Tagged: Install

Quickly Setup Sitecore 10.3 XM with SIA

The latest version Sitecore 10.3, is packed with new features and enhancements that make it easier than ever to manage your digital content and deliver personalized experiences to your customers.

If you’re looking to install Sitecore 10.3 XM, one of the easiest ways to do it is by using the Sitecore Install Assistant (SIA). In this blog post, let’s walk through the steps to install Sitecore 10.3

Prerequisites:

  • A Windows machine with a minimum of 16GB of RAM
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2017 or later
  • IIS 10 or later
  • .NET Framework 4.8 or later
  • Microsoft PowerShell 5.1 or later

Preparation:

  • Download the installation package (Graphical setup package XM scaled) from here.

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Download

Installation:

  • Extract the downloaded zip file

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Setup_exe

  • Right-click on the Setup.exe and execute in Administrator mode

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Start

  • Install the prerequisites 

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Prerequisites.png

  • Install Solr 8.11.2 by entering the Port, Windows service path prefix, and Install path

Note: Make sure the port number differs from earlier Solr-installed versions. Check out my blog to discover which processes are using which ports – https://madhuanbalagan.com/sitecore-10-sif-installation-roadblocks

  • Solr installation is successful!

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Solr_Complete.png

  • Fill out the Site prefix, admin password(going with bso easy to remember), and choose the Sitecore license file

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Sitecore_Settings.png

  • Fill out the SQL server Instance name, admin username, and password.

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_SQL_Server_Settings-1.png

  • It auto-fills Solr URL, System root, and Windows service name

Note: Navigate to Solr URL and ensure it’s running as expected

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Solr_Settings.png

  • Select the optional module if you plan to create a Headless SXA site

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_SXA.png

  • Review the summary to make sure the settings are correct

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Summary.png

  • The Installation wizard in SIA validates all the settings before starting the install

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Validate.png

  • Installation takes around 10-15 minutes (you can get a coffee!). If it errors out, check out the log.

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Install.png

Yayy! It’s successfully installed. Is it easy to install with SIA? It’s indeed a great tool!

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Install_Completed.png

Let’s log in and explore!

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Login_Success.png

 

Roadblocks:

Error # 1: Solr access to the path denied

Solr installation failed with error – Access to the path ‘C:\Users\MANBAL~1\AppData\Local\Temp\solr-8.11.2\server’ is denied.

Sitecore_10_3_Installation_XM_Headless_Rendering_Error.png

 

Resolution:

I wasn’t running at the setup.exe in Admin mode. Ran in Admin mode (restarted the machine just in case) fixed the issue.

 

Error # 2: Unable to create core index

Error CREATEing SolrCore Unable to create core [wc10.3.xm.local_core_index] Caused by: Can’t find resource ‘solrconfig.xml’ in the classpath or ‘C:\Solr\Solr.8.11.2solr-8.11.2\server\solr\sc10.3.xm.local_core_index’

 

Resolution:

Do not use the same port used for the earlier installation. For some reason, it doesn’t work. Always use the new port and new Solr instance name.


Now that we installed Sitecore 10.3 XM, I’ll be installing Sitecore Headless Rendering (previously known as the JSS module) in my next blog post.

Hope this helps. Happy Sitecoring!

3

Install and Configure Coveo for Sitecore

Install and Configure Coveo for Sitecore

I’ll be installing Coveo 5.0 on a Sitecore 10.2 in the following post. Let’s explore –

1. Download

Choose the Coveo package based on the Sitecore version and download the relevant package.

https://docs.coveo.com/en/2274/coveo-for-sitecore-v5/releases-and-downloads 

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Download

2. Install

Upload and install using the Sitecore Installation Wizard

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Installation-Wizard

Accept the customer agreement.

 

 

3. Activation

Once the installation is complete, Sitecore will show the following popup.

Let’s explore how to activate Coveo for Sitecore.

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Activation-Authorization

The login page brings to https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/login

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Installation-Plarform-Login

I logged in using a Google account for Demo purposes.

 

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Installation-Wizard-Accept-Customer-Agreement

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Installation-Plarform-Grant-Access

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Activation-Authorization-Successful

4. Configure

After authorization is successful, create your Organization with Name and Organization Type.

  • Enterprise Trial
  • Pro Trial

https://www.coveo.com/en/pricing/sitecore-integration

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Activation-New-Organization

Use the default Indexing options.

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Activation-New-Organization-Index-Options

 Provide Farm name and Sitecore credentials and click Activate.

Coveo-Install-Sitecore-Activation-New-Organization-Farm-Configuration

Once Activation is completed, Rebuild all Coveo Indexes to finish the setup.

I hope this helps.

