With the recent release of SharePoint Server 2013 Preview and the excitement for evaluating the product, I came across an issue during the installation process. The problem was that as part of installation the specified account failed to create the configuration database when SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard was run after successful installation of SharePoint Server 2013 binaries.

In addition to the software preview release there is a good deployment guide for SharePoint 2013 Preview outlining the concepts, pre requisites and step by step installation & configuration instructions to help you to get set up. However, the issue is around the error in documentation on page 20 of the guide covering Initial deployment of administrative and service accounts in SharePoint Server 2013 Preview together with required permissions.

The accounts used for our SharePoint Server 2013 preview installation were:

• SQL Server Service Account
• SharePoint Setup Account
• SharePoint Server Farm Account

The specific issue was with the SharePoint setup account which was configured as per the screenshot below taken from the deployment guide. I have highlighted the permission that caused the error as described above.

Now I know what the experienced SharePoint Administrators and/or SharePoint DBAs be thinking on which SQL Server server-level roles to use based on previous versions of SharePoint installations! But this post is also reaching out to the audience who maybe new to SharePoint and just want the SharePoint product installed by following the instructions in the guide.

It is worth explaining here the use of SQL Server server-level roles that play the part in handling database access from SharePoint. In particular the following SQL Server server-level roles affecting SharePoint are described below.

securityadmin
Members of the securityadmin fixed server role manage logins and their properties. They can GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE server-level permissions. They can also GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE database-level permissions if they have access to a database. Additionally, they can reset passwords for SQL Server logins.

dbcreator
Members of the dbcreator fixed server role can create, alter, drop, and restore any database.

serveradmin
Members of the serveradmin fixed server role can change server-wide configuration options and shut down the server.

For further information on SQL Server server-level roles you can ask your Database Administrator or access the MSDN page. It should be noted that serveradmin role cannot manage changes to databases and security.

So to resolve the permissions issue with SharePoint setup account, the serveradmin role was deselected and only dbcreator & securityadmin SQL Server server-level roles were selected within SQL Server Management Studio login configuration area. The SharePoint Product Configuration wizard was re run and completed successfully with configuration and SharePoint Admin content databases created.

This post first appeared here: http://blog.pointbeyond.com/2012/08/02/failed-to-create-the-sharepoint-server-2013-configuration-database/

Published by Chirag Patel @techChirag

Chirag is a highly experienced Chartered IT Professional consultant and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) at Patel Consulting delivering business collaboration & productivity, data & information management solution implementation, migration and divestment projects with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft Viva, Power Platform, Security & Compliance and Microsoft 365 related technologies. Having worked with SharePoint since 2001 and Office 365 since 2012, Chirag has covered many roles, such as Delivery Lead, Technology Specialist, Solution Architect and Trainer working with clients in Energy, Financials, IT & Communications, Professional Services, Retail, Education, Public & Third sector, which has lead him to be an exceptional consultant & trainer as quoted by clients "established himself as a leader on the project, not only delivering on the separation and migration of M365 services, but also guiding and challenging colleagues to ensure the broader set of Cloud transition activities". Chirag is highly qualified with an MSc in Business Systems Analysis & Design and holds many certifications including Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrator Expert and TOGAF Certified Architect. As a volunteer, Chirag enjoys running Microsoft 365 UK (M365UK) user group and is a frequent speaker at local & international events. For his technical community contributions, Chirag has been awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) every year since 2020. He is also an Approved Chartered Membership Assessor for BCS (British Computer Society). According to sessionize.com, he was among the top 3% of most active speakers in 2022! View all posts by Chirag Patel @techChirag