As I started to configure our new SharePoint 2013 farm today I came across a problem when running the pre-requisites tool when it was attempting to install “Application Server and IIS Web Server roles” which resulted in very little in terms of error messages apart form “configuration error”. After much searching and reading on Technet I wasn’t able to find out exactly what roles and features needed to be install so I could do this step manually. I resorted to simply adding most of the features I assumed would be needed based on what I remembered from a preview version install and discovered that it was due to .Net 3 not being present on the default install of Windows Server 2012. In order to install .Net 3 you have to have the original disk (or network location) where the files are stored in “:SourcesSxS”. After I managed to install .Net 3 manually, the pre-requisites tool then progressed as expected. UPDATE: This was incorrect, see below instead If you are looking to install SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2012 I would recommend leaving the Windows Server 2012 disc in the drive or mounted, and using the new “mount iso” capability in 2012 to mount the SharePoint 2013 media so that the default sources location is available. If however, you end up in a similar situation, simply install .Net 3 manually using the “Add Roles or Features” as normal and this will prompt you to specify a location where the Side By Side files can be found. I will hence forth refer to this as “SharePoint 2013 Gotcha #1” (Although technically its Windows Server 2012 being difficult)

Update: I had an opportunity to check this again and found that having the disc in the drive simply isn’t enough. Manually install the following using “Add Roles and Features” and specify the SxS (Drive:SourcesSxS of install media) location when the notification appears in the roles and features wizard:

  • .Net Framework 3.5 Feature
    • .Net Framework 3.5
  • Web Server (IIS)
    • Web Server
      • Application Development
        • ASP.NET 3.5
        • .NET Extensibility 3.5