Happy Sitecoring!

1

Install Sitecore 10.2 using Docker in 5 Easy steps!

 

Happy New Year! I just thought trying out Sitecore 10.2 using Docker. Installed it with minor hiccups. Let’s share my experience.

Prerequisites:

  •  Sitecore 10 license.
  • OS: Windows 10 1903 or later.
  • Docker Desktop for Windows.
  • 32 GB of RAM (It can be 16 GB for XM1 or XP0). I always recommend 32 GB for better experience.
  • CPU: Quad-core processor or higher.
  • Disk: 25 GB free space.

Preparation:

  • The following ports needs to be available for containers

The following ports need to be available for running the Docker instance. Make sure you are using stopping the services so it’s available for Docker to consume.  

Note: Always use iisreset /stop in the command line rather than stopping it in IIS. 

  • To check the port availability, run the following in PowerShell. It shouldn’t return any process. 

netstat -ano | findStr 127.0.0.1:443

netstat -ano | findStr 8079

netstat -ano | findStr 8984

netstat -ano | findStr 14330

Installation:

  1. Extract the file zip file downloaded into Sitecore_10.2(or any folder name).

             

      2. Execute this command to set the execution policy unrestricted.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted

       3. Navigate to XP1 folder (Sitecore_10.2\SitecoreContainerDeployment.10.2.0.006766.683\compose\ltsc2019\xp1) in PowerShell and run compose-init.ps1 script.

.\compose-init.ps1 -LicenseXmlPath <License Path>

  • Note: I’m installing XP1, If you want XP0, navigate to XP0 folder and follow the same exact steps.   

    4. Run docker-compose pull

docker-compose pull

      5. Run docker-compose up (It takes some time, you can get a coffee!)

docker-compose up –d

Once it’s done, let’s bring in CM instance – 

https://xp1cm.localhost/sitecore

Login as admin using ‘Password12345‘ password (not b though)

It’s so cool see the new desktop view! Cool work Sitecore!

It’s time for CD instance – 

https://xp1cd.localhost/

 

Errors and Resolutions:

If you get unhealthy for any nodes, don’t worry. It’s very common, I get this most times. 

Run the following in PowerShell, It should fix it. Thank you Sitecore Staff Exchange!   

docker-compose down

iisreset /stop

docker-compose up –d

 

To check if all nodes are healthy, run docker-compose ps 

If you want to change the Sitecore and/or SQL password, you can change it in docker-compose.ps1 file. 

Hope this helps someone. Happy Sitecoring!

3

Sitecore Horizon 10 Installation

I want to share my experience with the Installation of Sitecore Horizon 10. 

Prerequisites

Before you install Sitecore Horizon, you must:

After you install the tools, restart your machine.

SameSite cookies and custom domains:

The commonly-used browsers such as Chrome and Safari are changing how the browsers interpret the SameSite cookie. After the change takes effect, Horizon will only work if the Sitecore Horizon host instance, the Sitecore identity instance, and the Sitecore CM instance belong to the same site. 

Sitecore CM: https://cm.mycompany.com
Sitecore identity: https://si.mycompany.com
Horizon: https://horizon.mycompany.com

Installation

  • Download Horizon 10 from here. I downloaded the on-premises deployment.  

  • Extract the zip file and open InstallHorizon.ps1

  • Fill out the below parameters –

  • Run the InstallHorizon.ps1 in Adminstrator mode.



  • Once the installation is done (only takes 2 to 3 minutes), you will see a new Icon in Sitecore XP.



  • Clicking the Icon opens Horizon (yes, it’s separate IIS site) in a new tab and you can explore the new features!

Post Installation

To use the alignment and indentation features in the rich text editor in Horizon, make sure to add the below styles to your default style sheet (like default.css in your project).

.rte-indent-1 {
     padding-left: 40px;
}
 .rte-indent-2 {
     padding-left: 80px;
}
 .rte-indent-3 {
     padding-left: 120px;
}
 .rte-indent-4 {
     padding-left: 160px;
}
 .rte-indent-5 {
     padding-left: 200px;
}
 .rte-indent-6 {
     padding-left: 240px;
}
 .rte-indent-7 {
     padding-left: 280px;
}
 .rte-indent-8 {
     padding-left: 320px;
}
 .rte-align-center {
     text-align: center;
}
 .rte-align-justify {
     text-align: justify;
}
 .rte-align-right {
     text-align: right;
}

Hope this helps someone. Any issues, let me know in the comments section.

Happy Sitecoring!

0

Installing Sitecore 10 using SIA(Sitecore Install Assistant)

Sitecore 10 is out! I tried installing it using SIA(Sitecore Install Assistant) along with SXA and it installed smoothly without any errors!

