.NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista Resources, Part 2/5, MOSS 2007 Upgrade
About: This is the second in the series of posts that provides resources for Vista, .NET 3.0 and Office 2007. These blog posts have been written by Sultan Akif, who is the Financial Services Industry Architect at Microsoft Canada (yes we do share the same set of parents!). This post focuses on MOSS 2007 upgrade
Hello,
Upgrading server software is never as easy as inserting a CD and running setup!! To make MOSS 2007 upgrade painless for the customer, Microsoft has invested heavily in resources and tools to help out with the process. There are several upgrade approaches available for migration including in-place, gradual, and database migration. An in-place upgrade is used to upgrade all SharePoint sites at once, which is best suited for single server or small-volume deployments. A gradual upgrade allows finer control of the upgrade process by allowing one or more site collections to be upgraded at a time. A database migration allows you to move your content to a new farm or new hardware.
The Pros and Cons of each upgrade approach are defined below:
|
Approach |
Description |
Pros |
Cons |
Best for |
|
In-place upgrade |
Upgrades the content and configuration data in-place, at one time. |
Easiest approach.
Sites retain original URLs.
Updates existing databases and servers using existing hardware. |
Environment is offline while it runs.
No ability to revert to original site. |
Single server or small server farm. |
|
Gradual upgrade |
Installs the new version side-by-side with the previous version. The server administrator determines which site collections to upgrade and when to upgrade them. |
Allows for a more granular approach - you can upgrade at the site collection level.
Reduces time any single user is impacted.
Sites retain original URLs.
Can revert to original site.
Uses existing hardware. |
More complex and resource intensive.
Must redirect URLs during upgrade process, which causes issues for some client applications, such as Microsoft Office.
Requires extra storage in SQL Server.
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services version 2 scalable hosting mode is not supported. |
Medium or large server farms (without shared services) with many sites and you must limit downtime.
Good for when you have a lot of customizations. |
|
(Advanced) Database migration |
Requires the server administrator to install the new version on a separate farm or separate hardware, and then manually migrate the databases into the new environment. |
Allows moving to new farm or new hardware.
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 environment is available and is untouched by upgrade. |
Very complex process that requires many manual steps and a higher risk of error.
Requires additional manual steps to retain original URLs for sites.
Search scopes must be recreated and search settings must be reapplied.
Requires new server farm, and twice the amount of SQL Server storage space. |
Moving to new hardware or a new architecture.
Customers who need to maximize upgrade throughput.
This approach is required for WSS 2.0 environments that are using scalable hosting mode or Active Directory directory service account creation |
A good upgrade needs to be planned upfront to minimize risk. Here is a suggested upgrade Roadmap for In-Place or Gradual upgrade (please note that you will typically choose only one approach for your farm).
<Click on the image to view it in large size>
The trial upgrade step in the planning process is essential and highly recommended as it will ‘prove the process’ by highlighting potential issues. Additional information on the execution of each step is available in the resources provided in the resources provided in part 1 of this blog series.
Best regards,
Sultan
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