How to Easily Install Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

Following Microsoft Ignite in May 2015 the entire SharePoint community has been waiting in excitement for the release of Microsoft SharePoint 2016.
On August 24th, 2015 SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview was released and we’ve been busy ever since exploring the new and exciting features of SharePoint 2016.

Related: New Features in SharePoint 2016

In this blog, I’ll share with you the step by step instructions on how to install SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. Specifically, I’ll cover how to do the “Single Server Farm” installation. Note that you can always change the server Farm role inside the central admin > System settings > Servers > Convert server role in this farm.

In order to install the SharePoint 2016 Preview, you need to install Windows Server and SQL Server. I am using Windows Server 2012 and MS SQL Server 2012. And of course, you need to download the actual Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 Preview from the Microsoft download center. From the download center, you can also grab the SharePoint 2016 Preview product key (by the way, it’s NQTMW-K63MQ-39G6H-B2CH9-FRDWJ).

Now, let’s get started!

Step 1

Mount the downloaded ISO file or write it to a CD-ROM and insert the CD. Double click on the file ‘prerequisiteinstaller.exe’. Please note that you’ll need to have internet access during the installation to ensure that all required files get installed automatically.

Step 2

Read the license terms, check “I accept the terms of license agreement” and hit Next.

Step 3

Before installing the SharePoint 2016 Preview the installation wizard will install all Prerequisites. These are:

• Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client
• Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server
• Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
• Windows Server AppFabric
• Microsoft Identity Extensions
• Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client 2.1
• Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.6
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2
• Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB2671763)
• Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2013
• Update for Microsoft .NET Framework to disable RC4 in Transport Layer Security (KB2898850)

Hit Next.

Step 4:

Wait for the Prerequisites to install.

Step 5

Once the Prerequisites installation is completed you should see the window below. Don’t worry if you get an ISS error message. That’s a known issue. You can visit MSDN to access the list of known and reported issues to date.

Step 6

After the Prerequisites installation you need to restart the operating system.

After restarting, open PowerShell as administrator and run the following script.

Running this script will decrease the chances of encountering errors when installing the SharePoint 2016 Preview. The script fixes some of the issues reported to date.

Add-WindowsFeature NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-App-Dev,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Security,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Metabase,WAS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-NET-Environment,WAS-Config-APIs,Web-Lgcy-Scripting,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Xps-Viewer -verbose

Step 7

Now, go to the installation media drive and double-click Setup.exe. The setup wizard is now preparing the necessary installation files.

Step 8

Enter the SharePoint 2016 Preview product key: NQTMW-K63MQ-39G6H-B2CH9-FRDWJ.

Step 9

Read the license terms, check “I accept the terms of this agreement” and hit Continue.

Step 10

Chose where to save the installation and hit Install Now.

Step 11

Wait until the system asks to start the SharePoint 2016 Preview configuration wizard.

Step 12

Hit Close.

Step 13

The Configuration wizard will now start. Hit Next.

Step 14

A pop-up message will notify you that certain services may have to be started or reset during the configuration. Hit Yes.

Step 15

Select ‘Create a new server farm.’

Step 16

Specify the Database server name and leave the default Database name as is. Specify the server farm admin username and password. Please note that the user specified should have sufficient database permissions and roles in order to create databases and add data during the configuration process.

Step 17

Select “Single-Server Farm” and hit Next.

Step 18

Specify the Central admin port and chose the authentication provider. In my case it is NTLM. Hit Next.

Step 19

Review the configurations and hit Next.

Step 20

The Setup Wizard will now start the configuration. Please wait until all 10 installation tasks are complete.

Step 21

The Setup Wizard will list the configurations and acknowledge that the configurations were applied successfully.

Step 22

Open the central admin. If you see the following screen in your browser your installation was successful.

Now, create a Web application and a site collection and enjoy SharePoint 2016!

Please contact FMT consultants by filling out the form below for more information or assistance with Microsoft SharePoint 2016.