Prerequisites: 

No need to install any prerequisites(includes Solr, SIF) manually, SIA will take care of it.

Preparation:

  • Download installation package (Graphical setup package XP Single) from here.

Installation:

  • Extract the file zip file downloaded and click on Setup.exe
  • Install the prerequisites to make sure the required SIF and Windows Server prerequisites are up to date.
  • Install Solr 8.4.0 by filling Port, Windows service path prefix and Install path and Install.

Note: Make sure the port number is different from earlier versions of Solr installed. 

  • Fill out site prefix, admin password (going with b, so easy to remember) and Confirm password (new to Sitecore 10), and license file path.
  • Fill out SQL server instance name, admin username and password.
  • Double-check the Solr URL (browse to make sure it’s running successfully), System root and Windows service name
  • Select optional module SXA if you need. I’m going for it, time to explore SXA! Would be nice if Horizon is listed here.
  • Review the summary to make sure the settings are correct.
  • SIA validates to make sure the files look good.
  • Install. This takes around 10 minutes (you can get a coffee!). If it errors out, check out the log.

Yayy!! It’s installed. Is it easy to install with SIA? It’s indeed a great tool!  

Check out the release notes for what’s new in Sitecore 10.

Error:

While installing got this error –

Failed to start service ‘Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine – sc10.xp.dev.localxconnect.dev.local- MarketingAutomationService (sc10.xp.dev.localxconnect.dev.local- MarketingAutomationService)’.

Failed to start service Sitecore Marketing Automation 
MarketingAutomationService

Failed to start service Sitecore Marketing Automation – MarketingAutomationService

Resolution:

This could be due to a license expiry issue. In my case, I had a valid license file. Resolved the issue by moving the non-self signed certificates to trusted certificates. 

I ran this command as an admin and got a couple of certificates that were non-self signed.

Get-Childitem cert:\LocalMachine\root -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.Issuer -ne $_Subject }

Now I moved it to Trusted Root by running the following command.

Get-Childitem cert:\LocalMachine\root -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.Issuer -ne $_Subject } | Move-Item -Destination Cert:\LocalMachine\CA

 Failed to start service Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine

Moved Non-Self Signed Certificates to Trusted Root

After moving, I tried the SIA again and it worked perfectly.

Happy Sitecoring!

2

Sitecore Horizon 9.3 Install, Troubleshooting, and Uninstall

I want to share my experience on the Installation of Sitecore Horizon 9.3, Uninstallation, and the errors I faced during installation.

Prerequisites

  • Install Sitecore 9.3 
  • Ensure CMS site is accessible with https protocol
  • Ensure WebSocket Protocol enabled

After installing the tools, restart your machine.

Installation

  • Download Horizon 9.3 from here. I downloaded the on-premises deployment.
  • Extract the zip file and open Parameters.ps1
  • Fill out the below parameters –
  • Run install.ps1 in Powershell Administrator mode
  •   Once the installation is done (only takes 2 to 3 minutes), you will see a new Icon in Sitecore 
  •   Clicking the Icon opens Horizon (yes, it’s separate IIS site) and you can explore the new features!

Troubleshooting Error

I faced this error after the installation was successful. When I opened Horizon, here is the error message I got.

Failed to render a page: Failed to render the root extension, with error: Failed to render a fragment. Status code: InternalServerError, message:

I checked the logs (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\[Hoirzon Website\logs) and it showed below message

[1] Ensure that Node.js is installed and can be found in one of the PATH directories. Make sure the Node executable is in one of those directories, or update your PATH.

I verified that the Node.js path (C:\Users\manbalagan\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v10.16.0\) was accessible and PATH was correct.

Also, I uninstalled Node v10.16.0 and reinstalled. Restarted my machine. Nothing helped.

Finally, I resolved the issue by adding ‘Everyone‘ permission and allowed full control to NVM folder (C:\Users\manbalagan\AppData\Roaming\nvm) fixed the issue! IIS couldn’t access the folder without ‘Everyone’ permission.

Uninstall

If you want to uninstall the failed versions (to clean up IIS sites it created), here is how you can do it –

  • Uninstalling is straight forward – just need to run the uninstall.ps1 script 
  • After uninstalling, it didn’t remove the Horizon Icon in Desktop mode. Clicking on the icon goes to 404 page.  It would be clean if the icon is also removed.

Hope this helps someone. Any issues, let me know in comments section.

Happy Sitecoring!

0

Install Sitecore 9.3 (using SIA) quickly in 20 minutes!

I’m participating in Sitecore Hackathon 2020 for the second time. One of the requirement is to have sitecore 9.3 installed on your machine except for commerce . I want to share my experience how i quickly installed Sitecore 9.3 using SIA(Sitecore Install Assistant) in 20 minutes!

