Getting started with SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight Web Parts – Part 1 of 2

2 minute read

I wanted to get familiar with SharePoint 2010 because I have noticed how the market is starting to demand it. Also most of the SharePoint 2010 guides on the net are outdated. They show everything from registry hacks/editing xml files to installing hot fixes/service packs. My guide uses the latest bits as of 6/7/11 to create a SharePoint 2010 server inside of an Virtual Machine. This will be more than enough to begin creating Silverlight Web Parts inside of SharePoint 2010.

NOTE: I did not want to use any automated tools to perform the install (specifically AutoSP Installer) because I want to understand the installation process myself. It would probably be easier to use such tools.

Have the following software available before starting: (You can use trial versions if necessary)

VMWare Player – specifically because it supports x64 OS and was recommended by the SharePoint Community on Twitter.
Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 w/ SP1 – because SharePoint 2010 requires an x64 operating system and getting it to run on Windows 7 looked painful / pointless.
SQL Server 2008 R2 x64 – SP can run on SQL Express from what I have read but I noticed you need to install a lot of “hot fixes” in order to get it to run. Most SharePoint people were recommending using the full version of SQL Server.
SharePoint Server 2010 x64 – Without this it would be hard to use SharePoint 2010!
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate – How else am I going to build the Silverlight Web Part?

Questions regarding my setup environment:

Host Server: i7-740QM (Quad-Core) 4GB DDR3 RAM

Ram supplied to VM: 1GB

The VM is responsive since it is running on a Crucial C300 SSD. I would recommend upgrading to 8GB of ram and dedicating at least 2GB to VM.

The first thing is to install is VMware Player. It requires a few reboots but once that is up and running you can click “Create a New Virtual Machine”.

At this point you may want to go ahead and mount your .ISO image of Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 w/ SP1 to a drive by using the software built in or using CloneDrive.

Go ahead and enter your product Key and enter your Full Name and a Password.

Now you are going to want to give it the virtual machine a name. I left it as the default name that VMware Player suggested.

Next up is giving it a maximum disk size. The default is 40GB. I used 80GB because I had the space available. Please note that it will not take the full 40/80GB of your disk space immediately.