Prepare for upgrade

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Run the pre-upgrade checker

Run the pre-upgrade checker and address any issues. Use the report that is generated by the tool to fill out the Upgrade planning worksheet.

Detailed steps: Run the pre-upgrade checker (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step multiple times as you clean up your environment and test your upgrade process.

Running the checker takes only a few minutes, but addressing any issues might take days or weeks.

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Create an inventory of server-side customizations in the environment

Create an inventory of the server-side customizations in your environment (solutions, features, Web Parts, event handlers, master pages, page layouts, CSS files, and so on). Much of this information is reported when you run the pre-upgrade checker. Record all customizations needed for your environment in the upgrade worksheet.

Detailed steps: Identify and install customizations in the "Use a trial upgrade to find potential issues" article.

Perform this step for the whole environment. Check each Web server to make sure that you don't miss any customizations. Keep the inventory up to date as you prepare for the upgrade.

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Clean up your environment

Before you begin upgrading, you should make sure that your environment is functioning in a healthy state and that you clean up any content that you do not have to upgrade. Clean up any orphaned sites or data, address any large lists and large ACLs, remove extraneous document versions, and remove any unused templates, features and Web Parts.

Detailed steps: Clean up an environment before upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step once for the whole environment.

This process might take days or weeks to complete.

Prepare the new environment

Also see Prepare the new SharePoint Server 2010 environment for a database attach upgrade.

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Install and configure SharePoint Server 2010 and any language packs

Install the prerequisite software, and then install and configure SharePoint Server 2010.

Perform these steps on each server in your farm.

This step might take one or more hours, depending on how many servers are in your environment.

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Configure service applications

Enable and configure the services you need in your new environment. Do not configure the User Profile service application yet. You will enable and configure the User Profile service application when you upgrade the Shared Services Provider (SSP) database.

Perform this step once for the whole environment.

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Configure general farm settings

Reapply any general farm settings that you must have from your previous farm — such as blocked file types and e-mail and quota settings — and add users or groups to the Farm Administrators group. Configure new settings such as usage and health data collection, diagnostic logging, and mobile accounts.

Important:

If you had disabled the Workflow Auto Cleanup timer job in your Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment, make sure that you disable this timer job in your new environment also. If this timer job is enabled in the new environment and disabled in the previous version environment, you might lose workflow associations when you upgrade. For more information about this timer job, see Disable preservation of workflow history (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step once for the whole environment.

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Create and configure Web applications

Create a Web application for each Web application that existed in the old environment.

Perform this step once for the whole environment.

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Reapply server-side customizations

Manually transfer all server-side customizations into your new farm. Refer to the inventory you created in the upgrade worksheet to make sure that you install any components that your sites depend on to work correctly.

Make sure that you reapply customizations to all Web servers in the farm.

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Verify the new environment

After you set up the new environment, you can perform tests to make sure it contains all the components you have to have before you upgrade your data.

Perform this step once for the whole environment.

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Run the pre-upgrade checker

Run the pre-upgrade checker again to identify any new or remaining issues before you set the databases to read-only or back up the databases.

Detailed steps: Run the pre-upgrade checker (SharePoint Server 2010).

Running the checker takes only a few minutes, but addressing any issues might take longer.

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Set the previous version databases to be read-only (database attach with read-only databases)

If you want your original environment to remain available to users in a read-only state, set the databases to read-only before you back them up.

Perform this step for each content database in your environment.

Depending on your organization, you might need a database administrator to perform this task.

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Back up databases

Back up all of your content and SSP databases before you begin the database attach upgrade process.

Perform this step for each content database and SSP database in your environment.

This step can take an hour, several hours, or longer, depending on your data set and your environment.

Depending on your organization, you might need a database administrator to perform this task.

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Detach the previous version databases (standard database attach)

If you are going to upgrade the original databases (rather than a backup copy), detach the original databases from the instance of Microsoft SQL Server so that you can move them to the new environment.

Perform this step for each content database and SSP database in your environment.

Depending on your organization, you might need a database administrator to perform this task.

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Restore a backup copy of the database (database attach with read-only databases)

If you are going to upgrade a copy of the databases, restore the databases from the backup.

Perform this step for each content database and SSP database in your environment.

This step can take an hour or longer, depending on your data set and your environment.

Depending on your organization, you might need a database administrator to perform this task.

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Set the restored databases to be read-write (database attach with read-only databases)

Before you can attach and upgrade the databases you copied to the new environment, they must be set to read-write.

Perform this step for each content database in your environment.

Depending on your organization, you might need a database administrator to perform this task.

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Verify custom components

Use the Test-SPContentDatabaseWindows PowerShell cmdlet to verify that you have all the custom components that you need for that database.

Perform this step for each content database in your environment.

Running the cmdlet takes only a few minutes, but addressing any issues might take longer.

