Overview of the VME for Project Server 2010

 

Applies to: Project Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-01-14

This article discusses the Microsoft Project Server virtual migration environment (VME).

In this article:

  • About the Project Server virtual migration environment

  • Requirements for the virtual migration environment

  • What the VME contains

  • Phases of migration with the VME

The Project Server VME can be downloaded from the Project Server VME download page (https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9729345) located in the Microsoft Download Center.

About the Project Server virtual migration environment

The Project Server VME is a virtualized Office Project Server 2007 environment that contains all the necessary applications and utilities required to migrate Project Server 2003 data to Office Project Server 2007. To migrate from Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 to Microsoft Project Server 2010, first you must migrate your data to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 format. If you do not have an Office Project Server 2007 deployment readily available, you can choose to use the Project Server virtual migration environment (VME) to migrate your data to Office Project Server 2007 format.

The VME is a fully configured Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) environment packaged as a Hyper-V image. The VME should be run as a stand-alone environment for the sole purpose of migrating Project Server 2003 data to the Office Project Server 2007 data format. (The VME does not have to be connected to the network or require network access).

The process of migrating Project Server 2003 data by using the VME provides the following advantages:

  • It can run in a stand-alone environment and does not require network access

  • It requires minimal hardware investment

  • It provides a fully functional environment that requires little intervention to use

  • It provides the ability to run migrations iteratively so that issues can be resolves resolved and retested

Warning

Do not use the VME for production use. It is intended to be used only as a pass-through environment to migrate your Project Server 2003 data to Office Project Server 2007.

Requirements for the virtual migration environment

The VME environment configuration requires the following:

  • The Hyper-V feature on Windows Server 2008 R2

  • 3096 MB or more of allocated memory for the image

  • Two virtual processors for the image (recommended)

Important

The VME is only supported on Windows Server 2008 R2 with its Hyper-V Manager feature. The VME does not run on Windows Server 2008.

Because the VME runs in a stand-alone environment, an internal network must still exist between the virtual machine that is running the VME and the Virtual Host Machine. This internal network must exist in order to transfer your Project Server 2003 databases to the virtual machine that is hosting the VME. (For example, the database might be attached to the Virtual Host Machine through an external hard drive.) After the Project Server 2003 data has been migrated to Office Project Server 2007 through the VME, the Office Project Server 2007 databases can then be transferred back to the external hard drive.

What the VME contains

When the Project Server 2010 VME image is restored to a virtual machine on a Hyper-V Server, the virtual machine will have the following two hard drives:

  • Virtual Hard Drive 1: Contains all system software. This virtual hard drive will have an expiration limit of 180 days. The expiration limit is intended to make sure that the applications are not used for production use, for which it is not supported.

  • Virtual Hard Drive 2 (E drive): Contains all VME content (SQL scripts, migration configuration files, and commands needed to run the migration).

Operating system and installed applications

The VME contains the following operating system and installed software applications:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system

  • Office Project Server 2007 with SP2 with the October 2009 Cumulative Update

  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) with the October 2009 Cumulative Update

  • Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) with the October 2009 Cumulative Update

  • Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 with Service Pack 2 October 2009 Cumulative Update and the Project Migration Tool installed

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 3 and Cumulative Update 17

Note

The Windows Server 2008 Release 2 operating system must be activated within 10 days. You can use the Activate-by-telephone option if the VME virtual machine is not on the network.

Overview of the migration scripts

The SQL scripts on Virtual Hard Drive 2 were created to help in the migration process. Use of these scripts is optional, but highly recommended. These scripts include the following:

Script name Purpose

VME Script 1.sql

Checks your Project Server 2003 data for conditions that may prevent the data from upgrading successfully.

VME Script 2.sql

Provides statistics about the Project Server 2003 data that you are migrating (for example, number of projects, tasks, assignments, and so on).

VME Script 3.sql

Provides a data validation snapshot of your pre-migration Project Server 2003 data and stores it to a database. This data can be compared to a post migration data snapshot (from VME Script 5.sql) to determine differences between the pre-migration and migrated data.

VME Script 4.sql

Lists all projects with associated project workspace sites from the Project Server 2003 database.

VME Script 5.sql

Provides a data validation snapshot of migrated Office Project Server 2007 data and stores it to a database.

VME Script 6.sql

Lists all projects with associated project workspace sites from the migrated Office Project Server 2007 database.

VME Script 7.sql

Compares data validation snapshots (pre-migration Project Server 2003 and post-migration Office Project Server 2007) and lists the differences between them. This can help determine whether specific data was not migrated.

VME Script 8.sql

Compares projects with associated workspaces from pre-migration (Project Server 2003) and post-migration (Office Project Server 2007), and then shows the projects with workspaces that have not been re-linked or converted in the Office Project Server 2007 environment after migration.

VME Script 9.sql

Does a pre-migration check on the Office Project Server 2007 database to check for known data issues that can cause upgrade to fail when you upgrade to Project Server 2010.

VME Script 10.sql

Checks your Office Project Server 2007 data for a known issue in which multi-language lookup tables are not updated correctly after migration. This script will make corrective action to your Office Project Server 2007 data.

Phases of migration with the VME

The process of running the VME to migrate your Project Server 2003 data consists of the following five phases:

Click the link to each chapter for more information about the procedures needed for that phase.