SharePoint 2016 Installation In Azure With Active Directory - Part Two

A complete SharePoint 2016 installation will require Active Directory Domain Services configured and registered with the Virtual Network.

There are two main reasons why Active Directory Configuration is recommended before SharePoint installation.

• In a standalone installation, unless Active Directory is configured we will face issues while Config DB is created by the configuration wizard.
  
   

When this happens Config DB will have to be created first using PowerShell and Configuration wizard will have to be run again.

• On top of all these Search Service will not work unless Active Directory is configured. We will be stuck with the below error.
  
  
  

In previous article we saw How to create a virtual network in Azure for SharePoint Installation. In this article we will see how to add a SQL server VM and Configure AD role within it.

To sum up the steps involved in this article:

1. Create a VM with SQL Server.
2. Configure Active Directory Domain Services.
3. Add the VM DNS entry to the Virtual Network.

Let’s see each of the steps involved in the environment set up.

Create VM with SQL Server



Since I am creating a single server environment for User Acceptance Testing I will be having the SQL Server, Active Director Domain Controller and SharePoint installation within the same VM. For production it is recommended to have separate servers for each functionalities. In fact each Mini Role can have its own servers.

 

•  Select the template SQL Server 2014 SP1 Standard and click in next arrow.

Specify the VM Name and select the resource size required. I am going with D3 which has 4 cores and facilitates 14 GB of RAM.

            

 

•  Click on Next Arrow
  
   
  
  
• Specify the Cloud Service DNS Name and mention the Virtual Network that was created in the first article. Region can also be specified instead of Virtual Network but it is good to have a virtual network created when we have to set up a multi farm SP environment with multiple servers and host an Active Directory in a separate VM which will all have to be bounded within a Virtual Network.
  
  
    
    
• Finally select the VM agent and any configuration extensions that need to be installed .Click Finish. 
  
     

This will start creation of the VM.

• As soon as the VM is created lets assign a static IP address to it. In order to do that, we have to connect to Azure using PowerShell.

Once the Connection to Azure is established check for available IP addresses using the command

Test-AzureStaticVNetIP -VNetName “SharePoint Virtual Network” -IPAddress 10.0.0.5



This will check if the IP Address 10.0.0.5 is available. As it’s not available it has also shown the available addresses above.

Let’s try to see if 10.0.08 is available.



This time the IP Address is available. Les assign the static IP address To the VM using the below commands.

Get-AzureVM -ServiceName “SP2016HOL” -Name “SharePoint2016”|Set-AzureStaticVNetIP -IPAddress 10.0.0.8 | Update-AzureVM

SP2016HOL is the cloud service name assigned while creating the VM.

SharePoint2016 is the VM Name.



The VM would be restarted automatically to update the changes. Let’s go to the VM dashboard and see the VM Settings.

The VM has been assigned an IP address and it has been reflected in the VM Dashboard as well.



Now let’s configure the AD within the VM. Log in to the server and spin up Server manager.

Configure Active Directory

• Open the Server manager.
  
    
  
  
• Select Add Roles and Features.

This will spin up the Add Roles and Features Wizard.

            

• Click On Next.

            

• Select Single Server based Role Configuration and Click Next.

            

• Select the current VM and Click on Next.

           

• Select Active Directory Domain Services check box from the Roles and Click on Add Features button in the pop up. 
  
  

           

• Click on Next.

           

• The mandatory features required for AD setup will be selected by default. If any additional features are required select them and Click on Next.

           

• Click on Next to initiate the installation process.
  

            

• Select the automatic restart check box to force reflect any updates in the server and click on Install . 

            

• The installation would take some time.

              

• Click on Close to complete the Installation.

Now go back to the Server Manager

            

• It shows a warning that configuration is required. Click on the more Button at the end of the warning.

            

• Click on Promote this server to a domain so as to add the VM to the Domain.

This will spin up the AD DS Configuration Wizard

            

• Select add a new forest and specify the Root Domain Name.

            

• Select DNS Server Capability and specify DSRM password. Click on Next.

            

• Click on Next.

            

• Specify the NetBIOS Domain Name and click on Next.

            

• Click on Next.

            

• This gives us the option to review the configuration before moving the VM to the Domain.

Clicking on View Script gives us the PowerShell script for the same

• Click on Next. This will validate the prerequisites for the domain controller operation.

           

• Since the prerequisites check has passed successfully we can continue with installation.

            

• Once the installation is completed the server would be restarted to complete the operation.

Map DNS entry in the Virtual Network

Now let’s go to networks and select the virtual network which was already created.

• Go to the configuration tab and add the VMs domain entry 

          

Thus we have created a VM, Configured Active Directory Domain Services in the VM and added the VM to the Virtual network. This completes the environment set up required for Share Point installation. Now we can continue with the installation of Share Point 2016. If we intent to install each mini role in a separate server we can add new VMs to the Virtual network and install the mini roles in them separately.

SharePoint 2016 installation will be covered in the upcoming article.