Upgrade paths from Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express

 

Applies to: Search Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-09-21

This article describes supported and unsupported upgrade paths from Microsoft Search Server 2008 or Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express. It also discusses considerations for the different kinds of upgrade that you can perform — in-place, database attach, and new installation.

In this article:

• Supported upgrade paths

• Unsupported upgrade paths

• Considerations for upgrading from Search Server 2008 Express to Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010

• Considerations for upgrading from Search Server 2008 to Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010

Supported upgrade paths

The following table describes supported upgrade paths from Search Server 2008 Express and Search Server 2008 Express and summarizes the benefits of upgrade.

Upgrading from this product	To this product	Includes these benefits
Search Server 2008 Express	Search Server 2010 Express	Many enhanced search capabilities for end-users
	Search Server 2010	Many enhanced search capabilities for end users, and significantly increased capacity and performance
	SharePoint Server 2010	Many enhanced search capabilities for end users, and significantly increased capacity and performance Advanced document-collaboration features
Search Server 2008	Search Server 2010	Many enhanced search capabilities for end users, and significantly increased capacity and performance
	SharePoint Server 2010	Many enhanced search capabilities for end users, and significantly increased capacity and performance Advanced document-collaboration features

For more information about upgrade benefits and how upgrade affects search features, see the following articles:

• What's new in enterprise search (Search Server 2010)

• What's new in enterprise search (SharePoint Server 2010)

• What's new in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

• How upgrade affects search features (Search Server 2010)

• How upgrade affects search features (SharePoint Server 2010)

Unsupported upgrade paths

The following table describes upgrade paths that are not supported.

You cannot upgrade from this product	To this product	Notes
Search Server 2008	Search Server 2010 Express	Unsupported upgrade path
Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express	Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010	SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a Web-based collaboration platform that provides only site-based search capability. Search Server 2010 and Search Server 2010 Express provide a wider range of search capability. This includes search across SharePoint sites, file shares, external Web sites, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 public folders, and third-party content repositories.
Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express	Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint	Although you cannot upgrade directly to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint from Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express, you can upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010 first, and then upgrade to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. For more information, see Upgrading from SharePoint Server 2010 to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

For more information about the upgrade paths that are listed in the previous table, see Considerations for upgrading from Search Server 2008 to Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 later in this article.

Considerations for upgrading from Search Server 2008 Express to Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010

The following table lists things to consider when you upgrade from Search Server 2008 Express to Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010.

When you perform this kind of upgrade from Search Server 2008 Express	Consider these factors
In-place	Search Server 2008 Express is a 32-bit application, whereas Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, and SharePoint Server 2010 are 64-bit applications. For a production environment, Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, and SharePoint Server 2010 require Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Therefore, if you want to upgrade in place and Search Server 2008 Express is not already running on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you should first upgrade the computer that hosts Search Server 2008 Express to Windows Server 2008 R2 with the most recent service packs and updates. When you perform an in-place upgrade, search settings at the Shared Services Provider (SSP) level in Search Server 2008 Express are replicated in a corresponding new search service application in Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010. For more information, see How upgrade affects search features (Search Server 2010) or How upgrade affects search features (SharePoint Server 2010).
Database attach	Search Server 2008 Express is not intended to be used as a document-collaboration tool. If you are not using Search Server 2008 Express as a collaboration tool, there are no content databases to upgrade. Therefore, a database attach upgrade is not necessary.
New installation	If you configured search settings extensively in Search Server 2008 Express — for example, if you created many content sources — you might want to use those search settings as a guide for configuring search settings in Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010. There are various ways to reproduce search settings in a new farm. For more information, see Migrate search settings for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010). (Although the article describes how to migrate search settings for a search-first migration from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010, you can use similar methods to migrate search settings from Search Server 2008 Express to Search Server 2010 Express, Search Server 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010.)

Considerations for upgrading from Search Server 2008 to Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010

The following table lists things to consider when you upgrade from Search Server 2008 to Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010.

When you perform this kind of upgrade from Search Server 2008	Consider these factors
In-place	Search Server 2008 is a 32-bit application, whereas Search Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 are 64-bit applications. For a production environment, Search Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 require Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Therefore, if you want to upgrade in place and Search Server 2008 is not already running on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you should first upgrade the computer that hosts Search Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2 with the most recent service packs or updates. When you perform an in-place upgrade, search settings at the Shared Services Provider (SSP) level in Search Server 2008 are replicated in a corresponding new search service application in Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010. For more information, see How upgrade affects search features (Search Server 2010) or How upgrade affects search features (SharePoint Server 2010).
Database attach	Search Server 2008 is not intended to be used as a document collaboration tool. If you are not using Search Server 2008 as a collaboration tool, there are no content databases to upgrade. Therefore, a database attach upgrade is not necessary.
New installation	If you configured search settings extensively in Search Server 2008 — for example, if you created many content sources — you might want to use those search settings as a guide for configuring search settings in Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010. There are various ways to reproduce search settings in a new farm. For more information, see Migrate search settings for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010). (Although the article discusses how to migrate search settings for a search-first migration from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010, you can use similar methods to migrate search settings from Search Server 2008 to Search Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010.)