Greetings fellow SharePoint Developers. As a follow up to a post I made last year on Windows Server 2008 (http://www.synergyonline.com/blog/blog-moss/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=10), I figured I’d provide some guidance on the development environment I now use on Windows 7 (RC build 7100). I also used this for some time on Windows 7 Beta 1 with great success.
First off, let me mention that I run the 64-bit version of most versions of software. This doesn’t really change much, but I find that the performance is just a bit better on my 4GB Dell D830 laptop.
Here is a summary of the software I install on my host operating system:
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64-bit Windows 7
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64-bit SQL Server 2008 (I use the developer edition)
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64-bit MOSS 2007 (patched to SP2 level)
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Office 2007 Enterprise
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SharePoint Designer 2007
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64-bit Visual Studio 2008
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64-bit Virtual PC 2007 SP1 (I still use a number of virtual machines)
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MOSS SDK (v1.5 from Apr 09 is the latest)
There are a ton of other free utilities I like to load…I won’t list them all, but here are some of the essential ones.
For the Windows 7 OS the install itself works just fine. On my hardware, there are no driver problems and it installs and runs quickly. Here are the remaining steps I go through after the OS install:
1. Create local machine accounts for MOSS. While not recommended for production, for my local dev environment, I usually go with these:
2. Install SQL Server 2008. Nothing special here. I usually just install the engine services (MSSQLSERVER) and the client management tools. Make sure that you make your normal login account and a backup account a SQL Server administrator (sysadmin). This should prevent a possible occurrence of this problem I blogged about a few months ago: http://www.synergyonline.com/blog/blog-moss/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=69
3. Install MOSS. I use SharePoint on Vista from Bamboo Solutions. You should first start with this article to be sure that your application compatibility checker settings are temporarily turned off. How to do this is detailed in this article: http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2009/05/07/installing-wss-3-0-moss-sp2-on-windows-7-rc.aspx. Make sure you turn this back on after your installation.
From here, I follow these steps to get SharePoint installed: http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2008/05/21/how-to-install-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-sp1-on-vista-x64-x86.aspx. This article also explains the necessary IIS settings. Note: when I install, I select the setup.exe (not SharePoint.exe) from my x64 folder. This will depend on the form of SharePoint you have.
After the base install, I install the latest service pack. As of now, this is SP2. Of course, WSS Service Pack first, MOSS Service pack second.
4. After this, I add the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN as a path environment variable. I only do this to make PSCONFIG and STSADM commands easier to execute.
5. Create the Farm. You can optionally create the farm using the Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. Personally, I prefer to use PSCONFIG.EXE so that I can specify the name of my admin content database. I normally use something similar to this command:
psconfig -cmd configdb -create -server <local computer name> -database MOSS_Config -user <local computer name>\moss.farm -password <password> -admincontentdatabase Admin_Content
6. After this, I then run the configuration wizard to finish the farm creation.
7. Using Central administration, I finish the farm install. This normally involving starting the Office Server Search, creating the SSP, and then at least one web application for a portal.
8. Install Visual Studio 2008. Apply SP1.
9. Install MS-Office 2007. Apply SP2.
10. Install SharePoint Designer. Apply SP2.
11. Install various software and other utilities. I list some of these above. One configuration change that I needed to make to get VSeWSS to deploy solutions properly was to enable WCF HTTP Activation for the .NET Framework. You can do this by going to Control Panel –> Programs –> Turn Windows Features on or off. Here is the specific setting that you must enable (click image to enlarge):
12. Run Windows Update.
At this point, my necessary software is pretty well set. However, there is one important configuration change I make. Since I am not always working on my local SharePoint environment, I prefer to keep these and related services in a manual state. When I need to use the local SharePoint environment, I simply run a batch file which starts all of them. Here are the services that I set to manual. (To access your list of services, click Start, Run and type in services.msc)
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IIS Admin Service
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SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER)
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SQL Server Agent (MSSQLSERVER)
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SQL Server VSS Writer
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Windows SharePoint Services Administration
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Windows SharePoint Services Search (only if this is installed using Central Administration)
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Windows SharePoint Services Timer
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Windows SharePoint Services Tracing
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Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer
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World Wide Web Publishing Service
Here is my batch file (start.cmd) that I use to start all these services.
net start mssqlserver
net start sptrace
net start spadmin
net start w3svc
net start iisadmin
net start sptimerv3
net start osearch
If you also installed WSS Search, you also need this line (I place it right after sptimerv3)
net start spsearch
And here is the batch file (stop.cmd) I use if I want to stop all of them
net stop w3svc
net stop iisadmin
net stop osearch
net stop sptimerv3
net stop spadmin
net stop sptrace
net stop mssqlserver
If you also installed WSS Search, you also need this line (I place it right after iisadmin)
net stop spsearch
Of course, you may have other services that you may choose to add depending on your configuration.
With that, I hope that gives you an idea on how to build a SharePoint development environment of your own. Good luck!