For those of you that have been used to running PSConfig when creating a new SharePoint farm to get rid of those pesky GUID’s, let me introduce a new tool for you… PowerShell.  In the next version of SharePoint (2010) there are some new steps that are needed when configuring a new farm.  First off, if you are installing SharePoint 2010 on a single server you can’t even run PSConfig successfully, it basically claims that using local accounts isn’t valid for PSConfig, so instead if you wish to pre-create your farm databases, open up the SharePoint Management Shell and type:

Get-Help New-SPConfigurationDatabase

You should notice that the majority of the parameters listed here are many of the same parameters that PSConfig uses, but unlike some of the other posts out there, make sure to use the –AdministrationContentDatabaseName property to specify the name of your Central Admin Content Database.

The other thing you will notice, is that for these new cmdlets, if there are required properties that the command needs, it will prompt you.  For the New-SPConfigurationDatabase you will notice it prompts you for the farm credentials (what you would normally through in PSConfig) and a new property called Passphrase.  The new Passphrase property removes the requirement on the farm account to exist when adding or removing servers from the farm.  It just means that you need to keep that property on hand, otherwise you will not be able to manage your farm later.  Here is a sample running New-SPConfigurationDatabase in my test environment:

After running New-SPConfigurationDatabase you may proceed with the SharePoint Technology and Configuration Wizard which will look very much like in 2007 to configure the Central Administration port and start the creation of your farm. 

["Brian"]