Field installation notes

[richardhauer]

Hi there, just tried installing this for the first time and ran into some issues that are worth documenting in the Preview Usage.md in case others hit them, as some took AGES to resolve.

My environment is Windows 11 Enterprise with docker running in Windows mode.
My clone target dir is C:\sc

• When cloning ensure your target path is very short as the files are heavily nested and you will get path too long errors
• Make sure internet access from the containers works BEFORE YOU START! The timeouts are 30s each and if you have an issue (e.g. DNS/networking) the script will take HOURS longer than it needs to
• After cloning the repo you will need to execution policies in order to run any PS files. I used the following command:
  Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
  You will need to allow each script to run, but there's only a couple and it's good to be able to see what's being called I think
• In the middle of the first run of up.ps1 you will get a Sitecore login popping up along with the following message in the powershell console:

  Installing Sitecore CLI Plugins...
  Logging in to Sitecore. You should see a browser window open shortly.
  [DeviceLogin] User Code : 104114623
  [DeviceLogin] Authentication url : https://id.lighthouse.localhost/device?userCode=104114623
  [DeviceLogin] Authorization pending. Waiting.
  [DeviceLogin] Authorization pending. Waiting.
  [DeviceLogin] Authorization pending. Waiting.
  

  this login allows the system to merge in the demo site data so you need to allow the API access check boxes. This web process ends with the message "You have successfully authorized the device" and the shell goes along its merry way with (hopefully) loads of additional green. You can close this browser window.

A few minutes later and two browser windows open, one automagically logged into CM and one for the website itself. For me I also had the following slightly confusing messaging in the console:

Publish to [Internet(web)] Complete
Rebuilding indexes ...
Rebuilding:
sitecore_core_index [Running]
sitecore_master_index [Running]
sitecore_web_index [Running]
sitecore_marketingdefinitions_master [Running]
sitecore_marketingdefinitions_web [Running]
sitecore_marketing_asset_index_master [Running]
sitecore_marketing_asset_index_web [Running]
sitecore_testing_index [Running]
sitecore_suggested_test_index [Running]
sitecore_personalization_index [Running]
sitecore_fxm_master_index [Running]
sitecore_fxm_web_index [Running]
sitecore_sxa_master_index [Running]
sitecore_sxa_web_index [Running]
Processing...
The search indexes have been rebuilt:
sitecore_core_index [Failed]
sitecore_master_index [Failed]
sitecore_web_index [Failed]
sitecore_marketingdefinitions_master [Failed]
sitecore_marketingdefinitions_web [Failed]
sitecore_marketing_asset_index_master [Failed]
sitecore_marketing_asset_index_web [Failed]
sitecore_testing_index [Failed]
sitecore_suggested_test_index [Failed]
sitecore_personalization_index [Failed]
sitecore_fxm_master_index [Failed]
sitecore_fxm_web_index [Failed]
sitecore_sxa_master_index [Failed]
sitecore_sxa_web_index [Failed]
Opening sites...

Looking in Control Panel's Indexing Manager I can see that there is no data in the indexes at all. I cannot rebuild them as I just get error messages "undefined field _indexname" + "The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request." I tried to "populate schemas" but this also failed (probably why they are empty) but I have not resolved this bit yet.

Check for networking issues before starting

As noted in the Preview Usage.md file you should ensure there is a reachable DNS IP. I had an issue where even though I was able to nslookup and ping, I could not curl or invoke-webrequest. Spent some hours figuring this out... I had 2 network adapters enabled and "connected" though I only have one cable out of the box, so no idea what's going on there tbh. I disabled WiFi which was disconnected anyway, and the rogue "Ethernet 4" and re-ran up.ps1 which went much faster this time.

Some troubleshooting steps for networking tests are as follows:

Connect to container terminal

docker exec -it your_container_name powershell
then when inside

ping 8.8.8.8
nslookup google.com
iwr https://www.google.com

You can run a test container before you get all the Sitecore ones going like this:
docker run --rm --network nat mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore curl https://www.google.com

[richardhauer]

##UPDATE

Looks like the dns setting of 8.8.8.8 mean that the solr-init container that is tasked with configuring the Solr cores did not run properly with a bunch of errors.

I removed the dns entry from the engine, deleted the core folders from the \data\solr-data (leaving configsets and the root files) and restarted the solr container, then re-started the solr-init container which then re-created all the cores properly.

Re-populating the cores still did not work, however, as there were numerous schema errors to contend with.