The SharePoint 2019 Beta preview is available for testing and in this article, I will explain the steps of how you can configure a standalone SharePoint 2019 Beta server.
Before you proceed with the installation, below are the pre-requisites.
You need a SQL server 2016 RTM or 2017 RTM for windows installed.
I will be using the Windows 2016 Standard Server Build to install SharePoint 2019.
You can download the setup from this link
There are different setup files available based on Languages; pick the one you wish to install and download the install media.
The download link will give you a .img file, you can mount it to the CD drive of your server, in case you don’t have a CD drive on your VM, you can unzip the contents using WinRAR.
First things first, as part of any SharePoint product installation you need to install the pre-requisites. All the pre-requisites are part of the package except the SQL Server 2012 Native client which is downloaded as the pre-requisite exe is executed. In case your VM is not able to access the internet you will get the error, the download link can be fetched from the error logs and installed separately.
Once the pre-requisites are installed you need to reboot your machine.
Post reboot you can kick-start the setup.exe.
On the first screen, you need to enter the product key. Microsoft has provided the evaluation key and you can use the same.
Evaluation Key - M692G-8N2JP-GG8B2- 2W2P7-YY7J6
Accept the Software License Terms.
Next screen is to pick the installation folder, leave it to the default. Click on Install Now.
The installation will take time.
Post installation the setup will prompt you to run the configuration wizard, leave the checkbox checked and click on close, at this point, the server will reboot.
After reboot, the configuration wizard kicks in,
The wizard looks the same as any other previous version of the SharePoint.
All the configuration steps are as in any other previous version of SharePoint.
Configuration wizard exists with the details of the configurations.
You have the option to be part of the product improvement program,
You can choose to configure the farm; i.e. create service application and a web application using a Wizard or Manually.
To be quick I choose to do it using the wizard. All you need to do is choose the account you wish to use under which the services must run.
After this SharePoint Service application will be created and the corresponding databases will be created.
It will end at prompting to create the root site of the newly created web application.
Browse the root site created and enjoy the Modern Site Experience on-premises.