SharePoint Server 2010 Development VM for VirtualBox or VMWare, Part 1

SharePoint 2013 dev server deployment guide can be found here

Scenario

• You want a SharePoint Server 2010 virtual machine for local development work.
• This may be shared throughout the development team.
• This can be hosted on a shared workstation or server via Remote Desktop or on your personal workstation or laptop.
• Snapshots of the VM can be taken at any time.
• Make sure you have the appropriate licenses for each instance of the VM.
• MS has some good options for VM licensing and development licenses with an MSDN subscription
• MOSS 2010 Standard or Enterprise
• You want to use non-expiring app licenses
• You want the VM to have its own domain and email capabilities
• You want the following components (64bit where available)
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• AD Domain Controller
• Remote Desktop Services
• SQL Server 2008 R2 
• Analysis Services (SSAS)
• Integration Services (SSIS)
• SharePoint integrated SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
• SharePoint Server 2010
• SharePoint Designer 2010
• MS Office 2010 Pro Plus
• Visual Studio 2010 Premium (x86)
• Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 (x86)
• Visual Studio SharePoint Power Tools
• SharePoint Workspace
• CodeRush Xpress
• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• SnagIt
• Firebug
• Fiddler
• Paint.Net
• Live Essentials
• Office Web Apps
• hMailServer
• PowerGUI
• with SharePoint PowerPack

Prerequisites

• Your workstation must be running a 64bit processor with Hardware Virtualization enabled
• You must have enough memory (4GB rec), disk space (50GB rec), and processor power (2 cores rec) to run the VM and hold all snapshots
• I highly recommend running this VM from a solid state drive (SSD) for optimum performance.  Disk speed is the greatest limiter for performance and if your RAM is limited, then the SSD swap file will help compensate.
• You must have access to and appropriate licensing for above products
• ex: MSDN Subscription
• You must have time (about 8 hours) to install everything.  
• Hints:
• Look for "Wait" for good break points
• Snapshots can be used to create other virtual machines or to test minimally installed environments

