Provision SQL Server VM for SharePoint 2016 Install in Azure

This blog post we will provision a SQL Server 2014 VM to be a part of SP2016 Virtual Network for SharePoint 2016 Preview Install.

* You must have a Virtual Network Configured.
* You must have the DNS Configuration for the Virtual Network setup to point to the static IP of Domain Controller.
* Check the previous blog post Step-by-Step: Create SharePoint 2016 Farm with Azure Virtual Machines for Domain Controller Configuration first.

1. In your Azure Subscription, Create a new Virtual Machine from gallery.

2. Select SQL Server 2014 Standard SP1

3. Next give your VM a name and select the Configuration.

4. Select other Configurations like Region/Virtual Network (which Must be your Virtual Network name), Virtual Network Subnet, SQL Server 2014 VM and more..

5. Lastly, Install the Virtual Machine Agent.

6. Once the SQL server setup is completed, verify if it is the part of Virtual Network. Navigate to Virtual Network and under Dashboard verify that the new SQL server is listed.

7. Once you have the SQL server as a part of the Virtual Network, connect to the VM to change the domain settings.

In the Server Manager, click on the Workgroup

In the System Properties, select Change,

Finally, add Domain Controller’s Domain in Domain Change and then wait for the welcome message.

Restart the server.

Step-by-Step: Create SharePoint 2016 Farm with Azure Virtual Machines

This is a Step-by-Step tutorial for Provisioning a SharePoint 2016 Preview Single-Server Farm in Azure. We will Create SharePoint 2016 Farm with Azure Virtual Machines – VM1 for hosting Active Directory + Domain Controller + SharePoint 2016 Preview and VM2 for Provisioning SQL Server 2014. I am using the standard MSDN Subscription to provision Azure servers.

If you are very new to SharePoint 2016 check the Things you need to know before you Install SharePoint 2016 Preview

The hardware and software requirements for our 2-tier farm topology are :

Software Requirements:

VM1 : Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 with Active Directory Services and Domain Controller

VM2 : Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014 SP1

Hardware Requirements:

VM1 : D3 (4 CORE(S), 14 GB memory)
VM2 : A4 (8 cores, 14 GB memory)

This is a three part blog Series. The high-level steps are :

1) Create a Virtual Network and provision a Virtual Machine for hosting Active Directory and a Domain Controller {this post}.

2) Provision a SQL Server VM and add it as a part of a Domain Controller

3) Lastly, Install SharePoint 2016 Preview on the first VM (with AD and DC).

Update : SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview VM is now available on Azure. Instead of VM1, you can also now provision the out of box SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview VM (Windows Server 2012) as a third VM (VM3) and then include it to the virtual network. See the detailed post SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview VM is now on Azure (3-tier farm).

Let’s start with the first Step :

1. Create a Virtual Network

In your Azure account Portal, select New at the bottom and then select Network Services -> Virtual Netwrok -> Custom Create .

Give your Virtual Network a name

Leave the DNS & VPN Settings blank for now.

Next, add additional subnets if you want or leave it as it is. For this example we will use the default Subnets.

Finally, Create the Virtual Network

Now the Virtual Network has been Provisioned, lets Create our first Virtual Machine (VM1)

2. Create a Virtual Machine (VM1)

Select New at the bottom and then navigate to Compute -> Virtual Machine -> From Gallery

Select Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 under Windows (on left)

Give your VM a name and create a username & password for accessing the VM.

Next enter a Cloud Service DNS name and select the Virtual Network (created in Step# 1). Select the existing Subnet and add the value for new availability set.

Finally, Install the Agent.

3. Next, we need to Assign a Static IP to the machine VM1 before installing Active Directory Services and provisioning it as a Domain Controller.

To do this, first Connect to your Microsoft Azure subscription using PowerShell. Once you are connected, choose an IP and assign it to VM1 Domain Controller VM.

Run the following to see if the IP 10.0.0.1 is available to be used as a Static IP.

Test-AzureStaticVNetIP -VNetName SP2016 -IPAddress 10.0.0.1

If it returns false, look for the AvailableAddresses to choose the Static IP that you can use. For this example, we will use 10.0.0.10 as per the AvailableAddresses. Run the following to test if 10.0.0.10 is available.

Test-AzureStaticVNetIP -VNetName SP2016 -IPAddress 10.0.0.10

Next, Run the following to Set the Static IP to 10.0.0.10

Get-AzureVM -ServiceName SP2016VM -Name SP2016 | Set-AzureStaticVNetIP -IPAddress 10.0.0.10 | Update-AzureVM

Make sure you see the Succeeded message after running the command.

You can also Verify the IP by selecting the VM and navigating to the Dashboard.

4. Next, Connect to the Virtual Machine VM1 to install the Active Directory Services.

Login to the server and in Server Manager, select Add Roles and Features.

