Set Up a VM Test Server for Power View and PowerPivot

Set Up a VM Test Server for Power View and PowerPivot

Want to use Power View to display your own data in charts and use the cool filtering available in slicers and chart series and page filters, but you're not a SharePoint guru, or a systems admin, or even a SQL Server dba? Never heard of a document library? No problem ….

You – Want to visualize your date; tech-savvy, have hardware, not a systems admin, don't know much about SharePoint products, and always curious about how things work. You provide a HyperV host server 64-bit, and enough memory for your data (8 GB++).

Me – Want to show, step-by-step, how to install enough of the software stack so that, by the end, you'll have a playground where you can create Power View presentations with your own data. You'll also have a baseline one-server SharePoint farm (complete install). I show you how to configure this on a private domain so you can create your own domain accounts. The VM does not have to have a connection to the Web -- I'll show you how to share files between the HyperV host, which does have internet access, and the VM.

Along the way, I'll show you just enough about the software stack -- SharePoint Server 2010, PowerPivot for SharePoint, and Reporting Services for SharePoint (the Power View part), Office 2010 Excel and PowerPoint and the SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot Add-in for Excel, to be able to talk to your domain administrator, your SharePoint administrator, and your database administrators to work with them.

Or -- if all those hats are yours -- I'll get you started with a test environment that you can use to try out your configuration.  I'll show you how to find tools to view health rule definitions, Windows events, IIS log files, and ULS logs, so you can give detailed information when you post questions to the forums or provide feedback to the product team at Microsoft on the Connect site.

And more… I'll show you how to create a PowerPivot workbook from plain old text files data and turn it into a sparkling interactive presentation complete with images. I'll show you not one, but three methods to add graphics to your models and work with them in your model. I'll show how to set reporting properties that help you control how Power View displays your data. Finally, I'll give you a quick introduction to SharePoint Health rules -- hwo to fix them, which you can ignore.

Interested? It's a journey. Grab your favorite energy drink and block out some uninterrupted time. Let's get started…
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Video Walkthroughs


Part 1 – Prepare Your Virtual Machine

Time: 18:43
Video url:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/jj899816.aspx 

Part 2 – Install SQL Server 2012, SharePoint Server 2010 SP1, Office 2010 SP1, Silverlight 5.0

Time: 31:23
Video url:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/jj899817.aspx 

Part 3 – Configure SharePoint Server 2010, PowerPivot for SharePoint, and Reporting Services for SharePoint

Time: 10:58
Video url:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/jj899826.aspx 

Part 4 – Create PowerPivot Workbooks, Tabular Models, and Power View Presentations

Time: 35:29
Video url:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/jj899827.aspx 

Part 5 - Investigate Health rule issues

Time: 12:29
Video url:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/jj899828.aspx 


Resources mentioned in the Part 5 video


Monitoring SharePoint 2012
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg193966.aspx 

Configure diagnostic logging (SharePoint Server 2010):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748656.aspx

Start your local Health Analyzer:
http://localhost:<CA port #>/monitoring.aspx

PowerPivot Health Rules Reference (PowerPivot for SharePoint):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh230899.aspx

Unified Logging System (ULS)/ULS Viewer
http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/ULSViewer

Real-World SharePoint 2010 Chapter 3
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg193966.aspx

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Other Resources

For a shorter demo, without the detail, try this:

If you're interested in more than just Power View, PowerPivot, and tabular models, try this:

If you want to know more about creating a baseline for SharePoint 2010 farms, try this:

Find more info:

Connect site for reporting feedback:
https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer (login with your LiveID)

Landing page for all SQL Server videos
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/dd353197.aspx 

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  • Jeannine Takaki edited Revision 2. Comment: video

  • Jeannine Takaki edited Revision 3. Comment: added links to resources in Part 5 video

  • Jeannine Takaki edited Revision 6. Comment: added heading styles

  • Nice resource. Thank you!

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