Preparing VM for SharePoint Server 2010 Beta Complete Installation (Multi Server Farm Installation) using Sun VirtualBox on Windows 7

Now that SharePoint 2010 Beta available to download from MSDN or TechNet. You cannot upgrade the installation from this Beta to RTM or any other version when it's released. SharePoint 2010 requires 64-Bit hardware and operating system.

There are different ways to Install SharePoint 2010:

1. Installing SharePoint 2010 on a client OS for development
2. Pre-installed and configured VHD can be mounted as a secondary bootable drive on a Windows 7 PC
3. The proliferation of virtualization technologies such as Virtual PC, VMWare Server and VirtualBox for client OS's, Virtual Server and Hyper-V for server OS's.
   In this post, I'm going to create VM through VirtualBox for SharePoint 2010 multi server farm installation on my laptop (Windows 7 64-Bit with enabled VT/x (Virtualization Technology).
   Pre-requisites
   
   • VirtualBox 3.1
   • Windows Server 2008 SP2
   • SQL Server 2008 SP 1 / SQL Server 2005 SP3
   • SharePoint Server 2010 Beta

Step 1:

Download VirtualBox for Windows hosts and Install it.

Step 2:

1. Open Sun VirtualBox, click Machine, click New
2.  On Create New Virtual Machine
   1. On Welcome to the New Virtual Machine Wizard screen, click Next
   2. On VM Name and OS Type screen, enter "<your desire VM name>" in Name textbox, select "Windows Server 2008 (64bit)" in Version dropdown
   3. On Memory screen, specify your desired memory like "4096" MB = 4 GB
   4. On Virtual Hard Disk screen, click Create new hard disk and then Next
3. On Create New Virtual Disk
   1. On Welcome to the Create New Virtual Disk Wizard screen, click Next
   2. On Hard Disk Storage Type screen, click Dynamic expanding storage. You can select Fixed-size storage, if you want to create fixed storage
   3. On Virtual Disk Location and Size screen, specify Location and Size of the virtual disk
   4. On Summary screen, click Finish
4. On Summary Screen, click Finish
5. Select your VM from the left panel of Sun VirtualBox and click Settings in toolbar
6. In Settings dialog box, click Storage from left panel, select CD drive node in Storage Tree, and select CD/DVD drive from the dropdown, if you've Windows Server 2008 CD/DVD or you can choose ISO image for Windows Server 2008 by clicking Open Virtual Media Manager button next to dropdown, click OK button.
7. Click Start in toolbar. VM will be started and boot from your given ISO/CD/DVD. Press any key to boot from CD/DVD and Windows Server 2008 setup will be started. For detailed Windows Server 2008 steps

Step 3:

1.  Disable Internet explorer Enhanced Security
   1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager
   2. Under Security Information, click Configure IE ESC
   3. Under Administrators or Users, click On (Recommended) or Off
   4. Click OK
2. Install Windows Updates
   1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager
   2. Under Security Information, click Configure updates
   3. On Windows Update screen, click on Check for Updates and Install Updates
3. Adding Server Roles
   1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager
   2. Under Roles and Roles Summary, click Add Role
   3. On Add Role screen, check the Application Server checkbox, on Required features popup, click Add Required Features, and clickNext
   4. On Role Services dialog click the following and click Next
      1. .NET Framework 3.5.1
      2. Web Server (IIS) Support
      3. TCP Port Sharing
      4. HTTP Activation
      5. TCP Activation
      6. Named Pipes Activation
   5. On Web Server (IIS) screen, click Next
   6. On Role Services for Web Server (IIS), click Next with default options, and click Install on Confirm screen
   7. After Installation click Close
4. Install SQL Server 2008 SP 1 OR SQL Server 2005 SP 3
5. Install Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (MSS 2010) Pre-requisites
   1. Start MSS 2010 Installer, click Install software prerequisites, click Next and complete the prerequisites installation
6. Install Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (MSS 2010)
   1.  On MSS Installer Welcome screen, click Install SharePoint Server
   2. On Product Key screen, enter your Product Key and click Continue
   3. On Software License Terms screen, check the "I agree..." checkbox and click Next
   4. On Server Type screen, select Complete - Install all components, click Install Now and complete the Installation process.
   5. When installation is completed, On finish screen you are asked to continue with SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, continue with it
   6. On Database Settings screen, enter your database Server Instance and Username and Password for the database and click Next. Database user should be a domain user. If you don't want to use a domain user in your database setting then you need to create your SharePoint configuration database using SharePoint 2010 Management Shell ("New-SPConfigurationDatabase" management shell command to create configuration database)
   7. On Server Farm screen, select Create a New Farm and click Next
   8. On Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application screen, specify the port for Central Administration, select Security Settings as per your requirements and click Next
   9. On Completing the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard screen, click Next and configuration process will start
   10. On Configuration Successful screen, click Finish

Now Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is ready to use.