How To

• Download the Software Listed Above
• Install VirtualBox and the Extension Pack or VMWare
• Create a new virtual machine named "sps2010" for Windows 2008 (64bit)
• 4096 GB RAM
• 100GB dynamically expanding boot hard disk
• You will likely use 45GB of this without any content
• Mount the Windows Server 2008 R2 ISO
• Enable RDP support
• Start the sps2010 virtual machine
• The Windows Server 2008 R2 installer should begin
• Select Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (Full Installation)
• Select New Installation
• Set a new administrator password
• pass@word1
• Install VirtualBox Guest Additions or VMWare Tools
• Auto Reboot
• Authenticate Windows
• Rename the server to sps2010
• Note: If you forget this step, you will have a randomly named server.
  I have included instructions for aliasing and configuring a randomly named server.
• Shut down and take a Snapshot named "Windows Install"
• Enable Remote Desktop for all versions
• Add Roles
• Active Directory Domain Service
• You will get a Windows Update is not enabled warning.
• Select "Close this wizard and launch the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard"
• Ignore the "Operating System Compatibility" warning
• Select "Create a new domain in a new forest"
• FQDN: sp.local
• Forest functional level: Windows Server 2008 R2
• Ignore DHCP warning
• Ignore DNS warning, click Yes
• Use same password as admin user above
• Reboot on completion
• Add Roles
• Server Roles
• Application Server
• Web Server (IIS)
• Application Server / Role Services
• Web Server (IIS) Support
• Web Server (IIS) / Role Services
• Leave Default Selections
• Install
• Windows Update: Turn on auto updates
• Install Updates and Long Wait
• Reboot when prompted
• Open Active Directory Administrative Center
• Create a user
• Full Name: User
• User SamAccount: sp\user
• pass: same as admin above
• Password Options: Password never expires
• Stop and Disable the following Services
• DFS Namespace
• DFS Replication
• Shut down, snapshot "DC and IIS", and start virtual machine
• Mount the SQL Server Iso from the Virtual Box Devices menu
• Open Active Directory Administrative Center
• Create a user
• Full Name: spservice
• User SamAccount: sp\spservice
• pass: same as admin above
• Password Options: Password never expires
• Start SQL Server Setup
• Installation
• New Install
• Continue
• Ignore DC and Firewall warnings
• All Features with Defaults
• Continue
• Server Configuration / Service Accounts
• Use the same account for all SQL Server services
• specify the sp\spservice account and password created above
• Continue
• Analysis Services Configuration
• Account Provisioning
• Add Current User
• Reporting Services Configuration
• Install the SharePoint integrated mode default configuration
• Continue then Wait
• Shut down, snapshot "SQL Server", and start virtual machine
• Open SQL Server Configuration Manager
• SQL Server Network Configuration
• Protocols for MSSQLSERVER
• Enable Named Pipes
• If your server is randomly named - not sps2010
• DNS Manager
• Forward Lookup Zones
• sp.local
• Add a new alias
• Name: sps2010
• FQDN: Browse to splocal\servername
• servername will be a randomly generated value
• Mount the SharePoint Server 2010 iso
• Start the Prerequisites installer
• Start the SharePoint Install
• Enter your Enterprise license key
• Wait
• Run the Configuration Wizard
• Create a new server farm
• Configuration Database
• Server: sps2010
• Name: SharePoint_Config
• Username: sp\spservice
• Password: same as above
• Farm Security Settings
• Passphrase: same as admin password above
• Central Admin Web App
• Port: 8000
• Auth: NTLM
• Short Wait
• IE will open to the central administration website.
• Login as administrator
• Move the central admin site from the Trusted Sites zone to the Local Intranet Zone
• Also add "http://sps2010" to the Local Intranet Zone
• Shut down, snapshot "Base SharePoint", and restart
• Configure Alternate Access Mappings
• Set the central admin default public url to http://sps2010:8000
• Run the Farm Configuration Wizard from Central Administration
• Use existing managed account
• All items should be checked except for Lotus Notes
• Create Root Site Collection
• New Web Application
• Name: sps2010
• Port: 80
• Path: change "80" to "sps2010"
• URL: http://sps2010
• Create a new app pool
• Name: SharePoint - sps2010
• Configurable: sp\spservice
• Database server: sps2010
• Database name: sps2010_Content
• CEIP: No
• Title: Sps2010
• Template: Publishing \ Publishing Portal
• Primary admin: sp\administrator
• Set the browser home page to http://sps2010
• Configure Search from Central Admin
• Central Admin \ Manage service applications \ Search Service Application (first one)
• Content Sources
• Local SharePoint Sites
• Schedule incremental every 5 minutes and start a full crawl
• Open http://sps2010 in IE
• Add sp\administrator to the Approvers and Members groups
• Validate that the following work
• Approval process
• Both search scopes
• My Site
• Profile
• Shut down, snapshot "SharePoint Configured", and restart
• Continue to Part 2

SharePoint 2007, 2010, and 2013 Cascading Lookup Column Comparison

Scenario

• You have multiple SharePoint lists that are related
• Parent/Child or other relationship
• You want to allow the user to define the relationship via a Lookup Column Dropdown (Combobox) or Multiselect Interface
• Or you need filtered lookups or some other additional lookup functionality

