SharePoint 2013 Development Image – Part 1 Creating a Virtual Machine

In this series of articles I will show you how to create a new virtual machine for SharePoint 2013 from scratch. But this time I will use Windows Server 2012 RC and SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition. And then later I will install Office 2013 beta and Visual Studio 2012 RC.

Hardware I have
I have a Dell Precision M4500 Laptop with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD.

Step 1 : Install VirtualBox and VirtualBox Extension Packs
I will be using VirtualBox as my virtualisation software. You can download VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/

Do not forget to download the Extension packs. I have downloaded installed and the extension pack. Run the installer and press next next ….

Once installation is complete, open the extension pack file and follow the instructions.

You can use any virtualization software. VMWare is also very good. But I am using VirtualBox from last few years.

Step 2 : Create a new Virtual Machine for SharePoint 2013
Start VirtualBox and press the New button in the menu

The wizard will start. Press Next Give name as SharePoint 2013. Operating System should be “Microsoft Windows” and Type should be “Windows 8 (64 Bit)”

In next screen, set amount of RAM. I have chosen 4096 (4 GB) as I have total 8192 MB (8GB)

Press Next. Select “Create New Hard Disk” and press Next

Disk creation wizard will start. Let the default selected ( VDI). Press NextSelect “Dynamically Allocated”. This will let your image auto grow as needed. Press NextLater we can use VBoxManage utility to re-size our image. Select the size of disk as 60,99 GB. Press NextCheck the summary in next screen.A clean image is created. Check what is shown on right hand side area.
One thing I suggest you to do here. If you have more processor cores, assign some more cores to your VM. By default VirtualBox always assign 1 core to a new created VM.

Click on “System” and then select the “Processor” tab. Here I have assigned 8 cores to my VM as I have 16 cores.Click OK to save the changes.

Now press Start. The First Run Wizard will start. Press NextChoose the location of Windows Server 2012 RC Image.My location is C:/SoftwaresPress Next and check what is shown as Summary.
The image will start. VirtualBox will show you a message for mouse pointer integration. Press Ok here.

In the next screen select the language and other things.
Press Next. Click Install now.Choose the second option ( as that is Server with GUI
Accept the License Agreement and press Next.Here choose the Custom.Now in the next screen you will see the 61 GB un-allocated disk drive ( this is what we have created during image creation in VirtualBox previously)

Click New. Click Apply.Windows Installer will create two partitions. One System reserved and another where OS will be installed.
Press Next. Installation will start. Installation will go through few steps and finally it will be finished.Set the password for your Administrator account.Send Ctrl + Alt + Delete to your VM. This can be done from “Machine” in the menu option of VirtualBox.
This is the first time Windows Server 2012 RC is started. You will be greeted with Server Manager.Now we need to install Guest Additions. Why ? because they will help you to run your guest OS smoothly, use full screens and many other things.