TIHIDI: Install Sitecore Instance Manager (SIM)

Sitecore Instance Manager is a great utility if you are a Sitecore developer working on multiple projects. It gives you the ability to install, maintain and delete Sitecore sites on a local machine among other things. You no longer need to run the Sitecore install exe.

TIHIDI: Stands for This Is How I Do It. I am going to be writing a series of blog posts going through how I do Sitecore related work. Hope it helps you!

The newer versions of the SIM are ClickOnce installer based and makes it easy to install it on your machine.

You can go to the Sitecore Marketplace (https://marketplace.sitecore.net/) and search for “Sitecore Instance Manager”:

 

 

 

Or visit http://dl.sitecore.net/updater/sim/

Click on the SIM.Tool.application file which was downloaded.

Click the Install button on the prompt as shown below:

SIM starts to download on your machine.

If you are on Windows 10 (Windows 8 or later), you might see a prompt similar to the one shown below:

TEMPORARILY disable the SmartScreen setting by going to Control Panel> System and Security> Security and Maintenance> Windows SmartScreen> Change Settings:

Run the SIM.Tool.application again and follow the prompts.

Select the location where you will place the Sitecore installation zip files and location of your Sitecore license.xml file.

Specify the connection string to your local SQL Server.

Confirm the website location and click the Grant button.

If you installed your SQL Server to run under credentials other than Network Service account, you might see the error below:

Stop the SQL Server service, modify the settings to login as the Network Service and start the service.

Get back to the install and click the Grant button again. The install completed and you get the confirmation.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me. (@akshaysura13 on twitter or on Slack).