Best Practices for Installing Web Parts and Solutions

Do not install Bamboo products across versions of SharePoint. IE 2013 Product versions only work with SharePoint 2013. We have separate installs for each version of Share Point.

When installing Bamboo web part and solution products, please observe the following best practices to help ensure a positive experience:

1. Please consult Bamboo support if installing PM Central or Workflow Conductor for the first time. Those solutions are complex and require additional configuration after installation. We include service hours with those products so please schedule your deployment with us so we can help ensure you have a successful installation.
2. Plan your deployment and schedule any required downtime. Installing any SharePoint solution recycles the application pools which results in temporary outages. It is best to do production installations during a planned outage window and fully communicate the activity with key stakeholders so they don't attempt business-critical work during that time.
3. Download the installation package to an installation folder on your Central Administration server. We recommend using a structured folder system such as D:\sp2016\install\<date>\<product> to help track changes on your SharePoint farm. For example "D:\sp2016\install\08142018\SA12.R18.1.SP2013" indicates that the 18.1 release of PMC was installed on August 14, 2018. This is a simple but useful way to track farm configuration changes, which is tremendously helpful for troubleshooting if an issue occurs at a later date.
4. Begin on a QA, staging, or test environment. This is not required but many organizations have a non-production SharePoint farm they use to integrate solutions before installing in production. This can minimize production downtime by resolving issues in non-production before proceeding.
5. Run the installPrecheck.ps1 script and review the results prior to installing. The installPrecheck.ps1 script is included in release 18.3 or later and can also be downloaded using the attachment found with this article. You can review the results using the ULS viewer found at this link: Microsoft ULS Viewer
6. If installPrecheck.ps1 can't complete or there are Critical errors, please open a ticket with Bamboo Solutions support and attach the installPrecheck.txt log file. It is important to make sure your SharePoint farm is in good health and that the SharePoint Timer service is running before attempting to deploy. The pre-check is intended to help make sure installations go smoothly so it is an important test before installing.

Previous guidance on restarting servers and services is no longer recommended. The new installation process now automatically restarts any required services and performs checks to confirm the running account has sufficient rights to make changes.

If you have an issue installing, please open a ticket with Bamboo Solutions support and attach the ulsPrecheck.txt and ulsPostcheck.txt log files. Those two files provide a snapshot of SharePoint errors that occurred before, during, and after the installation.

Key Tips

• Running installPrecheck.ps1 does not recycle the application pools and will not cause an outage. It is safe to run during business hours and will not change the farm configuration or data.
• Running install.ps1 or uninstall.ps1 recycles the application pools and will cause a temporary outage. It is not recommended to run either during business hours.
• Installing or uninstalling Bamboo web parts and solutions does not affect content. In other words, reinstalling Alert Plus will not remove existing Alert configurations.

***For the Step by Step Server Product Installation Guide Please Click Here***