Note: No need install any prerequisites(includes Solr) manually, SIA will take care of it.

Preparation:

  • Download installation package (Graphical setup package XP Single) from here.

Installation:

  • Extract the file zip file downloaded and click on Setup.exe
  • Install the prerequisites if needed. 
  • Install Solr 811 by filling Port, Windows service path prefix and Install path and Install.

Note: Make sure the port number is different from earlier versions of Solr installed. 

  • Fill out site prefix, admin password(going with b, so easy to remember) and license file path.
  • Fill out SQL server instance name, admin username and password.
  • Fill out the Solr URL, System root and Windows service name

Note: Go to Solr URL to make sure it’s running successfully.

  • Select optional module SXA if you need. I’m going for it, time to explore SXA! Would be nice if Horizon is listed here. 
  • Review the summary to make sure the settings are correct.
  • SIA validates to make sure the files look good.
  • Install. This takes around 10 minutes (you can get a coffee!). If it errors out, check out the log.

Yayy!! It’s installed. Is it easy to install with SIA? It’s indeed a great tool!

Check out the release notes for what’s new in Sitecore 9.3 here

Happy Sitecoring!

0

Install Sitecore 9.1 quickly in 5 easy steps

Image result for install software

I’m participating in Sitecore Hackathon for the first time this year. One of the requirement is to have sitecore 9.1(Initial version) installed on your machine. So I want to share my experience how i quickly installed Sitecore 9.1 using SIF on developer machine in 5 easy steps. This post includes the prerequisites, preparation and installation.

Prerequisites:

  • OS: Windows 10, Windows Server 2016
  • DB:
    • Microsoft SQL Server 2017 or 2016 SP2 – Supports the XM database and is the required for the xDB
    • Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Sp2 – Only supports XM databases and does not support the xDB
    • MongoDB Server 3.6.6 – This is required if you are going to use MongoDB for the Collection database or as a Session State Provider
  • IIS 10
  • . NET
    • Sitecore XP 9.1.0 requires .NET Framework 4.7.1
    • Sitecore Identity server requires .NET Core Runtime 2.1.3
    • You must apply any available updates to the .NET Framework on every Sitecore installation
  • Search Indexing
    • Solr 7.2.1 – Default search provider
    • Azure Search – supported and recommended for Azure Cloud PaaS deployments only
    • Lucene – Only supports content search and does not support xConnect.
  • Powershell 5.1 – for Installing SIF

Preparation:

  • Download installation package(XP Single) from here
  • Extract the zip file you just downloaded
  • Again extract this file – XP0 Configuration files 9.1.0 rev. 001564.zip
  • Copy your license.xml file (If you have enrolled for Hackathon, you should have received the file in email)

Now let’s begin the installation!

Step 1: Solr 7.2.1 Install

Check out Jeremy Davis’s low effort Solr installs. It’s pretty cool! https://jermdavis.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/low-effort-solr-installs/

If you want to take traditional approach(Install as service using NSSM tool), here are the steps

  • Download Solr from here
  • Install as service using NSSM tool

  • It opens the NSSM Service Installer like below. Fill out the fields.
  • Note: If you already another version of solr running, make sure to give different port name.
Solr 5 running as a service on Microsoft Windows

Step 2: Install SIF

Run the following scripts in Powershell as administrator.

Register-PSRepository -Name SitecoreGallery -SourceLocation https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-powershell/api/v2;
Install-Module SitecoreInstallFramework;
Install-Module SitecoreFundamentals;
Update-Module SitecoreInstallFramework;
Update-Module SitecoreFundamentals;
Import-Module SitecoreFundamentals -Force;
Import-Module SitecoreInstallFramework -Force;

Step 3: Update config files

Update the following files in the folder with the exact information – solr path, solr service name, configsets path, instance name for sitecore, SQL instance name and login credentials.

  • XP0-SingleDeveloper.ps1
  • XP0-SingleDeveloper.json
  • xconnect-solr.json
  • sitecore-solr.json

Step 4: Install prerequisites

Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\Prerequisites.json

Step 5: Install Sitecore 9.1

  • Execute the script ./XP0-SingleDeveloper.ps1 (takes good amount of time to execute)
  • Fingers crossed!

Note: There is no ‘b’ admin password. You can get the password at the end of the script execution. Nice work Sitecore!

Notice that it installed the third site in IIS – Identity Server (New to 9.1)

Also noticed the http://[sitename]/sitecore/login now redictes to identiyserver in the URL.

Have fun exploring Sitecore 9.1!

Any questions, please leave a comment.

0