After visiting PASS in Seattle and seeing all fancy demos of Power View (Crescent) and Powerpivot in Sharepoint I realised that there is more to life then integration services and datawarehousing. Before PASS I had done a installation of SQL Server Denali CTP3 on my laptop to check out the new project model in SSIS, but I realised that I needed to set up an environment where me and my colleagues could test the new reporting and analysis features. I therefore decided to create a new demo environment.

Since Sharepoint 2010 requires a 64 bit OS I decided to create a VMWare Workstation with Windows Server 2008R2 standard as OS. So I setup the machine and downloaded some updates, installed the CTP3 and Sharepoint 2010 and tried to get it all working – no luck though. I should have done my homework instead and googled a bit before I started, that would probably have saved me from a reinstall of everything (including the OS).

So here’s a short summary of the order on how to perform the installation and also some useful links:

  1. Create the image and install the operating system (if possible, go for Windows Server 2008R2, standard is enough)
  2. Download updates and service packs
  3. Make sure the machine is either part of a domain or is a domain host. I dont want our virtual machines to be a part of the domain, so I set it up as a domain controller. Just go to server manager and activate the role ”active directory domain services”. If you are unsure on how to configure it, do a quick google (or should I say bing?), its quite straightforward. 
  4. Once the machine was in place I followed this guide: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oneclickbi/archive/2011/07/21/getting-up-and-running-with-sql-server-denali-for-business-intelligence-crescent-and-powerpivot-in-ctp3.aspx

    The steps are:

    1. Install Sharepoint prerequisites
    2. Install Sharepoint but do not configure it 
    3. Install SQL Server Denali CTP3, choose SQL Server Powerpivot for Sharepoint
    4. Setup Sharepoint and Powerpivot using Powerpivot Configuration Tool
    5. Install SQL Server database and analysis services in tabular mode
    6. Install SQL Server analysis services in multidimensional mode (as a new instance)
    7. Configure Reporting Services inside Sharepoint Central administration
  5. I used this checklists to test that everything was up and running: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231687(v=sql.110).aspx
If you follow the steps above there shouldnt be any problems. In my environment I sometimes have problems with that one of the SQL Server instances doesnt start automatically which is causing Sharepoint not to start. 
Good luck!