Migrate search settings for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)

 

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

This article describes methods that you can use in a search-first migration to retrieve search settings from the original farm and reproduce the settings in the new farm.

Before you read you read this article, you should be familiar with the following articles about search-first migration:

For brevity in this article, the following terms are used:

Original farm

The Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm that the organization is using in a production environment, with SharePoint enterprise search deployed.

New farm

A new SharePoint Server 2010 farm that you deploy and initially use only for the search-first migration.

Search-first environment

An environment in which a search-first migration is complete. In this environment, end users can use SharePoint Server 2010 search-query features and search-results features when they submit search queries in the original farm or the new farm.

The following table indicates ways that you can migrate various search settings.

To migrate this search setting to the new farm You can use this method

Best Bets, keywords, synonyms, SSP–level scopes and associated scope rules and display groups

SharePoint Enterprise Search Migration Tool for SharePoint Server 2010

Note

  • The Enterprise Search Migration Tool does not migrate any other settings from a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm to a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 farm. For example, it does not export the Search Center URL, search box drop-down mode, or search-results page URL.

  • The Enterprise Search Migration Tool does not migrate site collection–level scopes if there are no corresponding site collections in the new farm. Typically in a search-first migration there are no site collections in the new farm because there is no content in that farm yet. For more information, see Migrating SSP–level scopes and Migrating site collection–level scopes later in this article.

Farm–level search settings (such as crawler impact rules, proxy settings, and time-out settings)

Database-attach upgrade. For more information, see Perform a database attach upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

Thesaurus files

Manually copy thesaurus files to the new farm. For more information, see Manage thesaurus files (SharePoint Server 2010).

Stop word files

Manually copy stop word files to the new farm. For more information, see Manage stop word files (SharePoint Server 2010).

Custom dictionaries

Manually copy custom dictionaries to the new farm. For more information, see Create a custom dictionary (SharePoint Server 2010).

IFilters that are not installed with the product

Manually install the IFilters in the new farm. For more information, see File types and IFilters reference (SharePoint Server 2010).

Protocol handlers that are not installed with the product

Manually install the protocol handlers in the new farm. In SharePoint Server 2010, protocol handlers are called connectors. For more information, see Default connectors (SharePoint Server 2010).

Content sources

  1. Manually or programmatically retrieve the content sources that are associated with the Office SharePoint Search service of each SSP. For information about how to programmatically retrieve content sources from a Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm, see How to: Retrieve the Content Sources for a Shared Services Provider.

  2. Manually or programmatically reproduce the content sources in the new farm. For information about how to use Windows PowerShell to create a content source in a SharePoint Server 2010 farm, see New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlContentSource.

File types

  1. Manually or programmatically retrieve file type settings that are associated with the Office SharePoint Search service of each SSP. For information about how to programmatically retrieve file type settings from a SharePoint Server 2007 farm, see Extension Class.

  2. Manually reproduce the file type settings in the new farm.

Authoritative pages

  1. Manually or programmatically retrieve the authoritative pages that are associated with the Office SharePoint Search service of each SSP. For information about how to programmatically retrieve authoritative pages by using the AuthorityPages collection of the Ranking class, see Ranking.AuthorityPages Property.

  2. Manually or programmatically reproduce the authoritative pages in the new farm. For information about how to use Windows PowerShell in a SharePoint Server 2010 farm to create an authoritative page and set its properties, see New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryAuthority and Set-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryAuthority.

Alerts

Manually reproduce alert settings.

Server-name mappings

Manually reproduce server-name mappings.

Federated locations

Export federated locations from the original farm and import them into the new farm. For configuration information for a federated location in SharePoint Server 2010, see LocationConfiguration Class.

Crawled properties

  1. Manually or programmatically retrieve the crawled properties that are associated with the Office SharePoint Search service of each SSP. For information about how to programmatically retrieve crawled properties from a SharePoint Server 2007 farm, see How to: Retrieve the Crawled Properties for a Category in the Search Schema.

  2. Manually or programmatically reproduce the crawled properties in the new farm. For information about how to use Windows PowerShell in a SharePoint Server 2010 farm to create a crawled property and set its properties, see New-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataCrawledProperty and Set-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataCrawledProperty.

Managed properties

  1. Manually or programmatically retrieve the managed properties that are associated with the Office SharePoint Search service of each SSP. For information about how to programmatically retrieve managed properties from a SharePoint Server 2007 farm, see How to: Retrieve the Managed Properties for a Shared Services Provider.

  2. Manually or programmatically reproduce the managed properties in the new farm. For information about how to use Windows PowerShell in a SharePoint Server 2010 farm to create a managed property and set its properties, see New-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataManagedProperty and Set-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataManagedProperty.

Migrating SSP–level scopes

You can migrate SSP–level scopes in either of the following ways:

  • Automatically, by using the SharePoint Enterprise Search Migration Tool for SharePoint Server 2010. For each SSP–level scope in the original farm, the tool automatically creates in the new farm a corresponding service application–level scope with the same name.

  • Manually, by creating a service application–level scope in the new farm with the same name as a corresponding SSP level–scope in the original farm. You can do this for any or all SSP-level scopes.

By using either of these methods, you create a one-to-one mapping between SSP–level scopes in the original farm and service application–level scopes in the new farm. When a user submits a query that uses a SSP–level scope that is mapped to a service application–level scope, the search system in the new farm receives the query from the original farm and uses the mapped scope to narrow the search results according to the SSP-level scope.

Migrating site collection–level scopes

In a search-first migration, it is not possible to migrate site collection–level scopes. This is because the new farm contains no SharePoint content or site collections yet. Therefore, when a user selects a site collection–level scope in the original farm, the scope is not usable and the user will see an error message to the effect that the scope does not exist. As a workaround, you can manually map the site collection–level scope in the original farm to a new service application–level scope that you create in the new farm. You can do this for any site collection–level scopes in the original farm. (A potential disadvantage is that this will be time-consuming if there are many site collection–level scopes that you want to map.) When an end user submits a query in the original farm that uses a site collection–level scope that is mapped to a service application–level scope, the search system in the new farm receives the query and uses the scope mapping that you created to narrow the search results to the site collection level. For more information, see To map a site collection–level scope to a service application–level scope later in this article.

Note

It is not possible to have multiple service application–level scopes in the new farm that have the same name. Therefore, the results of the workaround might be unpredictable for cases in which you attempt to map multiple scopes from the original farm (site collection–level scopes or SSP–level scopes) that have the same name. For example, the results might be unpredictable if you migrate an SSP–level scope named "Sales" to a service-application–level scope named "Sales", and you map a site-collection level scope named "Sales" to a service application–level scope named "Sales".

To map a site collection–level scope to a service application–level scope

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group in the new farm.

  2. Refer to Manage search scopes (SharePoint Server 2010) as you perform the following tasks:

    1. Create a service application–level scope that has the same name as the site collection–level scope in the original farm.

    2. Create a scope rule for the new service application–level scope.

    3. On the Add Scope Rule page for the new scope rule, in the Scope Rule Type section, click Web address.

    4. On the same Add Scope Rule page, in the Web Address section, specify the URL of the site collection in the original farm that you want to map to this service application. This ensures that the service-application level scope in the new farm applies only to the site collection that you specify in the original farm.

Note

After you migrate content databases to the new farm, you can delete service application–level scopes that you no longer want.

See Also

Concepts

Introduction to search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Plan a SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Plan to configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Configure the SharePoint Server 2007 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010)
Train end users to use the search-first environment (SharePoint Server 2010)