SharePoint Farm Prerequisites

This is Step 2 in my SharePoint 2013 Setup Guide

Before attempting the SharePoint 2013 software installation on any servers, complete the prerequisites listed in the following sections on each server to prepare the environment.

Minimum Hardware and Software Requirements

All servers, including the SQL Server, in a SharePoint farm require 64-bit processors and a 64-bit operating system. The minimum operating system that SharePoint supports is Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 or above. SharePoint also supports Windows Server 2012. The minimum database server that SharePoint supports is SQL Server 2008 R2. SharePoint also supports SQL Server 2012.

SharePoint is a memory intensive application more than anything else. Hence, the officially Microsoft supported minimum hardware requirements for a SharePoint server is a server with 8GB of RAM. However, Microsoft’s recommended minimum is 12GB of RAM. SharePoint also depends heavily on the server’s processor and requires a minimum of 4 CPUs.

Microsoft recommends a minimum of 80GB of disk space for the system drive (C:). I recommend adding a data drive (D:) that you will use to store the SharePoint log files as well as any SharePoint index files for search. These files can quickly grow and consume significant disk space, and as such, I prefer to separate them to avoid starving the system drive of available space and affecting system availability.

Microsoft does not support SharePoint farms with servers distributed across multiple data centres. Every SharePoint server and SQL Server that belongs to the same SharePoint farm must be located in the same data centre. This is due to the amount of intra-farm communications between servers and the supported network latency.

Note: For details on the minimum supported requirements, please see this TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/cc262485

SharePoint Server Prerequisites

Before you can install SharePoint 2013, there are a number of prerequisite updates and server configurations you will need to complete in order to prepare the server to host SharePoint. For the majority of the prerequisites, Microsoft has provided a tool and they have included it with the SharePoint 2013 installation media on the DVD image.

Add the SharePoint farm service account to the local administrator group on the server. This account will require local administrator access to administer select services for the SharePoint farm, most notably the SharePoint User Profile Synchronization service application.

Before you run the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool, check for server updates on Microsoft Update and install any available updates to ensure the server is up-to-date.

Once you have finished applying the available updates and patches to the server, you are ready to run the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool. This tool will install and configure the following:

Web Server (IIS) role
Application Server role
Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5
SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Native Client
Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.0
Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC)
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
Windows Management Framework 3.0 which includes Windows PowerShell 3.0
Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) 1.0 and Microsoft Identity Extensions (previously named WIF 1.1)
Windows Server AppFabric
Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB 2671763)

To run the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool and install the prerequisites, run the prerequisiteinstaller.exe program included with the SharePoint 2013 setup media.

Important: The Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool will require internet access.

After you complete the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool, you must also install the following Microsoft updates:

After applying all the prerequisites, you can check for updates on Microsoft Update once more to ensure you patch the newly added prerequisite components with any available updates.

Note: For more information on the SharePoint 2013 prerequisites, please see this TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/ff686793

SQL Server Prerequisites

SharePoint does not require any special SQL Server setup. A SharePoint farm consumes its database services from a SQL Server using standard data connection strings and SQL stored procedures.

The only permissions that SharePoint will need a DBA to explicitly set are the SQL Server DB Creator and Security Admin server permissions for the SharePoint Farm account. SharePoint will use these permissions to provision each of its databases and it will assign the SharePoint Farm account as the DBO for those databases. For all other accounts, SharePoint will assign any database permissions they require using the least privilege principle.

Note: For more information on configuring SQL Server security for SharePoint 2013, please see this TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/ff607733

Next, you are ready to begin installing SharePoint on your servers.

13Comments

Add yours

1

Tim Demoor on June 8, 2015 at 1:49 am

Golden information from a trustworthy source, just what I needed. There is a lot of information out there, but none as complete and clear as it is presented here.

thank you Steve!
- 2
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 6:31 pm
  
  Thanks for your kind words Tim! I’m happy to hear you found it helpful!
3

Tim Demoor on June 8, 2015 at 3:17 am

While installing the prerequisites I encountered the following error on multiple occasions:

e:\prerequisiteinstaller.exe

The System cannot find the drive specified

Resolution for me was:

Append the following path to PSModulePath entry in the environment variables – %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
o Go to My Computer, right-click Properties
o On the System’ page, click Advanced System Settings on the left-side pane.
o If you receive a UAC prompt, click on Yes to launch the System Properties dialog box
o From the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables
o Within the System Variables section in the lower half, select PSModulePath and click on Edit (or double-click PSModulePath’)
o Append the following path to PSModulePath entry in the environment variables
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
o Ensure that the PSModulePath entry looks like this:

C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\;c:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\PowershellModules
4

Tomas Murillo on August 6, 2015 at 11:23 am

Hello Steve, thank you for posting this very useful guide!

I am new to SharePoint and I have a question. I have read in several different places about the minimum hardware requirements and I still do not understand one thing.
For the servers, do I need one for each of the following?
– 1 server for SharePoint
– 1 server for SQL database
– 1 server for Active Directory

I need to create a farm and would like to start simple. I have read that Active Directory needs to be in a separate server than SharePoint, which would already give me a minimum of 2 servers needed. Does SQL have to be installed in a different server as well or can it be on the same serve as SharePoint or Active Directory (this always considering that I would like the possibility to expand the farm afterwards)?

Thank you very much,

Tomás.
- 5
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 6:34 pm
  
  Hi Tomas, generally it is best to separate the SharePoint server from SQL Server and to have AD run on its own server. For something smaller and simpler, I would recommend looking at Office 365 subscription options.
6

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7

Baz Mak on August 18, 2016 at 10:32 am

What would be the implications of removing visual studio 2008 from a sql server in a small SharePoint farm. Can it be removed without adversely affecting farm. In short the SQL box has Visual Studio 2008 installed on it and I am worried removing it could possibly affect integration services but I am not sure if SharePoint is dependent on it.
- 8
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:17 pm
  
  Sorry I haven’t had to perform this scenario before, so I am not sure.
9

Gordon on December 28, 2016 at 10:14 am

Good day Steve, I have been tasked with the planning of SP2013 farm with all services fully available. I have a few questions regarding the assignment. Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.
- 10
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:18 pm
  
  Microsoft has some really good planning guides to help. This should be a good start: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/administration/performance-planning-in-sharepoint-server-2013
11

Michael Gonzalez on July 21, 2017 at 9:08 am

Steve, my company is migrating from Interwoven WorkSite MP to SharePoint 2013. Can you provide any additional planning details to account for based on this current migration?
- 12
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:20 pm
  
  For any content migration, the extra planning I do involves taking an inventory and analysis of existing content, and then I create a mapping of where that content will be migrated. The analysis will help influence the ultimate design of the SharePoint solution.
13

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