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Let’s step through the process of hosting the SharePoint Server 2013 three-tier
farm test lab on a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V server.
The logical configuration of the SharePoint three-tier farm test lab consists of four server computers,
DC1, WFE1, APP1, and SQL1,
and a client computer, CLIENT1, connected to the Corpnet subnet.
The key elements of hosting the SharePoint three-tier farm test lab on a single Hyper-V server
are the following: All five computers are virtual machines running on the physical
Hyper-V server computer. The Corpnet subnet is implemented as
the Corpnet private virtual switch.
The WFE1, APP1, and SQL1 computers as a group form the
SharePoint three-tier farm. The Hyper-V server has at least one physical network adapter
that connects to your organization intranet and the Internet.
You will use this connection and an external virtual switch on the Hyper-V server to temporarily connect
test lab computers to the Internet to install prerequisite software. Now, let’s build it out.
In step 1, you create a private virtual switch named Corpnet. You can do this with
the Hyper-V Manager snap-in through the Virtual Switch Manager
or with the New-VMSwitch Windows PowerShell cmdlet.
In step 2, create a new virtual machine named DC1 that is connected to the
Corpnet virtual switch.
You can do this in the Hyper-V Manager snap-in with the New Virtual Machine wizard
or with the New-VM Windows PowerShell cmdlet.
In step 3, you create new virtual machines for WFE1, APP1, and SQL1,
and CLIENT1, all of which are connected to the Corpnet virtual switch.
In step 4, you configure the computers using the instructions in the SharePoint three-tier farm test lab guide.
First, you configure DC1, APP1, and CLIENT1 as part of the
base configuration. This includes installing Windows on the virtual machines.
You then configure SQL1 and install SQL Server.
You then install SharePoint Server 2013 on APP1,
creating a new farm that uses SQL1 as its database server. To do this,
you will need to temporarily connect APP1 to the Internet to install prerequisite software.
Lastly, you configure WFE1 and
install SharePoint Server 2013 on it, joining the farm created on APP1.
The resulting SharePoint three-tier farm test lab has the
four server computers and one client computer on the Corpnet virtual switch.
WFE1, APP1, and SQL1 correspond to the front-end web, application,
and database tiers of a SharePoint farm.
You are now ready to experiment on your own or step through other SharePoint 2013
test lab guides that build upon this configuration.
For additional test lab experiences, see the SharePoint 2013 Test Lab portal at
aka.ms/sptlgs.
For more information about hosting test lab guide
environments in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, see the resources at
aka.ms/hvtlgs.
Also visit microsoft.com/testlabguides.