Add servers to an upgraded farm (Windows SharePoint Services)
Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Topic Last Modified: 2009-03-17
In this article:
Add a front-end Web server to an upgraded server farm
Add a back-end database server to an upgraded server farm
When you add a front-end Web server to an upgraded farm, you need to install not only the files and components needed by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, but also any files and components that were needed by Windows SharePoint Services. To accomplish this, you can sometimes manage — with the help of a good checklist — to install all of the files and components that you need to get your sites working correctly on a new front-end Web server. However, there are some cases in which installing such components will not work. For example, you may have Web Parts installed that were designed for Windows SharePoint Services but that cannot be installed on a server running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (because you are running a newer version of ASP.NET). However, if they are already installed when Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is installed, the Web Parts may continue to work.
Warning
Do not add servers to your farm during the upgrade process. Either add them before beginning the upgrade, or wait until the upgrade is complete to add servers. Specifically, if you add a server to the farm while the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard is being run on any server in the farm, the new server will not appear in the upgraded topology. This is because the configuration database — which contains the information about which servers are in a farm — is the first item upgraded by the configuration wizard, and any servers not included in the configuration wizard at that time will not be registered in the configuration after the upgrade.
Because you need both the previous and the current versions' files and components, the easiest way to add a server to a farm is to take an image of one of the existing servers in your farm (by using any of the tools available for imaging hard disks) and restore it to the new server, then run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to add the new server to the farm. This way, you have a snapshot of the upgraded state of the server, complete with any of the files or components you need in order for the sites to render correctly.
Important
Make sure that the image of the server that you use to add a server to a farm has the same software update version applied as all of your Web servers. In server farm deployments, all your Web servers must have the same software update version applied. For more information, see Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Add a front-end Web server to an upgraded server farm
Perform these steps on a server that has been prepared with an image taken from another front-end Web server in your farm. You can add a front-end Web server by using the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard or the Psconfig command-line tool.
Use the following procedure to use the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to add a front-end Web server to your upgraded farm.
Add a front-end Web server to an upgraded server farm by using the configuration wizard
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.
In the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration wizard, on the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.
A message appears, notifying you that Internet Information Services (IIS), the SharePoint Administration Service, and the SharePoint Timer Service may need to be restarted or reset during configuration.
Click Yes to continue with the wizard.
On the Connect to a server farm page, select Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm, and then click Next.
On the Specify Configuration Database Settings page, in the Database server box, type the name of the database server used for the farm you are connecting to, and then click Retrieve Database Names.
In the Specify Database Access Account section, type the user name and password to use to connect to Microsoft SQL Server, and then click Next.
Note
This account must have rights to create databases. If SQL Server is running on a server that is separate from your front-end Web server, then this account must also be a domain account. This user account must be a member of the following SQL Server security roles: Database Creator and Security Administrator.
On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration wizard page, verify the settings, and then click Next.
The configuration wizard runs.
On the Configuration Successful page, review the settings that have been configured, and then click Finish.
Use the following procedure to use the Psconfig command-line tool to add a front-end Web server to your upgraded farm.
Add a front-end Web server to an upgraded server farm by using the command line
Open a command prompt window and change to the following directory:
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\bin
Run the following command:
psconfig –cmd configdb –connect –server <database_server> -database <database_name>
Note that the database_name above should be the name of the configuration database for the upgraded farm you want to connect to.
For more information about adding a front-end Web server to your server farm, see Deploy Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in a server farm environment.
Add a back-end database server to an upgraded server farm
For a database server, you do not need to use an image from another server in your server farm. You can simply install SQL Server and then join the server to the farm. For more information about adding a database server to your server farm, see Deploy Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in a server farm environment.