SCOM Dashboards - Part 1- Installing WSS 3.0

For any of the SCOM dashboards described in these posts to work, we need to install Microsoft's WSS 3.0. This is a scaled down version of Sharepoint 2007 and is also known as Microsoft Sharepoint Foundation. It is a free add-on to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 providing a web portal with commonly needed features.

You can download WSS 3.0 (x64) from the link below:
(it is presumed that you are using Windows Server 2008 R2 for this blog series)

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5719



Double click on the 'Sharepoint.exe' file to start the installation screen below

Select the 'Advanced' button to progress

Select 'Web Front End' from the next screen as this option enables you to install the WSS databases onto an SQL server of your choice

Modify the 'Data Location' tab if needs be and then click 'Install Now'

Once the installer has completed, you should see the following screen. Make sure you leave the radio box ticked and click on 'Close' to run the Configuration Wizard

 Click 'Next' to begin the Sharepoint Configuration Wizard

Click 'Yes' to acknowledge the services will be rebooted

At this point, choose the 'No' option and click 'Next' (if you had an existing Sharepoint Server farm and are an experienced Sharepoint administrator, then you could select 'Yes' from here if you want)

Input your SQL server name and instance, leave the Database Name as it is and input in an active directory account that has preferably admin permissions on the SQL server

Decide whether to leave the port number as it is or to specify one here and also choose either NTLM or Kerberos authentication here too

This now completes your WSS 3.0 installation. Read on to configure user permissions within the WSS Farm.

Browse to the URL and port reference that was created during the WSS installation (generally something like http://servername:43695 from the example here)

Select the 'Site Settings' option from the 'Site Actions' button on the right hand side

 
Now select 'People and Groups'

Ensure 'Farm Administrators' is selected on the left hand side of the screen and then progress as shown below

From the final screen in this post, enter the user accounts and/or Active Directory groups that will be members of the 'Farm Administrators [Full Control]' group and click 'OK'

Close the 'Central Administration' screen now and continue onto Part 2 to install the Microsoft Dashboard Solution Accelerators that will form the basis of the SCOM dashboards.