Effective SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Q&A

Webcast: Get to SharePoint 2010 – Strategies for Effective Upgrades and Migrations

Question and Answer Log:

I like to capture the questions from a good webcast.  Got a bunch of good ones today…
If you missed the presentation you can get a recording and the slides here.

Paul Asked: Are there major downsides to using SQL 2005 with SharePoint 2010?

The downsides are the features in SQL 2008 that SharePoint 2010 takes advantage of.  Starting with Mirroring, Remote Blob Storage, Backup Compression, Transparent Database Encryption, PowerPivot (see more below), Optimized Engine for performance, SQL Governor, etc…

Dutch McGehee Asked: Can I get a copy of the powerpoint slides?

Sure. http://www.quest.com/events/ListDetails.aspx?ContentID=12156

Question: What is the best non-destructive (to existing MOSS environment)
way to do upgrade if I’m upgrading to a new environment, but using the existing
production SQL?

Non Destructive?  Need to drill into that.  I’m guessing setting the current 2007 databases to read only as you migrate the databases with database attach to a new environment would be most non destructive.

Question: When will your book be available?

It’s available now in Rough Cuts on Safari. The other physical publish date is up to the publisher.

 

Travis Asked: Does PowerPivot require SQL 2008 R2? or will it work on 2008 and
2005 SQL?

It requires SQL 2008 R2.

“PowerPivot is essentially a way of making an analysis services cube using excel as the design tool.  When you use the PowerPivot for Excel add-in, then there no backend dependency, but if you want to save a PowerPivot to SharePoint 2010, there has to be a special installation of SQL Server 2008 R2 analysis services associated with the SharePoint farm.” Andrew Fryer in PowerPivot is Analysis Services sort of.

 

Question: Missed beginning…Is SQL 2008 required for SP 2010?

No, you can run SQL 2005 x64 with SP3 CU5 and later.

 

Jose Asked: can you use this method from 32bit to 64 bit?

Yes, you can use database attach to move from 32bit to 64bit SharePoint Servers, or you can upgrade the SQL environment first with In-Place Upgrade.

 

Steve Asked: Does Add Solutions include InfoPath forms in forms
services that have code-behind?

Some InfoPath forms will need to be redeployed especially in cases where these are server solutions with database attach.  In place upgrade would keep your solutions in place.  Some code behind may need to be tested and redeployed.  In all these cases I highly recommend testing.  Workflow is one area where I’ve found visual studio solutions do need to be updated.

 

Question: does the visual upgrade upgrades all sites in site collection or can it be done by each site?

It can be done granularly or the entire site collection.  You can also hide the preview option or upgrade it all at once.

 

Kyle Asked: Any experience or recommendations in using the AAM URL Redirection as part of the upgrade process

I recommend against using it if you don’t need it.  It is complex and adds an unnecessary complexity in most upgrades.  Some may think they need it if the upgrade will be over weeks and read only isn’t good enough.

 

Michael Asked: When should MySites/Profiles be migrated – before other site types? after?

You’ll want to make sure that your profiles and my site host is in place first.  I recommend getting the services in place, especially dependent services… before you start migrating content.

 

Question: Does Quest Migration Manager support migration of SP 2007/MOSS environment from on-premise to BPOS-D (SharePoint Online 2010)?

It’s in development.  Also note that SharePoint Online 2010 isn’t yet available for the general public.

 

Jeremy Asked: Does Migration manager work with WSS 3.0

Yes.  WSS 2.0, WSS 3.0 to SharePoint Foundation

or WSS 2.0, WSS 3.0 MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010

 

Question: In the Fab 40 page, you had mentioned http://bit.ly/dhQUjd . Is
this a valid site? I just checked and it showed error.

The link works for me.  It should redirect to: http://www.sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=374 which has links to the blog post from the technical documentation team and links to Khalil’s upgraded SharePoint 2010 Fab 40.

 

Don Bruce Asked: Throughout the presentation you have mentioned a lot of things
done through PowerShell. We have typically thought of PowerShell as a
Developer-lite tool. How important is it that a SharePoint Administrator have
PowerShell skills?

Great question.  For SharePoint Administrators there are a lot of commandlets that act similar to STSADM and are very similar in their construction, but they give you the power of a scripting language.  I recommend reading my post on Powershell and SharePoint.

Practical Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2010 – SharePoint Joel

Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 with Powershell

 

Sudip Shrestha Asked: I have a custom top navigation bar based on a xml datasource in a 2007 farm.. Does 2010 support 2007 type of navigation bar? How will 2010 handle this custom navigation bar?

I can’t answer specifically.  I do recommend testing.  I think you’ll find most things do upgrade quiet nicely.  Backward compatibility is quite good.  You will notice that binary upgrade will leave your nav bars, and visual upgrade will replace them.  You’ll need to add them back in after visual upgrade or add them to your masterpage.

 

Grace Sigal Asked: Very slow… i can’t see the demo

http://www.quest.com/events/ListDetails.aspx?ContentID=7836

Tim Chilva Asked: Does the "migration Manager handle placing "Content Type" into the "Master" META database, when a SP ’07 site is migrated?

This is a great feature request.

 

Pat Breitenbeck Asked: does quest have a doc that tells what Migration Manager
can do that PowerShell or Stsadm commands cannot do?

 

Mark Mascolino Asked: We have a large number of site collections in a single web
application. We expect that the upgrade timelline to require having two farms
2007 & 2010 in parallel for a few months. How can we use the db attach upgrade
approach to a new farm while maintaining a single hostname in both farms?
(sites.company.com) e.g. we need redirector from 2007 upgrade process

If you can do it a web application at a time over a weekend or use readonly mode for the source you should be ok.  If not you should look at the AAM Redirection or third party like Migration manager for post migration sync.  Alex has some good info on it.

 

Question: Will Migration Manager convert the links within content to the destination?

SharePoint Designer or STSADM –o import/export or powershell import/export will try to do link fixup, but only in lists, not within documents. 

 

Gerald Asked: can multiple 2007 publishing web applications be re-structured
under a single new 2010 web application

Yes with Migration manager you can consolidate sites during the migration.  With normal upgrade you’d need to either use import/export while on 2007 or while on 2010, not during the upgrade.

 

Archana Mordekar Asked: What needs to be done to move a SharePoint application
(site Structure, features, backend code) from one box to another? The
configuration on both boxes is the same – the app needs to be brought up on
another box

Backup/restore, and redeploy the solutions/features.

 

Question: If I’m running Quest WebParts for Sharepoint on a Sharepoint 2007 environment, will I have to upgrade to Quest WebParts for Sharepoint 2010, or the 2007 version of the Webparts work on 2010?

You can install the 2010 Quest webparts on a new farm with database attach.  With in-place you can upgrade the webparts after the upgrade.  I think you’ll find this consistent with most customizations.  They need to be in place on the source before the migration, or they need to be upgraded after, in the case of in-place upgrade.

 

Question To: Joel, what is your blog URL address?

http://www.sharepointjoel.com