Migration to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

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Summary: Learn how Microsoft IT upgraded from Office SharePoint Server 2007 enterprise search to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

Applies to: Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

This is the fifth of 12 articles that compose How Microsoft IT deployed FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (white paper).

To migrate from the Office SharePoint Server 2007 search solution to the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution, MSIT performed the following steps:

  1. Built a new FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment dedicated to search. The new deployment is described in the next section, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution: environment and topology.

  2. Migrated SSP-level settings from the Redmond SharePoint Server 2007 search solution to the new FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment as follows:

    1. Reproduced content sources from the SharePoint Server 2007 search solution by using an internal script.

    2. Migrated managed properties by using SharePoint Search Property Creator, an internal tool.

    3. Migrated global scopes by using Windows PowerShell scripts.

  3. From the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment, completed a full crawl of all content sources. The full crawl took approximately 10 days and indexed about 90 million items.

  4. Selected a SharePoint Server 2007 consumer farm (a farm such as http://teamsites that was consuming a SharePoint Server 2007 search service) that had to be upgraded to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

  5. For the SharePoint Server 2007 consumer farm that was selected in step 4, did the following:

    1. Ensured that all local search settings (such as Best Bets and local scopes) in the farm were exported to a file. (To do this, Search service application administrators can use the SharePoint Enterprise Search Migration Tool for SharePoint Server 2010.)

    2. Ensured that the farm was upgraded to SharePoint Server 2010. For information about how to perform this process, see Connect to a service application on a remote farm (SharePoint Server 2010).

  6. From the new SharePoint Server 2010 farm (the farm mentioned in step 5), set up a federated connection to the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment (so that the new SharePoint Server 2010 farm was consuming search from the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment.)

  7. Ensured that all local search settings that were exported to a file from the SharePoint Server 2007 consumer farm were imported into the new SharePoint Server 2010 consumer farm (by using the SharePoint Enterprise Search Migration Tool for SharePoint Server 2010).

  8. Repeated steps 4 through 7 as necessary to connect SharePoint Server 2010 farms to the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment.

At this point, all participating SharePoint sites were consuming search from the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment instead of from a SharePoint Server 2007 search service. The whole migration process took about 20 weeks—6 weeks for planning and 14 weeks to set up the new deployment, migrate and configure search settings, and deploy the search service.

MSW was one of the SharePoint Server 2007 consumer farms that was upgraded to SharePoint Server 2010 as part of this procedure. After the upgrade, MSIT created a new enterprise Search Center and customized the search experience for that new Search Center. For more information, see Enterprise search center (Enterprise search at Microsoft, white paper).

To view the white paper as a single article on TechNet, or to download it, see Improving enterprise search at Microsoft: How FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Powers Worldwide Intranet Search at Microsoft (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735129.aspx).