This one is a summary of my own experience for Sitecore Experience Commerce 10.2 Initial Release (aka Sitecore XC 10.2.0) installation on my machine. I’ve had much experience in the following ones:

• Sitecore XC9 installation
• Sitecore XC9 Update 1 installation
• Sitecore XC9 Update 2 installation
• Sitecore XC9 Update 3 installation
• Sitecore XC 9.1 Initial Release installation
• Sitecore XC 9.2 Initial Release installation
• Sitecore XC 9.3 Initial Release installation
• Sitecore XC 10 Initial Release installation
• Sitecore XC 10.1 Initial Release installation

so I decided to go only with:

• XC Installation Guide for On Premises Solutions (Thanks Sitecore team!)

I do hope that this blog post is helpful for your own journey as well.

Note: personally, I wanted to use my own install directory rather than the default one

Setup Prerequisites

Please refer to the Sitecore Experience Commerce Compatibility Table for the software and version prerequisites:

• Windows 10
• ASP.NET Core Runtime 3.1.6 (or later) Hosting Bundle
• Sitecore Experience Platform 10.2 Initial Release
• Sitecore PowerShell Extensions 6.3 for Sitecore 10.2
• Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) 10.2
• Packages for On Premises WDP 2021.11-8.0.218
• Redis 3.0.504 or later

Step-by-step guide

1. install the ones below if NOT YET 😀
   • a fresh Sitecore XP 10.2 Initial Release instance , let’s say storefront1020.local and storefront1020.xconnect.local (xConnect site), storefront1020.identityserver.local (IdentityServer site)
   • download and install ASP.NET Core Runtime 3.1.6 (or later) Hosting Bundle (Note: don’t forget to restart the OS)
   • download and install Redis 3.0.504 or later
2. rebuild the Link databases for the master and core databases if not yet:
   • on the Sitecore Launchpad, click Control Panel, and in the Database section, click Rebuild Link Databases
   •  select the master and core databases and then click Rebuild
   • 
3. rebuild the search indexes if not yet:
   • on the Sitecore Launchpad, click Control Panel, and in the Indexing section, click Indexing manager
   •  in the Indexing Manager dialog box, click Select all, and then click Rebuild
   • 
4. ensure that Experience Analytics is working properly

   • This slideshow requires JavaScript.
   • Note: if there is any error
     • option 1: you will have to solve it before installing XC by opening the Sitecore log and then having a look at the error messages (normally, they’re certificate issues)
     • option 2: you may want to disable xDB and then fix the error later after installing XC successfully
5. download and install the following modules to your vanilla Sitecore 10.2 instance through Installation Wizard
   • Sitecore PowerShell Extensions 6.3 for Sitecore 10.2
   • Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) 10.2
6. create a new folder D:\sc1020_com_install
7. download MSBuild Microsoft Visual Studio Web targets (available from Nuget) then extract the Web targets package, copy the tools\VSToolsPath\Web\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll file into D:\sc1020_com_install
8. download and unzip Packages for On Premises WDP 2021.11-8.0.218 then put it into D:\sc1020_com_install
9. unzip D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF.Sitecore.Commerce.7.0.37.zip and then rename to D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF for a better practice
10. override the following files in order to inject the custom install directory of Commerce’s sites
    • open raw and then copy / paste Master_SingleServer.json into D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\Configuration\Commerce
    • 
    • open raw and then copy paste CommerceEngine.json into D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\Configuration\Commerce\CommerceEngine
    • 
    • open raw and then copy / paste CommerceEngine.Instance.Deploy.json into D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\Configuration\Commerce\CommerceEngine
    • 
    • (optional) download + unzip  Configuration.zip and then copy / paste all to D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF
11. download sc1020_com_install.ps1 and put it into D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF then open it to correct the following parameters if necessary
    • $ScInstallDirectory
    • $SiteNamePrefix
    • $SiteHostHeaderName
    • $SitecoreDbServer
      • ensure using double-backslash if any
      • 
    • $SqlUser
    • $SqlPass
    • $SolrUrl
    • $SolrRoot
    • $SolrService
    • $CommerceEngineConnectClientSecret: refer to Step 14 below
      • deployment fails if you don’t provide a qualified value for this parameter
      • 
12. (optional) create a secret client certificate
    • refer to 2.3. Create a secret client certificate (Page 11-12) in XC Installation Guide for On Premises Solutions
    • 
    • Note: you can download the PowerShell script above here and then
    • launch PowerShell as an administrator
    • change directory to D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF
    • execute .\GenerateClientSecret
    • 
    • note the generated client script and then replace the value of $CommerceEngineConnectClientSecret
    • 
13. (optional) correct the SitecoreUserName and SitecoreUserPassword of your Sitecore XP 10.2.0 instance if you’re using others rather than the default ones
    • 
14. (optional) you can specify any local account (note: it will be created automatically if non-existent) to be set up for the various application pools that are created as part of the deployment
    • 
15. let’s install it
    • Note: ensure that there is NO custom AllowedCorsOriginsGroup in D:\sc1010_com_install\SIF\IdentityServerSitecore.Commerce.IdentityServer.Host.xml (they’re added automatically in prior installations) by reverting Sitecore.Commerce.IdentityServer.Host.xml
    • launch PowerShell as an administrator
    • change directory to D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF
    • execute .\sc1020_com_install
    • 
    • hopefully there is nothing can stop the installation process now
16. open a browser then navigate to https://storefront1020.local/, you would see the default page of Sitecore website. That’s because we don’t use the default host name sxa.storefront.com so we need to correct it via Sitecore
    • log into https://storefront1020.local/sitecore/
    • access SXA Site Manager application
    • 
    • open Storefront site and then update Host Name to storefront1020.local and Database to master
    • 
    • (optional) uncheck the checkbox Cache Html and select Yes for Disable Browser Caching for a better practice
    • 
    • refresh https://storefront1020.local/ and then add some products, you would see something like this
    • 
17. DO NOT forget to perform Post-Installation Steps
    • follow Post-Installation Steps (from Page 17) in XC Installation Guide for On Premises Solutions

The recommendation

We can remove the modules completed from D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\Configuration\Commerce\Master_SingleServer.json and re-do Step 15 if there is something wrong (especially for Note: some known issues below) so that we are able to save a lot of time 😀

Likewise the following one in the installation guide:

How to uninstall it?

• open D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\sc1020_com_install.ps1 and uncomment the line 292 + comment out the line 289 then save it
• 
• Note: DO NOT FORGET to restore D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\Configuration\Commerce\Master_SingleServer.json if you already edited it for removing the modules completed via the install operations
• 
• open Windows PowerShell (run as administrator)
• change directory to D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF
• execute .\sc1020_com_install
• 
• hopefully, it runs well and cleans everything up

Note: some known issues

1. ScriptHalted
   • 
   • my suggestion is to remove all prior modules completed + CommerceEngine-Initialize task itself (in this case) from D:\sc1020_com_install\SIF\Configuration\Commerce\Master_SingleServer.json and re-do Step 15

Got issues?

Please send your issues (with screenshots if possible) to viet.hoang.sitecore@gmail.com so that I have a chance to understand your problem and be able to suggest the solution.

Happy Sitecore Commerce 10.2.0 Installation!