Ok I admit it. I took the easy way out. I was setting up a test environment of two instances using the standalone graphical installer and once done, I switched their roles. Everything worked except for one thing; the Experience Profile dashboard.

An Administrator's error caused the SQL account for Sitecore's collection database to be denied login. Normally you'd expect the related services to stop functioning, but in this case the system's various resources spiraled out of control.

I'm going through a project right now where I need to duplicate some vanilla environments. Due to resource locations being spread out I decided a manual clone was the easiest and fastest path, so today I'll share the process of cloning a Sitecore installation with SQL in Azure, and SOLR in a dedicated VM.

The Sitecore installation process has come a long way since the introduction of SIF. It has been flawless under countless runs, but I was recently tripped up due to a SQL connection error. In this post I'll explain the cause, resolution, and some steps to make your  next try of the installation easier. 

The upgrade folder is a great place to have handy during the installation of a package. It will hold information and items related to what you just installed, like logs, backup of files, what was deleted, etc. While browsing about a new Sitecore Managed Cloud installation I couldn't find it, but there's a patch to resolve the issue.

Who doesn't want things simple? Well, installing Horizon isn't as simple as the graphical interface reintroduced to Sitecore installs and still requires Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF), and is still pretty easy, but I'll make it easier.

I've been a fan of the graphical installer coming back and simplifying installations. I was even more impressed with the requirements check and auto-installation, which would set up a plethora of components and services. It seems though there's some items missing from this list which needed to be done manually, and we'll go through that today.

Habitat is a great demo instance that has been used to showcase what Sitecore can do. I'm grateful for this tool since we can spin up a copy quickly to use during project initialization phases where people new to Sitecore can quickly get familiar with it. Installation can be tricky, so I'll cover the steps and some hiccups I've come across.

The Sitecore Installation Framework has been a tremendous advancement in Sitecore instance management, but completely dropping the installer wasn't necessarily needed. The feedback was heard and with the release of Sitecore 9.2, an installer has been reintroduced. It brings up most of the way there, but there's still some room for improvement. We'll cover the installation of 9.2 with this assistant and what else is needed that it doesn't provide.

One of the prerequisites for a Sitecore installation is Solr. I'm excessively lazy, so having a script to do the complete installation for me is something I'm going to keep around. Today we'll install Solr in 2 simple steps!