Follow the Wizard as per below to install Active Directory Services

Wait for the Installation to be completed.

5. Once the Active Directory is installed, let’s promote our VM1 server to Domain Controller.

Select Promote this server to Domain Controller in Server Manager. See below.

Follow the Wizard as per below,

Select Install to complete the Installation.

5. The last step is to Configure the new IP and Domain in DNS settings of the Virtual Network.

To do this navigate to the virtual network and select Configure. Add the DNS name and IP for the VM.

Next we will look at Provisioning a SQL Server VM

Connect to your Microsoft Azure subscription using PowerShell

Azure is a subscription-based platform. This means that a subscription is required to use the platform.

1. You can download and install the Azure PowerShell modules by running the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. This will install all the Prerequisites.

2. Next run the following to authenticate your credentials through Azure AD.

Add-AzureAccount

3. Enter the Login id and password to get Connected to your Azure Subscription.

You can also run Get-AzureAccount to see your account details and Check if you are connected.

To list all cmdlets use Get-Help Azure.

Things you need to know before you Install SharePoint 2016 Preview

What is SharePoint 2016 Preview?

SharePoint 2016 Preview is a test or preview version that was released by Microsoft on 24th Aug 2015, for the purpose of testing upcoming SharePoint 2016 features. SharePoint users can now test Office 365 Search hybrid, Content Scalability, Performance, Migration,Minrole and a lot more features using the Preview version that can be downloaded from here Download Link. SharePoint 2016 is not a production software.

What is MinRole feature?

* With MinRole feature, SharePoint farm administrators can now define each server’s role in a farm topology.
* When you select a role, SharePoint automatically configures the services on the server based on the server’s role.

What about Standalone Farm Installations?

The Single-Server Farm role in SharePoint 2016 replaces the Standalone Install mode available in previous SharePoint Server releases. The SharePoint administrator now must separately install and prepare Microsoft SQL Server to be included as a SharePoint Single-Server Farm. See the detailed example @  Step-by-Step: Create SharePoint 2016 Single-Server Farm with Azure Virtual Machines

What are the Minimum specifications that i can use?

You can use two Servers one with Single Server role and other with SQL server which could have hardware specs like 12–16 GB RAM, 64-bit, 4 cores Processors, 80 GB for system drive + 100 GB for second drive.

For example, a Single-Server farm for testing must have :

One SharePoint server that uses the Single-Server role (Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3)

One SQL Server (The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 (SP1))
See the example @ Step-by-Step: Install SharePoint 2016 Single Server Farm on Virtual Machines

How can i Install the prerequisites?

The Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool can assist you in the installation of the software prerequisites for SharePoint Server 2016 Preview. Ensure that you have an Internet connection because some prerequisites are installed from the Internet. You might want to check the prerequisites errors here

What services do i need to provision on the a server role?

Once you provision the role, Services are provisioned as per the role you selected.
You can verify in Central admin -> Server in farm, where it now contains two new columns Role and In Compliance. The In Compliance column displays whether the server configuration is in compliance with its server role. If the server is not in compliance, a Fix link will be provided to automatically reconfigure the server to match the expected configuration of its server role.

What happened to Excel Services in SharePoint 2016?

Excel Services in SharePoint 2016 is deprecated but will still work as expected until Microsoft makes it obsolete. Its however now recommended for IT admins that they must use the Office Online Server (the on-premises version of OWA) to host Excel services and then leverage that as a part of their SharePoint 2016 farm.

Project Server 2016 is now installed with SharePoint 2016?

Project Server 2016 Preview is now a service application in SharePoint Server 2016 Preview.The SharePoint Server 2016 Preview MSI file will contain the installation files for Project Server 2016 Preview as well.The hardware, software, and browser requirements for Project Server 2016 Preview will be the ones specified for SharePoint Server 2016 Preview.

Can I later upgrade SharePoint 2016 Preview to RTM?

No, SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview cannot be upgraded to RTM.

Why is Application role different in SharePoint 2016?

In previous releases of SharePoint, the Application server typically hosted service application endpoints. Front-end servers would call these endpoints while serving user requests. From a services perspective, the Application server and the Front-End server roles are very similar. However, each role serves a different purpose now. The Front-End roles are performance-sensitive and optimized for receiving end use traffic, They also have built-in logic to always service requests from local service instances as opposed to going across the farm to another server. For example, Managed Metadata calls will route to the managed metadata service instance on the local computer if it is available instead of service instances on other servers.

What are the Supported Browsers?

Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11
Microsoft Internet Explorer 10
Google Chrome (latest released version)
Mozilla Firefox (latest released version plus immediate previous version)
Apple Safari (latest released version)


SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Datasheet

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Quick Start Guide

SharePoint Server 2016 Preview Documentation

Known Issues in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview forum

Customer Feedback for SharePoint Server