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Upgrade from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to SharePoint Server 2010

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Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

You cannot upgrade directly from Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

The changes between versions are too great, and the hardware requirements differ so much between versions that a direct, in-place upgrade is not possible or supported. You can, however, perform a series of database attach upgrades to first upgrade your content to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and then to SharePoint Server 2010. This article describes the process of performing this double-database attach upgrade. In addition, this article describes the steps that you have to complete to support Web browsers during and after the upgrade process.

Note

During this entire process, your old environment should be offline, to prevent users from making changes in the old environment while you are upgrading. After you have finished and validated the upgrade, you can grant access to your users again in the SharePoint Server 2010 environment.

In this article:

  • Process overview

  • Before you begin

  • Prepare to upgrade

  • Prepare your farms

  • First upgrade

  • Second upgrade

Process overview

Because this upgrade approach combines two upgrade processes that have already been documented, this article describes how the steps from each process fit together into the overall process. It does not provide details for every step, because those steps are available in the following articles:

These articles, combined with this roadmap, give you the information you need to perform the double-database attach upgrade.

Important

Make sure that you try out this entire process in a test environment before you attempt to upgrade your actual live content. For more information about how to test your upgrade processes, see the following content:

Upgrade sequence

To upgrade your content across the two versions, follow these steps.

  1. Prepare to upgrade

    1. Prepare your original farm by running the pre-upgrade scan tool and making an inventory of all of your customizations.

    2. Upgrade Web browsers in your organization.

    3. Set up a small, temporary farm that is running Office SharePoint Server 2007.

    4. Set up your full SharePoint Server 2010 farm, and verify that it is configured and running correctly.

  2. First upgrade: Upgrade the content to Office SharePoint Server 2007

    1. Detach the content databases from the old farm, and then take that farm offline.

      Alternatively, you can leave the databases attached and make a copy of the databases if you want to ensure that your original farm can be restored to use quickly.

    2. Attach the content databases to the Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm and upgrade them.

    3. Verify that the content has been upgraded and that the Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm is working correctly.

  3. Second upgrade: Upgrade the content to SharePoint Server 2010

    1. Detach the content databases from the Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm.

    2. Attach the content databases to the SharePoint Server 2010 farm and upgrade them (optionally, you can upgrade them in parallel).

    3. Verify that the content was upgraded and that the SharePoint Server 2010 farm is working correctly.

  4. Start serving requests on the SharePoint Server 2010 farm

The following diagrams illustrate this process:

The database attach upgrade to Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Database attach to Office SharePoint Server 2007

The database attach upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

Database attach to SharePoint Server 2010

Before you begin

Before you begin your upgrade, review the following information about permissions, hardware requirements, and software requirements. Follow the specified steps to install or configure prerequisite software or to modify settings.

Review required permissions

Review required hardware and software

In some environments, you must coordinate the procedures for moving databases to a separate farm with the database administrator. Make sure that you follow any applicable policies and guidelines for handling databases.

Prepare to upgrade

Because you are performing two upgrades, you need to understand all of the steps involved both in upgrading to Office SharePoint Server 2007 and to SharePoint Server 2010. The following content is available to help you understand these upgrade processes:

Prepare to upgrade to Office SharePoint Server 2007

Prepare to upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010

Prepare your farms

In this step, you follow the pre-upgrade steps on your existing farm, upgrade the Web browsers in your organization, create your temporary farm for the upgrade to Office SharePoint Server 2007, and create your destination SharePoint Server 2010 farm. Use the following steps and related content when you prepare your farm for the upgrades.

Perform pre-upgrade steps on your existing farm

For information, see Perform pre-upgrade steps.

Upgrade Web browsers in your organization

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and SharePoint Server 2010 support different versions of Internet Explorer and other popular Web browsers. You should review the details of the Web browser that you have or plan to use in your organization to ensure that the Web browser works with SharePoint Server 2010 and according to your business needs. For information about Web browsers supported by SharePoint Server 2010, see Plan browser support (SharePoint Server 2010). If you use Internet Explorer 6 or earlier, you must upgrade the Web browsers on your organization’s computers before you upgrade the farm.

For the best user experience and to maintain backward compatibility, you should upgrade your organization’s computers to Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8. You can use Windows XP and Internet Explorer 8 with SharePoint Portal Server 2003, however, the Rich Text Editor in the Content Editor Web Part will not work. By default, when you use Internet Explorer 8 to connect to a fully up-to-date deployment of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 that is in the local intranet zone, Internet Explorer is automatically configured as follows:

  • Browser mode is set to EmulateIE7

  • Document mode is set to quirks

This combination of settings allows the browser to display content in IE5 mode, maintaining backward compatibility with SharePoint Portal Server 2003, provided no DOCTYPE is set on the pages. By default, DOCTYPE is not set for SharePoint Portal Server 2003 pages. If a DOCTYPE is set on the pages, you must manually configure these modes. For instructions, see Advanced Solutions: Some Web sites may not be displayed correctly or work correctly in Internet Explorer 8 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=209852). For more information about browser compatibility modes, see Defining Document Compatibility (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=209853), and for Windows 7, also see Mitigation Strategies and Solutions (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=209854).

