SharePoint 2013 BI Farm Setup Guide: Section VII. Pre-Installation Requirements

This is section VII of the MBP SharePoint 2013 BI Farm Setup Guide. 

This section describes a few steps we recommend you take before starting the SharePoint installation in the next section. These steps include granting the Setup User Account certain permissions it needs and granting Replicating Directory Changes permission to the Active Directory Synchronization account.

Below are links to all the sections of this Guide.

I.     Overview II.    Plan Your SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Farm III.   Build a Virtual Network in Microsoft Azure IV.   Build the SQL Server for SharePoint Databases V.    Build the SharePoint Server VMs

VI.    Configure OUs and Group Policies VII.   Pre-Installation Requirements VIII.  Install SharePoint Prerequisites IX.    Install SharePoint 2013 with SP1 but Quit Before Running the Configuration Wizard X.   Configure the SharePoint Farm

XI.    Create the Baseline Web Applications and Site Collections XII.   Configure Search and MySites XIII.  Configure Office Web Apps XIV.  Configure Business Intelligence XV.   Turn Windows Firewalls Back On for All Servers XVI.  Download PowerShell Scripts

As mentioned in Section I, MBP stands for "Martin's Best Practices."  I use MBP as the acronym for the enterprise, the domain and also the name of the farm. MBP does not correspond to any actual company or client. You may use this guide as a template by globally replacing "MBP" with the acronym or name of your company or client.

A.     Add the Setup User Account to the Remote Users Group on SQL Server

The Setup User account – sp_admin in this case – must have permission to log on to the SharePoint SQL Database server, MBP-SQL in this case. In this step we permit the Setup User Account to login to MBP-SQL by adding it to the Remote Desktop Users group.

1. Login to the SQL Server as the SQL Administrator by opening the remote desktop file (MBP-SQL.RDP) and logging in as MBP\sql_admin.

2. From Server Manager open the Tools menu in the upper right and select Computer Management

3. From Computer Management, expand Local Users and Groups.

4. Select the Groups folder.

5. Double-click on Remote Desktop Users group to open the Remote Desktop Users properties box.

6. Under Members…, click Add…

7. Add MBP\sp_admin – the SharePoint Setup Account. 

8. Click OK.

9. Close Computer Management.

B. Grant Replicating Directory Changes Permission to the AD Synch Account

This section specifies how to grant the Replicating Directory Changes permission on the domain to the User Profile Synch Account (AKA the AD Sync Account) e.g. mbp\sp_adsync: 1. Open Remote desktop to the Active Directory server (MBP-DC) and login using the Domain Admin account (mbp\mbpadmin).
2. From Server Manager, open the Tools menu and select Active Directory Users and Computers
3. In Active Directory Users and Computers, right-mouse click on your domain (e.g. MBP.com) and select Delegate Control…

The Delegation of Control Wizard starts.

4. Click Next>

5. In the Selected users and groups window, click the Add… button

6. In the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog, type in the AD Synch account e.g. sp_adsync and click Check Names 

7. Click OK

8. Click Next>

9. On the Tasks to Delegate page, select Create a custom task to delegate

10. Click Next>

11. On the Active Directory Object Type page, keep the default selection This folder, existing objects in this folder, and creation of new objects in this folder:

12. Click Next>

13. On the Permissions page, in the Permissions box, select Replicating Directory Changes

14. Click Next>

15. Click Finish

16. Close the Active Directory Users and Computers applet.

This concludes section VII of the MBP SharePoint 2013 BI Farm Setup Guide. In this section we described how to grant the setup user account the proper permission to the SQL server and how to grant the Replicating Directory Changes permission on the domain to the User Profile Synch Account.

In the next section, Section VIII, we describe how to install the SharePoint Prerequisites.