Everyone loves the SIM Tool.  It’s one of my favorite parts about Sitecore development. Want a new Sitecore? Fill in some blanks, click a button and poof. You’re ready to go.

Sitecore 9 has changed that.  To say it’s changed a bit is an understatement.  In the Technical Preview, all installation of Sitecore is done via Powershell.  That’s neat and all, but oh man was it complicated.  It’s been rumored that things are a little more streamlined when GA drops, so I’ll provide an update here.

Regardless, with a HTTPS-first approach, you’ll need to be familiar with creating SSL Certificats on your local machine.

Sitecore helps a bit with the creation of the Sitecore Installation Framework or SIF.  SIF is a framework that lets you define Tasks and Parameters inside a powershell framework.  The jist is as follows:

1. Install the SIF Module into Powershell
2. Configure the parameters and tasks
3. Import the SIF Module
4. Invoke the Module against a configuration file of Parameters and Tasks
5. Profit

It’s really simple when you lay it out that way.  In reality, the “Quick Start Guide” took a few hours to go through the first time, but was quick each subsequent time.

Here’s a basic task list based off the Technical Preview.  GA is going to be slightly different, I imagine.

1. Install Prereqs: SQL, JRE, IIS, etc. New item here is Web Deploy.
2. Create a SSL Cert for xConnect and Solr
3. Install XP0
4. Configure Solr and Solr Schema
5. Configure/Install xConnect for Solr
6. Configure/Install Sitecore for Solr
7. Configure/Install xConnect for Sitecore
8. Some SQL Setup/Permissions
9. Post-Installation configuration

It’s a bit more elaborate than before, but again: for a cloud-first mentality this is a crucial step.  I imagine that SIM will be configured to do all this.  Make sure you keep an eye on the official SIM Github repo for updates.

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