Upgrading from a stand-alone installation of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to SharePoint Foundation 2010 when content databases exceed 4 GB (RBS)
Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010
This article describes the circumstances in which you might want to upgrade from a stand-alone Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system to SharePoint Foundation 2010 with Remote BLOB Storage (RBS).
When you upgrade from a stand-alone installation of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, the upgrade process differs depending on the size of the content databases.
In a stand-alone installation of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, content databases are stored in Windows Internal Database and have no size limitations. Conversely, in SharePoint Foundation 2010, the content databases are stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express and have a maximum size of 4 gigabytes (GB) per database. If you have databases that are larger than 4 GB, you must either use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2, or SQL Server 2005 with SP3 and Cumulative Update 3, or install Remote BLOB Storage (RBS).
Note
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express supports databases up to 10 GB. If the installation includes databases that are larger than 4 GB but smaller than 10 GB, you can upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express for your content database storage solution instead of implementing RBS. SQL Server 2008 R2 Express is available for download and installation at Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=189418).
RBS is designed to move the storage of binary large objects (BLOBs) from database servers to commodity storage solutions. RBS is an add-on that can be applied to SQL Server 2008 Express and to SQL Server 2008. For more information about RBS, see Overview of RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010).
If you are upgrading fromWindows SharePoint Services 3.0 and all databases are smaller than 4 GB, you can follow the standard in-place upgrade process. For details, see Upgrade in place to SharePoint Foundation 2010.
If you are upgrading from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the search database is larger than 4 GB, you cannot migrate that database. To upgrade, you must remove the existing instance of search before migrating and upgrading. After upgrading, you can create a new instance of search. The search database is limited to 4 GB if the new installation is hosted on SQL Server 2008 Express.
If you are upgrading from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the configuration database is larger than 4 GB, you cannot migrate the configuration database. Instead, you must either create a new SharePoint Foundation system that uses SQL Server 2008 Express (if the configuration database is not expected to grow larger than 4 GB), or create a new installation that uses SQL Server 2008 Standard or SQL Server 2008 Enterprise. You can also migrate the existing system to SQL Server 2008 Standard or SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and then upgrade it.
If you are not upgrading an existing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system and you want to install and configure RBS in SharePoint Foundation 2010, see Install and configure RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010).
Note
If after you move content into RBS, a content database remains that is larger than 4 GB, the migration operation will fail. This failure typically occurs only with very large databases (20 GB or larger), but it can also occur if there is a smaller database that contains too much metadata.
If the configuration includes SharePoint databases that are larger than 16 GB, RBS is unlikely to provide a full solution to the limitations of SQL Server 2008 Express and SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. In this case, you should be prepared to use SQL Server 2008 Standard or SQL Server 2008 Enterprise to support the SharePoint databases.
Before beginning the upgrade process, confirm that the hardware configuration supports SharePoint Foundation 2010. For more information, see Hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Foundation 2010).
In This Section
Upgrade a stand-alone installation by using RBS (in-place) (SharePoint Foundation 2010)
This article describes how to upgrade from a stand-alone Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system that has content databases that are larger than 4 GB to SharePoint Foundation 2010.
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This article describes how to upgrade from a stand-alone Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system that has content databases that are larger than 4 GB to a SharePoint Foundation 2010 system that is running on a domain controller.
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This article describes how to upgrade from a stand-alone Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system that has content databases that are larger than 4 GB to SharePoint Foundation 2010 that is installed on new hardware.
See Also
Concepts
Plan for RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010)
Other Resources
Downloadable book: Upgrading to SharePoint Foundation 2010
Resource Center: Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Foundation 2010