Prepare the new SharePoint Foundation 2010 environment for a database attach upgrade

Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010

When you upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 by using the database attach approach, you upgrade only the content for your environment and not the configuration settings. Using a database attach upgrade is useful when you are changing hardware or want to reconfigure your server farm topology as part of the upgrade process. For more information about how to choose an upgrade approach, see Determine upgrade approach (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Before you can upgrade the data, you must configure a new server or server farm by using SharePoint Foundation 2010. This article explains the elements you need to configure to create that new environment. For more information about the general process of upgrading by using the database attach upgrade approach, see Upgrade process overview (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

In this article:

• Before you begin

• Create and configure the new environment

• Verify the new environment

• Perform the upgrade

Before you begin

Before you begin to create the new environment for a database attach upgrade, review the following information about permissions, hardware requirements, and software requirements.

• Ensure that you have met all hardware and software requirements. You must have a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. For server farms, you must also have a 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008. For more information about these requirements (such as specific updates that you must install), see Determine hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

• Ensure that you are prepared to set up the required accounts by using appropriate permissions. For detailed information, see Administrative and service accounts required for initial deployment (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

• Run the pre-upgrade checker on your original environment. The pre-upgrade checker identifies potential upgrade issues in your environment so that you can address them before you upgrade. It can also help you identify settings that you need in your new environment. For more information, see Run the pre-upgrade checker (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Create and configure the new environment

The process of creating and configuring the new environment contains several steps, which must be performed in the correct sequence. These steps are:

1. Install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the server or servers.

2. Configure service applications.

3. Configure general farm settings.

4. Create and configure Web applications.

5. Reapply customizations.

The remainder of this section describes these steps and provides links to other articles that contain step-by-step instructions for performing them. After you have performed these steps, you can verify the environment and then perform the upgrade.

Install

The first step in creating your new environment is to install SharePoint Foundation 2010 and configure your new server or server farm. You must do the following:

1. Run the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool to install all required software.

2. Run Setup to install the product.

3. Install any language packs that you need in your environment.

4. Run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard to configure your server or servers.

The following articles provide step-by-step instructions for performing these tasks.

• Install and configure the product

  Follow the steps in one of the following articles to install and configure SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a single server or server farm:

  • Deploy a single server with SQL Server (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

  • Multiple servers for a three-tier farm (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

  For more deployment scenarios (such as installing in a stand-alone environment with SQL Express), see Deployment scenarios (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

• Install and configure language packs

  Follow the steps in Deploy language packs (SharePoint Foundation 2010) to install and configure any language packs that are needed for the sites in your environment.

Configure service applications

You must configure any services you want to use in your new environment, such as the Business Data Connectivity service. The steps included in the deployment scenarios articles listed above describe how to use the Initial Farm Configuration Wizard to enable all services. However, you can also configure services manually. For more information about how to configure services manually, see Configure services (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Configure general farm settings

The next step in creating the new environment is to apply general farm settings. You must manually reapply configuration settings from your previous version farm, including the following:

• Incoming and outgoing e-mail settings

• Any farm–level security and permission settings, such as adding user or group accounts to the Farm Administrators group.

• Blocked file types

• Quota templates

And you must configure any new farm-level settings that you want to use, such as the following:

• Usage and health data collection

• Diagnostic logging

• Mobile accounts

For more information about how to configure these settings, see Configure farm settings (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Create and configure Web applications

Create a Web application for each Web application that existed in the original environment. For each Web application, do the following:

• Use the same URL and configure any alternate-access mapping settings.

  Note

  If you use a different URL, Microsoft Office applications might not be redirected correctly to the new URLs and any bookmarks to the old URLs will not work.

• Use the same authentication method.

  Important

  If you were using forms-based authentication, you will need to configure claims-based authentication instead. You must also create a Web application policy to grant Full Control to the user account that will be performing the database attach upgrade.
  For more information, see Configure forms-based authentication for a claims-based Web application (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

• Re-create included paths (such as /Sites).

• Enable self-service site creation for any Web application that used it in the previous environment.

For more information about how to configure Web applications and authentication, see the following articles:

• For classic authentication: Create a Web application (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

• For claims-based authentication: Create a Web application that uses Windows-claims authentication (SharePoint Foundation 2010) and Configure forms-based authentication for a claims-based Web application (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

Reapply customizations

One frequent cause of failures during upgrade is that the environment is missing customized features, solutions, or other elements. Make sure that any custom elements you have to have are installed on your front-end Web servers before you begin the upgrade process. You can use the pre-upgrade checker to compile a list of server-side customizations in your environment. For more information, see Identify and install customizations in the article "Use a trial upgrade to find potential issues."

In this step, you manually transfer all customizations into your new farm. Make sure to install any components that your sites depend on to work correctly, including the following:

• Custom site definitions

  Note

  If the site definition was created in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can copy it over to the new environment as-is. If, however, it was created in Windows SharePoint Services version 2.0, you might have to create an upgrade definition file to map the site definition to the new features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. For more information, see Develop new custom site definitions and create upgrade definition files (Windows SharePoint Services) and Deploy upgrade definition files and new site definitions (Windows SharePoint Services).

• Custom style sheets, including cascading style sheets, and images

• Custom Web Parts

• Custom Web services

• Custom features and solutions

• Custom assemblies

• Web.config changes (such as security)

  Ensure that you transfer any unique settings from the Web.config files for each Web application to the new servers.

• Any other components or files on which your sites depend.

For more information about how to update customizations for use in SharePoint Foundation 2010, see: Redeploying Customizations and Solutions in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010. For more information about how to deploy customizations to your environment, see Deploy customizations - overview (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Verify the new environment

After you have set up the new environment, you can perform tests to make sure it contains all the components you need before you upgrade your data. To test your new environment, you can use the following methods:

• Create a new Web application and then use the Windows PowerShell Test-SPContentDatabase cmdlet to verify that all the server-side customizations that are needed for that content database are present in the new environment. Do not attach or upgrade the database. For more information, see Test-SPContentDatabase.

  Note

  You can also run this command on the original content database, but the database should not be in active use at the time.

• Use the enumallwebs Stsadm operation in your Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 environment to see which template each site is associated with and then verify whether the template is installed in your SharePoint Foundation 2010 environment. The October Cumulative Update includes improvements to the enumallwebs operation that can help you find customizations in use. For more information about this operation, see Enumallwebs: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).

Perform the upgrade

After you finish preparing the new environment, you can attach and upgrade the databases.

Follow the steps in Attach databases and upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 to attach and upgrade the databases from the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 server or server farm to the new SharePoint Foundation 2010 server or server farm.

See Also

Other Resources

Downloadable book: Upgrading to SharePoint Foundation 2010
Resource Center: Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Foundation 2010