This morning I came across a small problem when running the pre-requisites tool for configuring a new SharePoint 2013 farm, specifically when the tool was attempting to install “Application Server and IIS Web Server roles” it would fail with no detail as to why? Not being documented all that well on TechNet I wasted some time trying to figure out what was missing. This was a clean Windows Server 2012 VM image with no roles installed.
The answer; which in-fact I had come across in a different scenario before with Windows Server 2012 was to install the .NET Framework 3.5 feature manually. It’s worth mentioning that the source files for this feature are not shipping in the base install of Windows Server 2012 like other feature/roles do. When you go into the Server Manager, add the .NET Framework 3.5 and you will be prompted to supply the source path to the install files. Use the path “X:\Sources\SxS” to reference where the source files are located replacing X with either your CD/DVD drive or other UNC pointer.
For reference the minimum feature selections required to jump this hurdle are:
- .Net Framework 3.5 Features
- .Net Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)
Then on the confirmation screen don’t forget to specify the source path to your installation media.
