SharePoint 2010 standard/enterprise with SQL 2008 R2 on a single machine (standalone)

Problem:
I have installed Windows 2008 R2 and SQL 2008 R2 on a single virtual development environment, there is no domain controller. The situation is same as what is being descibed in this page .

I want the SharePoint 2010 to work in this environment, but I don't want to install SharePoint 2010 Standalone version, because it will try to install SQL Server Express instead of using the SQL 2008 R2 instance already installed. So, how to solve this?

Solutions: (it is intended for development environment only)
Instead of installing the “Standalone” version, you just install the “Server Farm” version.

When the installation is completed, follow the steps below:-

Step 1.
Create a SharePoint service account with password in your environment (i.e. MossSvc in my example)

Step 2.
Launch SQL Server Management Studio, and grant the service account to have “dbcreator” role.


Step 3.
Launch SharePoint 2010 Management Shell as administrator

Run New-SPConfigurationDatabase Cmdlet , you will need to provide the following info.
DatabaseName:
DatabaseServer:
FarmCredentials - (Please enter the new service account that created in Step 2)
Passphrase: - (A sequence of words or text used to control access to a computer system - in short... just enter some text, number and symbol)


It will take a moment to create the configuration database in the background, so please wait... When completed, you can launch the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, You should see the configuration database name that is same as what you specified in Step 3.

Keep the "Do not disconnect from this server farm" option



Then click Next, step through the wizard and you will have a Standalone SharePoint 2010 on SQL 2008 R2.

Hope you find this helpful. Thanks!

Tips Note:

If you want to rebuild or delete the initial SharePoint configuration database, launch Windows Powershell and run the Disconnect-SPConfigurationDatabase Cmdlet, then redo Step 3 again.