Getting Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to run on a Macintosh – part 1
OK I know the title maybe a bit misleading for some but you can have your cake and eat it too as long as you are willing to run Windows Server virtually.
Why am I doing this?
In preparation for some training on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, I have deployed WSS 3.0 on VMware Fusion. I know, I know blasphemy. SharePoint running on a Macintosh!
I have been fortunate in my career to have been able to work with a plethora of hardware and Operating Systems. All of them have their strong and week points. I have always felt more productive on the Macintosh platform and find myself fortunate user of a newish MacBook Pro 15.4″ model with 4GB of RAM.
I will be blogging about how I deployed WSS, tricks to simplify development and pit falls to avoid.
So with this said if you want to follow along you will need to understand the WSS architecture that I am deploying virtually.
The architecture:
There are three common SharePoint architectures: single server configuration, medium server farm and the high availability server farm. Since my WSS virtual machine is meant for development I chose to set up a single server farm configuration. More on why later. If you are interested in the planning and architecture of WSS Farms check this link. If you just want the quick run down on WSS Architecture check out Becky Lash’s blog post – Basics of WSS 3.0 architecture: My personal notes .
Download the Software:
So if you are going to follow along you will need to download and install the following before we can begin our WSS 3.0 single server configuration.
VMware Fusion 2.0 (Try before you buy!)
MacFUSE
NTFS-3g read write driver
Note on installing VMware Fusion 2.0: while you will be able to do this on a machine with 2 GB RAM I highly suggest you upgrade your machine to 4 GB of RAM.
Installing the Software:
A note before installing anything: You have backed up files that you can’t loose right? You are able to troubleshoot OS X and Windows Server installations right? Why do I ask? Because I am paid to do this for a living and will not be supporting this installation for free. 
Installing MaxFUSE:
- Down load the latest OSX dmg here
- Double click the MacFUSE-2.0.x.dmg
- Double click the MacFUSE 2.0 drive icon
- Double click the MacFUSE.pkg (the installer application)
- Click OK button until you get to a screen that says Install Succeeded.
Wrapping it up:
OK now you are ready to install pretty much any modern operating system in VMware Fusion. In my next post in this series I will cover the installation of Windows Server 2003 and what you need to do to prepare for your WSS installation.
Until then have a great week and don’t be afraid to try something new.
Robert Grissom
GSRsolutions.com
Hey there Robert!
Looking forward to seeing the rest of your series. We just blogged your post on the VMware Fusion team blog, and if you’d like to drop us a note at fusionsales@vmware or tweet us at @vmwarefusion , we’d love to continue to re-blog your series.
Pete Kazanjy
VMware Fusion Product Marketing