Issue

• The out of the box SharePoint Lookup Field columns are severely limited
• They really only work for relatively small lists of uniquely named items that don't change often
• SharePoint 2010 natively supports related lists, but do not have all the features below
• We need one or more of these advanced features
1. Cascading Updates (and possibly deletes)
• Maintain Referential Integrity
• Updates made in one list are reflected in the lookups.
2. Keyboard filtering from the dropdown and multiselect interfaces
• Autocomplete, find as you type
3. Cascading drop-down filters
• One or more dropdowns to filter the final dropdown
• Ex: State, County, City
4. Lookup filters (likely based on a List View)
• Ex: Only show my Cities, or only show Active Items in the lookup
5. Datasheet view editing (Excel, Access), InfoPath, and Office DIP support
• In most cases this is unavailable.  The workaround is to create a view without the lookup fields for use with Office integration and ensure the lookup fields are not required or have a default value.
6. AJAX
• We don't want to postback when applying realtime filtering
• We may not want to preload all the values for very large lists
7. May be used in a Calculated Column
• Ideally the text field and ID field would both be accessible
8. Supports multiple display fields from the lookup list
• ex: First and Last Name concatenation in the dropdown
• Workaround would be to use a calculated field within the lookup list
9. Link to add an item to the lookup list from the lookup column interface
10. Cross site support
• By default the list must be in the same subsite as the lookup column
11. Cross site-collection support and content type hub support
• Workaround would be to synchronize lookup lists accross site collections using a workflow, content deployment job, or a custom timer job.
12. Two-way relationships
• Items within a lookup list will keep track of where they have been referenced.
• Ex: Orders are linked to a customer via the order form.  On the customer form, you can see the linked orders.
• SharePointBoost's LookupBoost or Sparqube's Lookup Tracker can be installed to provide this information via a separate relationships page.
13. Matches the SharePoint look and feel
• Ex: Inherits themes/styles for drop down
14. Can be created as a site column
• Sometimes only implemented as a list column.
15. Conversion tool 
1. Converts lookup columns to custom lookup
2. Converts custom lookup back to a regular lookup
16. Allow filtering from a multiselect
• Ex: Filter lookup of Cities when multiple States are selected
17. Set the lookup column's default value
18. Referential Integrity (2010 new feature)
• Cascade or disable updates/deletes when the item is used in lookups elsewhere
• Not available on a multi-select
19. Projected Columns (2010 new feature)
• Lists with the lookup column will expose other columns from the lookup list.
• Ex: Order list with a Customer lookup column could also include Customer Phone and Customer Email in the Order list view based on the selected Customer

Resolution

• The following third-party products are available to meet your needs.  This analysis was done based on the marketing material available on their websites and any personal experience I have with them.   ? - denotes unknown feature
• SharePoint 2010 Lookup Column (Out of the box - not third party)
• Features: 1 (includes recycle bin), 2, 5?, 10, 13, 14, (17 via code), 18, 19
• Sparqube SharePoint Lookup Column (SharePoint 2010+)
• Features (provided by vendor): 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
• Note: There are 2 column types to choose from.  Each has advantages and disadvantages.  All features above may not be available depending upon which control you use.
• (12) Sparqube Lookup Tracker provides this as a separate (included) feature
• KWizCom SharePoint Cascading Lookup Plus
• Features: 1?, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12*, 14, 15.1, 17?, 18?, 19?
• Review Notes
• Runtime issues will occur if you are still referencing AJAX 1.x
• Single-select, single-value items appear in a grid format with a header
• Display form grid uses a hyperlink icon rather than text
• Dropdown skins do not match SharePoint but are customizable
• *(12) Same list 2-way relationships are not supported
• For this scenario, use SharePointBoost's LookupBoost or Sparqube's Lookup Tracker
• SharePointBoost Cascaded Lookup
• Features: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (except multiselect), 8*, 9, 10, 12*, 13, 14, 15, 17*, 18, 19
• *(12) Lookup Boost: Provides feature 12 via a separate relationship page
• Review Notes
• Installed properly
• Worked as advertised
• Issue with saving a sub-site as a template after implementing a root level site column and content type.  Workaround provided by SharePointBoost
• *(8) - Doesn't support hyphenated values in the drop-down for SP 2010.
•  *(17) - Only supports defaulting to first item in a view and does not support the standard Default property, so this is difficult to set from code.  Does not support defaults on a multi-select.
• Azu Lookup Plus 2013
• I haven't evaluated this yet.  Please refer to the website.
• Infowise
• Features: 3, 4, 9+, 10, 12 (with bi-directional bundle), 13, 14, 15, 17?, 18?, 19?
• (9+) Enhanced support for inline simple text additions and for task creation
• Bamboo Lookup Selector
• Features: 2, 3, 6, 10, 11, 17?, 18?, 19?
• SharePointBoost Cross-Site Lookup
• Features: 2, 10, 15, 17?, 18?, 19?
• Lookup Boost: Provides feature 12 via a separate relationship page
• SharePoint Tool Basket
• Features: 2, 6, 17?, 18?, 19?
• Open Source
• SharePoint Cascaded Lookup Dropdowns
• Features: 3, 6 (client-side only), 17?, 18?, 19?
• Not a column.  Must be applied to each form.
• Open Source
• CodePlex Filtered Lookup
• Features: 4, 10, 17?, 18?, 19?
• Open Source