The install finished successfully (thank God!). Now I arrive at the stage where I need to configure Sharepoint 2010.

Below were the steps I took:

1. I selected “Create a new server farm”.

2. I specified the database server as WINSERVER2008 (VM machine name).

3. I then specified WINSERVER2008\SPT_Farm as the database access account and I encountered the following error message:

The specified user WINSERVER2008\SPT_Farm is a local account. Local accounts should only be used in stand alone mode.

I then came accross this article that can bypass that message:

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/fromthefield/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=112

When I tried to run the PowerShell command as mentioned in that post, I get the following error message:

New-SPConfigurationDatabase : SQL server at WINSERVER2008 has an unsupported ve
rsion 9.0.4035.0. The minimum required SQL server versions are SQL Server 2005
SP3 CU3, version number: 9.00.4220.00, downloadable from “http://support.micros
oft.com/kb/967909”, or SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU2, version number 10.00.2714.00, d
ownloadable from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970315. 
At line:1 char:28
+ new-spconfigurationdatabase <<<< + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share…urationDatabase: SPCmdletNewSPConfigurationDatabase) [New-SPConfigurationDatabase], SPCmdle tException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletNewSPCon figurationDatabase

I then went to the KB article as mentioned above:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967909

After I installed 3 SQL patches, the install finished successfully.

Now I arrive at the SP2010 Central Admin site! WOOHOO!

At this point RAM consumption is 801-931MB and please note that I have SQL 2005 Developer Edition running on the same VM.

To be continued…