SharePoint 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2
When you consider using Windows Server 2008 R2 for your SharePoint 2007 platform you need to put additional effort to configure and install SharePoint properly.
There are a few actions you need to undertake for the successful deployment of SharePoint on R2.
1,,) You can only install SharePoint 2007 SP2 on R2 version. Unfortunately, MS doesn’t provide SharePoint 2007 SP2 slipstream package, so you need to create one by yourself (Take into account, that you need to delete everything from the “Updates” folder in case of using SP1 slipstream)
2) After you complete installation you will find that whenever you are trying to open the Central Administration the login and password are requested, regardless of your efforts to add Central Administration to the Trust Zone and set the option to logon automatically with the user’s name/password. This is a new change in security of Vista and Windows 7. To remove the login prompt you need to add a key “AuthForwardServerList” to the windows registry. Read the following guidelines.
3) When you create a new site and try to open it you can find the situation when login dialog box is prompted, but you end up with the white screen after you entering credentials three times. Usually, you navigate to c:WindowsSystem32driversetc folder, open the “hosts” file and add an alias for your site to solve this problem. But, under some circumstances this wont help you in R2, and moreover, your can’t open the site via “localhost” name. The solution is to add the alias not only to host file, but in “lmhosts.sam” as well
October 12, 2009@ 8:42 am
Thanks 🙂
October 12, 2009@ 4:37 pm
I”m having a similar issue but it”s happening on the server side. Server 2008 (not R2) and SharePoint SP2. I can”t open the main intranet site from the server that is hosting the site. Interestingly enough, I can open the Central Admin site no problem. I just can”t open the main intranet site without getting prompted for a login three times and then it goes to a white screen.
The site is opening fine on any machine other than the actual server hosting the site.
October 12, 2009@ 10:43 pm
can you open “localhost” site?!
Check the records in hosts and lmhosts files and add localhost alias
October 13, 2009@ 6:25 pm
I tried to open http://127.0.0.1 and that brings up the login prompt as well. I”ve also tried adding the “localhost” site to the lmhosts file. It”s already configured in the hosts file. I still get the login prompt three times and then the screen goes white. Do you have any other ideas?
Thanks for your help!
October 14, 2009@ 6:58 pm
@Shelly I had the exact same issue you were facing. Thankfully one of my colleagues knew of the fix:
http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2009/04/access-denied-in-win2008-with-custom.html
October 15, 2009@ 1:39 pm
Thank you Merill! That did the trick! awesome…
November 17, 2009@ 9:53 am
Here are the slipstream instructions from the Sharepoint Team blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/02/install-sharepoint-server-2007-on-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx
January 15, 2010@ 12:34 pm
Thanks for the past since I forgot about the Loopback of death, even on 2010 still the same behaviour “by design” 😉
January 6, 2011@ 11:37 pm
Hope I”m not too late to the party 🙂
Regarding item 2 – I checked on that article, and while I”m sure it works for Vista and Windows 7, there is no such registry key in Windows 2008 R2. Do I need to install the ”Desktop Experience Module”?
January 7, 2011@ 9:18 pm
Just add just registry key for Windows 2008 R2.
You need Desktop Experience to have WebDAV enabled