Neil Killen

While attempting to install Sitecore 9.0 on a Windows 8.1 machine I ran into a few gotchas I thought worth sharing.

Gotcha #1 – Powershell Version

SIF requires Powershell 5.1 or later not 5.0 as stated in the install guide Section 2.3.2.

Sitecore Support have stated the documentation will be updated to show the correct prerequisites, i.e. PowerShell 5.1 instead of 5.0.

Gotcha #2 – Sitecore Fundamentals Not Supported

Having upgraded powershell I happily and very eagerly carried on. Util my install script hit another error:

I checked my the xconnect-createcert.json settings and everything looked fine and I could see Signer as one of the params specified for the NewSignedCertificate task:

"CreateSignedCert": {
// Create a certificate signed by the root authority.
"Type": "NewSignedCertificate",
"Params": {
"Signer": "[GetCertificate(variable('Root.Cert.DnsName'), variable('Root.Cert.Store'))]",
"Path": "[parameter('CertPath')]",
"CertStoreLocation": "[variable('Client.Cert.Store')]",
"Name": "[parameter('CertificateName')]",
"DnsName": "[parameter('CertificateName')]",
"ErrorAction": "Continue"
}
}

I took a closer look at the script New-SignedCertificate.ps1, part of Sitecore Fundamentals module. This calls a Windows Cmdlet: New-SelfSignedCertificate, however the version of this cmdlet on Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 does not have a param called Signer, hence the error.

Pay close attention to the install guide!!

The IIS Requirements(Section 2.1.1) for Sitecore XP 9.0 Install guide states IIS 8.5 is supported:

But the Sitecore Fundamentals module dependency, used to generate the security certificates automatically, does not support IIS 8.0\8.5 and this is mentioned later in the Install Guide (Chapter 5.1):

To get around the issue – you need to generate the certificates manually and then continue with the installation. Alternatively you could extend SIF and call your own version of New-SignedCertificate.ps1 to handles signing of certs for Win 8.1 & Server 2012 – that’s the beauty of SIF.

Hopefully Sitecore will update the guide and make the details of this limitation clearer.