Much of the information regarding SharePoint 2007 installation on the internet has become out of date. Additionally like myself, many people will find themselves with dated installation packages and getting them even to load can be a bit tricky. I came across many issues in an attempt to do a clean install of MOSS 2007 on Server 2008. Many of these issues are generally avoided thanks to network/dev admins keeping virtualised copies of the base installations (not requiring full installations) and therefore these installation topics are often overlooked. I've tried to manifest as much helpful information as possible rooting from my own (painful) experiences.
Here is a summary of how to install MOSS 2007 on Windows Server 2008.
In preparation for the installation, you'll need to have a installed copy of Windows Server 2008 ready with the latest updates installed. This sounds obvious but you should always start from the most up to date copy of the platform and the installation files as the updates contain important patches and tweaks that make you're system safer and more stable in the long term.
Then you must fulfil the MOSS 2007 software requirements . You should visit the Microsoft site for the exact requirements. I've tried to sum of some of these bellow.
WSS 3.0 - MOSS 2007 is built on WSS therefore you'll be required to install WSS 3.0 with the latest service pack. You can download this free from the Microsoft website.
.Net Framworks 3.0 and 2.0 - You don't have to worry about these on Server 2008, these should already be installed.
IIS 6.0 - You don't need to download this off the web. You just need to add this to the server 'roles'. You can do this by:
Open 'Server Manager'
Click 'Roles' from the tree view on the left.
Wait for the roles screen to load (If the Add Roles button is disabled, the text next to it may indicate that it is in fact performing a task before this option is enabled again)
Click Add Roles and follow the wizard.
One of the requirements for installing MOSS 2007 on Windows Server 2003 was to set ISS to work in 'isolation mode'. This is not required for IIS 6.0 as this is the default configuration.
Additionally, one of my colleagues recommended that I also add the active directory role of I'm going to be using this machine for educational purposes. You don't have to do this but if you do, this should take about an hour and you'll have to set up your network domain.
In my case, I installed Server 2008, downloaded and applied all the updates and pre MOSS 2007 required components. Then figured out that my copy of the MOSS 2007 installation files had become out of date. Windows 2008 refused to install MOSS 2007 because it complained 'The program is blocked due to compatibility issues'.
After a bit of searching, I found an article which explains how to update your installation files. In a nutshell, you need download the appropriate service pack installation file for MOSS 2007, extract the installation files from it and copy them into the 'updates' directory of the MOSS 2007 installation folder. I would recommend downloading the latest version of the service pack but you may for some reason require service pack 1 only, which should be ok for the following process.
Here are the steps:
1. Download the appropriate service pack from the Microsoft site. Of course there will be different installation files depending on whether you're using 32 or 64 bit copy of the installer. You can generally tell which type the installer it is by looking out for x86 (for 32 bit) or x64 (for 64 bit) in the installation file names.
2. Extract the files from the service pack installer:
Start > Run > "cmd" > Ok (button) or find and click Command Prompt from the start menu
Then run the following command:
c:\downloads\officeserver2007sp2-blabla-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:C:\SPFILES
3. Copy the files from the extracted folder (in my case SPFILES) into the updates directory of the MOSS 2007 installation folder.
This should get around the 'The program is blocked due to compatibility issues'.
Important: Before starting your installation, make sure that windows update is either turned off. This caused me a lot of pain, I ended up installing MOSS about 10 times before realising that because I was working from a certain checkpoint, the virtual machine downloaded and installed updates in the background while I was running the moss installer.
Result: MOSS installer would crash (literally) at the final step 'Applying updates' .
Now you should be able to launch the installation wizard (setup.exe) and perform a successful installation.
After you've installed MOSS 2007, do take a checkpoint / back up vm image. I had another random blue screen while running the sharepoint configuration wizard that follows the installation completion.
Tip: Take checkpoints/backups always, the installation process can fail at any stage (most of the time for good reasons of course)
Known topics not covered here: Setting up SMTP server for MOSS.