePoint Steps

• Navigate to Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
• Enter the following command (Replace < > entries with specified info)

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -create -server <“SQLServerName/Instance”> -database “SharePoint_Config” -user <“domain\username”> -password <“password”> -admincontentdatabase “SharePoint_AdminContent” -passphrase <“PassPhrase”>

• Ensure the command completed successfully (see image above)
• Now enter the following command to configure the Central Administration Port (You could proceed using the Configuration Wizard if preferred)

psconfig.exe -cmd adminvs -provision -port <“Port”> -windowsauthprovider onlyusentlm

• Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Central Administration
• Ensure the site comes up

You’re now on your way to a happy and clean SharePoint 2010 installation and a happy team of DBA’s

Again, if you’re interested in getting a script from me that performs this for you so all you need to do is enter your specific information please leave a comment and I’ll ensure I get it to you.