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Verify permissions

Ensure that the account that you use to attach the databases is a member of the db_owner fixed database role for the content databases that you want to upgrade.

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Attach a content database to a Web application

Attach the first content database that you want to upgrade. You must perform this action from the command line. You can use the Mount-SPContentDatabaseWindows PowerShell cmdlet or the AddContentDB Stsadm operation.

Perform this step for one content database in your environment.

This step might take an hour, several hours, or longer, depending on your data set and hardware on the Web servers, database servers, and storage subsystem.

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Verify upgrade for the first database

Verify that upgrade succeeded for the first database, and review the site to see if there are any issues.

Detailed steps: Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step for the content database you just attached.

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Upgrade the SSP database and configure user profiles

Before you upgrade any My Sites, you need to upgrade the SSP database and configure the User Profile service application.

Perform this step for each SSP that you had in your original environment.

This step might take an hour or more to complete, depending on your data set and hardware on the Web servers, database servers, and storage subsystem.

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Upgrade My Sites

Configure the My Site host URL and upgrade the My Sites.

Perform this step for each content database that contains My Sites in your environment.

This step might take an hour, several hours, or longer, depending on your data set, whether you are upgrading multiple databases in parallel, and the hardware on the Web servers, database servers, and storage subsystem.

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Attach remaining databases

Attach and upgrade the remaining content databases in your environment. You must perform this action from the command line.

Perform this step for each of the remaining content databases in your environment.

This step might take an hour, several hours, or longer, depending on your data set, whether you are upgrading multiple databases in parallel, and the hardware on the Web servers, database servers, and storage subsystem.

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Monitor upgrade progress

Use the Upgrade Status page in SharePoint Central Administration to monitor progress as your sites are upgraded.

Detailed steps: Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step for each content database that you upgrade.

This step might take an hour, several hours, or days, depending on your data set.

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Verify upgrade for the remaining database

Verify that upgrade succeeded for the remaining databases, and review the sites to see if there are any issues.

Detailed steps: Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step for each of the remaining content databases in your environment.

This step might take an hour, several hours, or days, depending on your content.

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Reapply administrator permissions for services

By default, farm administrators have permissions to all services when you perform a database attach upgrade. If you want to apply more restrictive permissions, do so now.

Perform this step for any services that require restricted permissions.

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Upgrade profile properties to taxonomy data and update the photo store for User Profile services

Data in profile properties in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that had multiple values was stored in the SSP database as part of the Profile Services data. For SharePoint Server 2010, this data must be converted to taxonomy data and be stored in the managed metadata database. When you upgrade, any photos that were stored as profile pictures must be updated. If you do not update the photo store data, either no photos will be displayed or some photos might appear distorted. You perform these actions from the command line by using Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

Detailed steps: Upgrade profile properties to taxonomy data and update the photo store for Profile Services

Perform this step once for each User Profile service application in your environment.

This step contains a lot of smaller steps. Depending on the complexity of your user profile data and your configuration, this might take an hour or several hours to complete.

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Create and configure the Secure Store service application and migrate SSO data to the Secure Store service

The SSO service that was available in Office SharePoint Server 2007 has been replaced with the Secure Store service in SharePoint Server 2010. There is no direct upgrade path for the data and settings from SSO to the Secure Store service, but you can migrate data from the SSO database to a new Secure Store database. Excel Services Application needs the Secure Store service account to function correctly.

Detailed steps: Create and configure the Secure Store service application and migrate SSO data to the Secure Store service

Perform this step for each Secure Store service application that needs data from a previous SSO service.

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Upgrade solutions that depend on the Business Data Catalog

If you used the database attach method to upgrade and you want to continue to use the external data that is accessed through one or more application definitions, you perform several additional tasks.

Detailed steps: Upgrading solutions that depend on the Business Data Catalog

Perform this step once for your entire environment.

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Update links that are used in any upgraded InfoPath form templates

For a database attach upgrade, you exported and imported any InfoPath form templates in your environment when you created the new environment. After upgrade, you can now update the links that are used in those upgraded form templates to point to the correct URLs by using a Windows PowerShell cmdlet.

Detailed steps: Update links that are used in any upgraded InfoPath form templates

Perform this step once for your entire environment.

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Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites

Review sites to be sure that they have been upgraded successfully and are ready for users to view.

Detailed steps: Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).

Perform this step for every upgraded database and site collection in your environment.

This step might take an hour, several hours, or days, depending on your content.

You should also have site owners review their sites and report any issues.

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Start a full crawl

After all content is upgraded and all settings are configured, you can start a full search crawl of your content. This might take several hours or several days to complete, depending on how much content exists in your environment.

Perform this step once for your entire environment.

Performing a full crawl can take several hours or days to complete, depending on the amount of content in your environment.

July 14, 2011

Updated with steps to set read-only databases back to read-write.

Content update

May 12, 2010

Initial publication