Nintex Workflow 2010 Installation

Today I installed and configured Nintex Workflow 2010 for SharePoint 2010.

I must say, the guys at Nintex are doing a brilliant job and their product documentation is clear and easy to follow.
I had absolutely no problems installing Nintex Workflow 2010 on my SharePoint 2010 sandbox and this tutorial will show how easy it is to prepare a Nintex Workflow 2010 environment.

The reasons for choosing Nintex Workflow 2010 as a workflow designer tool deserve a separate post, but for a quick overview please have a look at this site.

Prerequisites:
In my environment I had the following in place before installing Nintex Workflow 2010:
  * Windows 2008 Server
  * Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010
  * SQL Server 2008 (and other prerequisites to run SharePoint 2010)
  * SMTP Server (outside of the SharePoint Farm)
  * SMTP Service configured on Windows 2008 server (see instructions)
  * Outgoing email settings configured for SharePoint Farm (see instructions)
  * Outgoing email settings configured for SharePoint Web App (see instructions)

Installation & Configuration:
The install is very simple.
I followed the installation guide which is available on this site under technical information.

The following steps need to be followed:
  1 Install the Nintex Workflow 2010 solution package
  2 Perform Database Configuration
  3 Configure Workflow Server Settings
  4 Activate Features

1 Install the Nintex Workflow 2010 (NW2010) solution package:
To install the NW2010 solution package is really very easy.
Ensure that you are logged in to the server as local admin.

  1.1 Run the NintexWorkflow2010.msi from the local machine.
        Follow the steps through the wizard until finished.
 
I got a error during installation complaining that the assembly failed in the zone "My Computer"
To solve this make sure that User Account Control is turned off or set it to the very minimum.
Follow these steps:
  1.Click on Start, and then Control Panel
  2.In Control Panel, click User Accounts
  3.In the User Accounts window, click User Accounts
  4.In the User Accounts tasks window, turn the User Account Control to the very minimum
  5.Restart to apply the changes


  1.2 Deploy the solution to web applications.
       Open the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration 
       go to 'System Settings' and then to 'Manage Farm Solutions'
       You will see 2 new solutions in the list of solutions in the farm.
       They are:
         nintexworkflow2010.wsp and
         nintexworkflow2010enterprisefeatures.wsp
       Deploy both solutions to all content web applications.
       After both solutions have been deployed successfully you should see the following 
       status:

       In order to activate the NW2010 configuration functionality in Central Admin, you
       have to deploy the nintexworkflow2010enterprisefeatures.wsp solution again, but
       this time select only the Central Admin web application as the "Deploy To" location.
       It is not necessary to retract the solution first, just deploy it again.
   1.3 The next step is to import the Nintex License.
       If you return to the Home page of Central Admin you will notice a new configuration
       section called "Nintex Workflow Management". 

      Click on 'Nintex Workflow Management' and select 'Licensing'

      From here you can click on the 'Import' button... to import your license file.

Ok, once this is all done we are ready to:

2- Configure the Nintex database.

In Central Admin go to the Nintex Workflow Management section.

Click on the "Database Setup" link and then click on the "Create" button.

Provide details of your database server and click on the "OK" button to allow the database to be generated.

The cool thing here is that in previous versions of Nintex Workflow (for SharePoint 2007) it was really tricky to get the database connection details working in a single server installation. It seems like it has all been taken care of since I am able to use my Windows Authentication to access the database without any problems.

Great, we are moving ahead... the next step is to:

3 - Configure the Nintex Workflow 2010 Server Settings

This will require that we:

    3.1 Perform Web Application Activation

    3.2 Enable Workflow Actions

    3.3 Configure Email Settings

    3.4 Enable and Configure Lazy Approval

   

    3.1 Perform Web Application Activation:

          In Central Admin go to the 'Nintex Workflow Management' section and click on

          "web application activation"

          Activate the feature to the applicable web application.

         

    3.2 Enable Workflow Actions
          In Central Admin go to the 'Nintex Workflow Management' section and click on

          "manage allowed actions"
          Select the workflow actions which you want to allow in your farm and click on OK.
         
    3.3 Configure Email Settings
          In Central Admin go to the 'Nintex Workflow Management' section and click on

          "Global settings"
          Provide the appropriate smtp server settings and click on "OK"

3.4 Enable and Configure Lazy Approval
         In Central Admin go to the 'Nintex Workflow Management' section and click on

         "LazyApproval Settings"
         Click on the "Enable / Disable LazyApproval" shortcut to enable LazyApproval.

The last step is to:

4 - Activate Features

Go to the Site Collection Features of your site on which you want to use Nintex Workflow 2010. (In SP2010 it is located under "Site Settings" --> Site Collection Features under Site Collection Administration)

You will see the following new site collection features.

Enable all of them:

Go to the Site Features of your site on which you want to use Nintex Workflow 2010. (In SP2010 it is located under "Site Settings" --> Manage site features under Site Actions)

Congratulations, Nintex Workflow 2010 have now been installed and configured and you can begin building workflow solutions !!!

In my next post I will show how to build a simple workflow to test whether the installation was successful.

Enjoy !!

You will see the following new site features.
Enable all of them: