Walkthrough: Installing SharePoint 2016

Over the past years, every time a SharePoint version pops out, I used to share my installation experience. I have done this for 2007, 2010 and 2013.

You can refer those posts from the below URLs.

https://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/installing-sharepoint-2007-moss-2007

https://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/install-sharepoint-2010-in-a-farm-environment

https://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/installing-sharepoint-2013-on-windows-2012-standalone-installation

Now it is the time for SharePoint 2016, the RTM version is out and I am going to take you through the installation experience. You can download the trial version of SharePoint media from the below URL.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51493

Be noted that, the trial will allow you to run SharePoint for 180 days, and at any moment, you can convert trial to licensed installation, Cool!

Before starting the installation, you need to make sure you have all the user accounts required. For the account requirements, refer the below technet article.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263445.aspx

For this walkthrough, I used two accounts as follows.

Spsetup	Domain account. I logged in with this account and did the installation. This account is a local administrator on the SharePoint server. Also this account has db_owner fixed database role in the database server.
Spdataaccess	Domain account. I didn’t configure any special permission for this account as the SharePoint products configuration wizard will assign the necessary permissions.

The moment you insert your SharePoint 2016 disk (or when you do Auto Run), you will see the exact same screen as of SharePoint 2013, except the tile is “SharePoint 2016”. The first thing you need to do here is to install the prerequisites.

You need to have valid internet connection to download the necessary updates from Microsoft Website. The initial screen will tell you what are the updates required and you just needs to click next in this screen.

As usual you need to agree to the license terms. Place a tick mark in the I accept checkbox and click next.

The installer will download the missing prerequisites and install them. You can cancel the installer in between and next time, it will download only those missing. The installer may ask you to restart your computer and you are required to do so for some updates.

Once all the prerequisites are installed you will get the installation complete screen as below. Just click finish and you are now ready to install SharePoint 2016.

Again run the Setup Media and this time make sure you select the option “Install SharePoint Server”.

Exactly like in SharePoint 2013, first you need to enter the product key, once the product key is correct, you will have the continue button enabled, once you are there, just click on the button.

Now agree on the conditions for SharePoint 2016, then click continue.

Now you need to select the installation location. I just left those as defaults, but you can modify them as you wish.

You will notice the install now button in the previous step. If you remember, in the previous versions, you were required to choose an installation type, whether it is stand alone or complete. The option was removed, this means there is no standalone install, you need to install SQL server even if you want to install in a single server. The moment you click on the install now button, the installation will begin and you will see the progress.

Once the installation is over, you will get the completion screen asking you to run the SharePoint 2016 products configuration wizard. You can run this later if you wish. Just click close and if you select the check box, the products configuration wizard will start.

The initial screen of the Products configuration wizard will remind you about the requirements you need to provide during the configuration. Once everything is ready with you, you can click the Next button, the Wizard will warn you about stopping the services.

In the next step, you need to provide the database details and the credentials to access the database. You should not worry about the database permissions as the necessary permissions will be granted by the wizard for the data access account.

Now you need to enter a passphrase for the farm. You will require to remember this passphrase as every time you add a server, you need to enter this phrase.

Unlike the previous SharePoint versions, now you can specify the role for your server during the configuration. You have 5 variations and an option to install everything (single server farm). SharePoint automatically configures the services on each server based on your selection. This offers simple deployment of your servers and each server will be optimized to perform based on the roles defined. You can find more details about SharePoint roles from the below technet article.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt346114%28v=office.16%29.aspx

Now you can specify the port number and authentication provider for the central administration website.

The wizard will give you a final chance to review and confirm the configuration settings and if all ok, click next. You can use the back button and go to previous steps and change any values.

The configuration wizard starts, the wizard will show you the details about each step and in case of any failure you will get detailed error log that assists you in troubleshooting.

Once the configuration wizard is over, you will get the final screen with the result of configuration. Click Finish will close this wizard and open the central administration URL.

The central administration website will open and here you can configure your farm based on the role you have selected. Since I have selected single server farm, I need to configure everything as it was in SharePoint 2013.

Installing and configuring SharePoint 2016 is relatively easy task. It is recommended to study the usage requirements and agree on a farm topology before you install SharePoint on production. If you have any questions / clarifications required on the installation steps, please write it down in the comment box where myself or other community members may assist you.