I've been trying to set up a single virtual machine for a proof of concept using SQL Server Denali CTP3, Sharepoint 2010, and PowerPivot. I want to get Project "Crescent" running through this as well to prove out some report concepts. I've had a lot of trouble finding the right steps to get everything installed and working correctly on a single box, especially since my Sharepoint knowledge right now is practically non-existent when it comes to BI. Every time I tried to get the Sharepoint / PowerPivot integration working, I hit a roadblock or managed to corrupt my Sharepoint install.
I had the opportunity to speak with Brian Knight (
blog |
twitter ) and he pointed me to
PowerPivotPro.com which, in turn, led me to
PowerPivotGeek.com. They had a
page of instructions for single-server installs with a pointer to an MS whitepaper and a private cached file of the whitepaper just in case. This gave me the information needed to get PowerPivot working on my VM.
A couple of notes from my personal experience:
- Install Sharepoint SP1 right after installing Sharepoint 2010. SP1 is required when you're using Denali
- Do NOT configure Sharepoint until the directions tell you to do so.
- Use a Named Instance in order to get PowerPivot working.
- If you plan to use Crescent, make sure that you set up SSAS with the "Tabular Data" option (or whatever the final name ends up being).
Once again, thanks to Brian for pointing me towards the right solution. Thanks to PowerPivotGeek for hosting these files. I imagine the instructions would work for Virtual Server, Virtual PC, VMWare, VirtualBox, or similar Virtual Machine apps. I hope this is helpful to anyone else trying to set up their own VM for testing out the Microsoft BI stack.
