#SharePoint or #ProjectServer 2016 Installation - Step By Step

SharePoint/ProjectServer 2016 Beta 2 version is available to explore now, and in this blog post I will walk through installation steps to help users follow and setup an on-premises SharePoint server 2016 farm.

Note that Project Server service application is now included within a same set of setup files. We don't have to install separate setup files for Project Server, you will find Project Server Service application to choose to configure as part of farm configuration step.

During the installation process, I will highlight any new/additional steps or installation screens specific to SharePoint 2016. Also note that this installation is carried using Beta 2 version, that is 99% feature complete as Microsoft has quoted and must be very identical to the RTM version coming next year.

Hardware and Software requirement for SharPoint Server 2016 can be found here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(v=office.16).aspx

For testing purposes, I am preparing a single server farm and I have a separate database server that is running SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.0.

Exactly like SharePoint 2013, lets start with installation of prerequisites. 

Pre-requisites options: 

SharePoint server expects certain pre-requisites to be installed prior to actual SharePoint installation. Below are our option to prepare SharePoint server with pre-requisites:

1. Online installation, using Pre-requisite tool (recommended)
2. Manual installation of pre-requisites by downloading required setups files.

For offline installation (option-2), you can download below required pre- requisites and install on server. Please always refer to this MSDN to check for any changes in pre-requisites and their respective download links:

·        Web Server (IIS) role

·        Application Server role

·        Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5.2

·        Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client

·        Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.6

·        Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC)

·        Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)

·        Windows Server AppFabric 1.1

·        Cumulative Update Package 7 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB 3092423)

·        Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server

·        Update for Microsoft .NET Framework to disable RC4 in Transport Layer Security (KB2898850)

·        Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2012

·        Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2015

In this blog post, I am using pre-requisite tool that comes with SharePoint setup to configure my server.

Installing Pre-requisites

Run setup as administrator, and choose install software pre-requisites.

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2. 

3.

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5. After restart, the pre-requisite tool will resume with remaining installation.

6. Summary screen will show status as below:

At the end of installation, go through the completion status screen as above to identify if any pre-requisite got failed while installation

Installing SharePoint Server 2016:

Choose Install SharePoint server from setup dialog, and follow the screen shots to complete the installation process.

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2   2. Accept the agreement check-box, and continue:

3. Choose a file location, if it’s different then the default location mentioned:

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5. At the end of installation of setup binaries, run the configuration wizard to complete the configuration and create farm:

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7. Choose create a new server farm to create a new SharePoint 2016 far. Connection to an existing farm option can be used to join new server to an existing farm.

8. Define the required configuration fields below and proceed:

9    9. Pass-phrase is important, so define and save it somewhere to refer later if required. As it would be required to add another server to scale up your existing farm.

10. Below screen is part of new enhancements/change to SharePoint 2016 deployment process. This will let you choose your server role within a farm, earlier it was all about manually setting up a required application services based on server role in a farm.

11. And the final configuration dialog box let you choose port number for your Central Admin site:

12. Configuration summary page:

 

13. Below step may take a while to complete:

14. At the end of successful configuration, you will be presented with summary configuration. Click finish to launch Central Administration website:

15. Once Central Administration site launched, you can choose wizard to configure services

16. Another change to SharePoint 2016 deployment process is that Project Server is now part of same SharePoint installation as service application.

Project Server always was an application service in SharePoint, but previous versions requires separate set of setup files to be installed to enable Project Server application service in existing SharePoint farm.

17. And here you have a shiny new SharePoint Server 2016 farm ready for you to explore J

More to come soon, keep visiting my blog.

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Great new #Enhancements to #ProjectOnline

This is to quickly share about 3 excellent new enhancements to Project Online rolled out today.

1. Email Notification

Email notifications in Project Online keep you on top of what’s coming, let you know when things are due and what’s currently on your plate.



This feature is available from today.

2. Project IDs
This was much awaited!
Until today I have to use JS or other solutions, in order to generate unique ID for each project.
This is now going to be available as OOB option, and can be configured as part of the Enterprise Project Type (EPT) settings. 



Each EPT has its own project ID definition. You can specify a fixed Pre- and Postfix, Starting Number and Minimum Digit Padding. The project ID can be added to a number of views throughout PWA and in custom reports. It can also be programmatically updated using CSOM.

Note, that this feature is still in final touches mode, and yet to be released.

3. Increasing custom field limits for reporting

This enhancement is simply overwhelming. 

Reporting from Project Online was an issue with prior limitation of 45 custom fields.

With this new enhancement introduced, increased new limits on ALL custom field types are:

Project custom fields	Timesheet custom fields	Task and Resource custom fields, combined
450 text fields	450 text fields	450 text fields
450 lookup tables	450 lookup tables	450 lookup tables
450 of all other custom field types (cost, date, duration, number, flag)	450 of all other custom field types (cost, date, duration, number, flag)	450 of all other custom field types (cost, date, duration, number, flag)

This change is valid from today.

Complete details are available here: https://blogs.office.com/2015/12/03/3-new-enhancements-to-project-online/

Life is getting better with Project Online :)

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