More on WSS 2003 to 2007 Upgrades

Mauro — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:38:00 GMT

Another important note on upgrading from WSS 2003 to 2007... one of the challenges of working with stsadm with WSS 2003 was that the backup\restore commands only worked at the site collection level. That meant that you could not backup and restore a single site. Ouch! With WSS 2007 there are two new commands, import and export, that do the trick. What does this mean for your upgrade plan? It allows you to move WSS 2003 sites, if you choose, one by one (or, more importantly, owners by owners). Now, you can rethink about your site taxonomy as well as your rollout plan. Here's the syntax...

stsadm.exe -o export -url <siteOriginalURL> -filename <siteFileName>.cmp (this creates a .cmp file(s) on the file system)

stsadm.exe -o import -url <siteNewURL> -filename <siteFilename>.cmp -includeusersecurity (this restores your backed up site to the desired location)

The -includeusersecurity option allows you to maintain the existing security model for the site

Upgrading from WSS 2003 to 2007

Mauro — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:25:00 GMT

One of the easiest and most reliable ways to upgrade a WSS 2003 site collection is via a gradual upgrade. This works if you are building your 2007 environment on new servers and involves using WSS's content database. Below are the steps I use. They work well, when you remember to follow them all, and can be executed very quickly. Of course, this assumes a clean prescan report (with no reported issues on your existing WSS site(s)). Happy upgrading!

Take a backup of the current production 2003 site(s) using stsadm

stsadm.exe –o backup –url <siteURL> -filename <siteFILENAME>

Create a new WSS 2003 virtual server (if you do not have a test copy of your sites)

Create new virtual directory
Go to SharePoint Central Administration
Extend or upgrade virtual server

Restore site(s) to the new WSS virtual server (this will give you an isolated content database)

stsadm.exe –o restore –url <siteURL> -filename <siteFILENAME> -overwrite

Run prescan utility (very important! don't forget this)

prescan.exe /all

Backup the WSS 2.0 content database

Use SQL Server Enterprise Manager/Management Studio

Restore the WSS 2.0 content database to the new SQL Server server

Use SQL Server Enterprise Manager/Management Studio

Create a new WSS 3.0 web application

Go to SharePoint Central Administration
Create or extend web application

Delete the content database

Go to SharePoint Central Administration
Content Databases

Attach the WSS 2003 content database using stsadm

stsadm.exe –o addcontentdb –url <newsiteURL> -databaseserver <databaseServer> -databasename <databaseName>

Run IISRESET
If any site(s) was unghosted in 2003, the interface will remain the same (and not take on the 2007 characteristics). To change this, you must reset the site definition.

Go to Site Settings
Click 'Reset to Site Definition'

After resetting the site definition, you may need to clean up the navigation by removing unnecessary tabs

Mauro Cardarelli : WSS upgrade

More on WSS 2003 to 2007 Upgrades

Upgrading from WSS 2003 to 2007