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Migrating Customized SharePoint 2010 site to SharePoint 2013

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In my previous article I described how to migrate an out of the box site from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013. In the more advanced scenario we have to migrate site which has customization. So in this post I will discuss migrating the SharePoint site which has customization such as:

  1. Custom Themes
  2. Custom solutions like web parts, BCS models, workflows etc.
  3. Databases other than SharePoint Databases
  4. Other resource files like language file, missing features

Starting migration for a customized SharePoint site starts as much as the same way as an out of the box site.

One has to create a new web application in SharePoint 2013 environment and mount the database from the old farm normally SharePoint 2010 to the new farm of SharePoint 2013. For complete processes see the link below.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/23230.migrating-sharepoint-2010-out-of-the-box-site-to-sharepoint-2013.aspx

After the above process is complete make a list of the customization to be moved to the new farm.

  1. Move the custom solution to the new farm. All the solutions required for the application to run should be added and installed on the new farm. You might have to change your custom solution or get an updated one if they are from a third party if there is any compatibility issue. Same is the case for custom workflows. 

 

      2.    In case of BDC models, backup your BDC models from old farm and change the settings the LobSystemInstance like “DatabaseAccessProvider” according the 
            settings in new farm and import it in the new farm using command Import-SPBusinessCatalogModel. A more friendly approach is to add the models by going in to 
            the:

             Central Admin à Application Management à Manage Service Applications

             Choose Business Data Connectivity service application and select Import from the top ribbon, browse the “.bdcm” file and import.

 

       3.   Migrating custom themes requires all the related file from the 14 hive folder be moved to new farm’s 15 hive folder. Fix the style sheet and script links 
             in master page.

             For multi-language sites resource files should also be moved from the “Resources” folder in 14 hive folder.

       5.   For external databases move the database to new environment and change connection strings in web.config file at the root folder of your application.

These are the more generic type of changes one could perform in migration of customized SharePoint sites. There is a possibility of more things to be moved to SharePoint 2013 farm depending upon the customization you have.

Please do share you experiences. Thanks