Create the temporary Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm

In a virtual or physical environment, create a temporary small farm that is running Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and the October 2009 Cumulative Update. You will use this farm to upgrade your content to Office SharePoint Server 2007 on the way to SharePoint Server 2010.

Tip

For best results, we recommend that you apply the latest updates to the environment. The October 2009 Cumulative Update includes changes to the pre-upgrade checker that can help identify issues before upgrade. For a list of available updates, see Update Center for Microsoft Office, Office Servers, and Related Products (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=181115). For more information about applying updates, see Updates Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=181116).

  1. Download the software for the temporary farm.

    You can use the trial version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in this temporary environment if you do not have a license agreement for the full product. The trial version can be used for 180 days. Download the trial version at one of the following links:

  2. Install any language template packs needed for your sites. For more information, see Install available language template packs (Office SharePoint Server).

  3. Configure the farm by using the appropriate farm settings for your environment and reapplying all of the customizations needed by your content. Make sure that you deploy the customizations and the upgrade definition files needed for any custom site definitions that might exist in your environment. You must create Web applications on the temporary farm for every virtual server that you had in your original farm. The URL for the new Web applications should match either the source farm URLs or the destination farm URLs, otherwise you risk adding references to additional temporary URLs to the content. Ideally, you should use the same URLs for the source farm and destination farm, so that the temporary farm URLs are exactly the same as well, including the port numbers used.

    For more information about configuring the farm, see Prepare the new Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment. For more information about deploying custom site definitions and upgrade definitions, see Deploy upgrade definition files and new site definitions (Office SharePoint Server).

Set up your full SharePoint Server 2010 farm

This is the farm you will use for your production environment eventually, so make sure that you plan your infrastructure appropriately to support the solution you are hosting. For more information about how to plan your server farm, see Plan for server farms and environments (SharePoint Server 2010).

  1. Create your farm on 64-bit hardware with database servers that are running a 64-bit version of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2. For more information, see Multiple servers for a three-tier farm (SharePoint Server 2010).

  2. Install any language template packs needed for your sites. For more information, see Install available language template packs (SharePoint Server 2010).

  3. Configure the farm by using the appropriate farm settings for your environment and reapplying all of the customizations needed by your content. Again, you must create Web applications on the destination farm for every virtual server that you had in your original farm.

    For more information about how to create and configure a server farm for a database attach upgrade, see Prepare the new SharePoint Server 2010 environment for a database attach upgrade.

Perform the first upgrade

With your farms set up and configured, you are ready to upgrade your content databases to Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Important

Make sure that you have run the pre-upgrade scan tool on your original farm before you detach the databases. The upgrade process will not run if you have not scanned the databases. For more information, see Run the pre-upgrade scan tool (Office SharePoint Server).

To perform a database attach upgrade (called database migration for this version), follow these steps:

  1. Back up the content databases.

    Content databases are any databases that use the suffix "_site".

  2. Restore the backed-up copies to your temporary farm.

  3. Add the databases to the Web applications to start the upgrade process.

For complete information and steps to follow, see Migrate databases.

After upgrade, you also need to import the profile information. For more information, see the section "User profiles: start a full import" in Perform post-upgrade steps for an in-place upgrade.

Verify the first upgrade

To verify the upgrade, do the following:

  • Review the upgrade log file. For more information, see Migrate databases.

  • Review the upgraded sites to make sure that they still work as expected and that your Web Parts and other custom elements work correctly.

Perform the second upgrade

After you have verified that your sites work correctly, you can begin the upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

Important

Run the pre-upgrade checker and review the report so that you can address any potential issues on your temporary farm before you upgrade the content. For more information, see Run the pre-upgrade checker (SharePoint Server 2010).

To perform the database attach upgrade, follow these steps:

  1. Back up the content databases.

  2. Restore the backed-up copies to your destination farm.

  3. Add the databases to the Web applications to start the upgrade process. In SharePoint Server 2010, you can attach databases in parallel to speed up the upgrade process.

For complete information and steps to follow, see Attach databases and upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

Verify the second upgrade

To verify the upgrade, do the following:

  • Review the upgrade log file.

  • Review the upgraded sites to make sure that they still work as expected and that your Web Parts and other custom elements work correctly.

For more information, see Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).

See Also

Other Resources

Downloadable book: Upgrading to SharePoint Server 2010
Resource Center: Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Server 2010