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Migrate a stand-alone installation to a server farm installation (Office SharePoint Server 2007)

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Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

Use these procedures to move a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment from a stand-alone server to a server farm. Over time, as you add features and users, the stand-alone Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment may exceed the limits of its performance and capacity. To correct this, you can move a stand-alone installation of Office SharePoint Server 2007 to a server farm. The procedures in this article provide the information that you must have to move from a stand-alone installation to a server farm while retaining the configuration, content, and site data.

Note

When you begin planning an Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment, consider how performance and capacity will expand as the requirements grow. It is usually easier to expand an existing simple server farm deployment by adding servers to meet performance, capacity, or scalability requirements than it is to move a stand-alone deployment to a server farm deployment. If you think that the Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment will require a server farm eventually, we recommend that you do not use the stand-alone installation option. In this situation, we recommend that you install directly to a simple server farm. For more information about how to install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a simple server farm, see Deploy in a simple server farm (Office SharePoint Server).

The process of moving a stand-alone deployment to a server farm consists of the following steps:

  1. Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a new farm

  2. Move databases from the stand-alone server to the server farm

  3. Create and attach data from the Shared Services Provider (SSP)

  4. Attach site collection data from content databases

Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a new farm

For comprehensive information about how to install Office SharePoint Server 2007, see Deploy Office SharePoint Server 2007 in a server farm environment.

Move databases from the stand-alone server to the server farm

Moving from a stand-alone Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment to a server farm can be made more complex by the fact that each one may use different database management software. Usually, a stand-alone Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment uses Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition to manage databases. Office SharePoint Server 2007 that is installed on a server farm requires SQL Server 2005.

A stand-alone installation of Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. A server farm installation uses a separate SQL Server 2005 database server. To successfully migrate from a stand-alone server to a farm, you must migrate databases from the stand-alone server to the database server in the farm by using SQL Server Management Studio Express and SQL Server Management Studio.

SQL Server Management Studio Express is installed on the stand-alone server by running Setup for SQL Server Express with Advanced Services or SQL Server Express Toolkit. SQL Server Management Studio Express is used to enable a connection from the database server that is running SQL Server Management Studio.

SQL Server Management Studio is used to back up databases from the stand-alone server and restore the databases to the database server in the farm.

For more information about how to manage SQL Server Express, see Managing SQL Server Express with SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express Edition (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110559).

To download SQL Server Management Studio Express, visit the Visual Studio Download Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110560).

Move data from the stand-alone server to the database server on the farm

  1. On the stand-alone server, set the databases to be read-only.

    1. In SQL Server Management Studio Express, right-click the name of the database that you want to set to read-only, and then click Properties.

    2. In the Select a page pane, click Options.

    3. In the Other options area of the right pane, expand State, click the drop-down arrow for the values of Database Read-Only, and then click True.

  2. On the new server farm, on the database server, start SQL Server Management Studio.

  3. In SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the stand-alone server.

    Note

    By default, the SQL Server Express instance name that is used to connect to the databases on the stand-alone server is set to OfficeServers.

  4. In Object Explorer, expand Databases.

  5. Right-click the configuration database (usually named SharePoint_Config), point to Tasks, and then click Back Up.

  6. In the Back Up Database dialog box, in the Source area, select the type of backup that you want to perform from the Backup type list. For more information about which backup type to use, see Overview of Recovery Models (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=114396) in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

  7. Click Database.

  8. In the Backup set area, in the Name text box, type a name or use the default.

  9. In the Description text box, type a description of the backup.

  10. Specify how long the backup should be kept, or use the default. When the backup set expires, the backup set can be overwritten by any later backups that have the same name. By default, the setting for the backup set is 0 days so that it never expires.

  11. In the Destination area, specify a location to store the backup set, or use the default.

  12. Click OK to back up the database.

  13. Repeat steps 3 through 10 for the following databases:

    • Content databases

    • Databases for Shared Services Providers (SSPs)

    • Search databases for the SSPs

    • Search databases

      Note

      The search index is not stored in SQL Server. If you use SQL Server 2005 tools to back up search, you must perform a full crawl when you recover the database. For more information, see Protecting Search in Choose what to protect (Office SharePoint Server).

Restore databases to the new server farm

  1. On the new server farm, on the database server, start SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database server.

  2. In Object Explorer, expand Databases.

  3. Right-click the database that you want to restore, point to Tasks, point to Restore, and then click Database.

    The database is automatically taken offline during the restore operation and cannot be accessed by other processes.

  4. In the Restore Database dialog box, specify the destination and the source, and then select the backup set or sets that you want to restore.

    The default values for destination and source are typically appropriate for most recovery scenarios.

  5. In the Select a page pane, click Options.

  6. In the Restore options section, select only Overwrite the existing database. Unless the environment or policies require otherwise, do not select the other options in this section.

  7. In the Recovery state section, take the following actions:

    • If you have included all the transaction logs that you must restore, select RESTORE WITH RECOVERY.

    • If you must restore additional transaction logs, select RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY.

    • The third option, RESTORE WITH STANDBY is not used in this scenario.

      Note

      For more information about these recovery options, see Restore Database (Options Page) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=114420).

  8. Click OK to complete the restore operation.

  9. Repeat steps 4 through 9 for each database that you are restoring.

For more information about how to move databases, including different backup and restore options, see Move all databases (Office SharePoint Server 2007).

Restore and attach data from the Shared Services Provider (SSP)

Important

Membership in the Farm Administrators SharePoint group is the minimum required to complete the following procedure. You must also be a member of the dbcreator fixed server role on the database server on which each database is stored. The SSP content databases and the SSP database might be on different database servers.
In addition, the account that you use to restore the SSP to the new server farm should be a member of the Administrators group on the local database server computer to which the SSP database is being restored. Otherwise, site permissions might not be transferred during recovery and the restored Web applications might be inaccessible.
Perform the following procedure on the farm to which you are migrating the SSP.

Restore the SSPs to the new farm

  1. On the new farm, on the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Operations page, in the Backup and Restore section, click Restore from backup.

  2. On the Select Backup Location page, in the Backup File Location section, specify the UNC path of the backup folder that contains the SSPs that you want to move, and then click OK.

  3. On the Select Backup Package to Restore page, select the backup file that you want to use to restore, and then click Continue Restore Process.

  4. On the Select Component to Restore page, select the SSP that you want to restore, and then click Continue Restore Process.

  5. On the Select Restore Options page, take the following actions:

    1. In the Restore Component section, verify that the SSP that you selected is displayed.

    2. In the Restore Options section, select Same configuration.
      A message is displayed that notifies you that the current farm will be overwritten. Click OK.

    3. In the New Names section, type new names and URLs for each component, or use the default values.

  6. Click OK.

Important

Membership in the Farm Administrators SharePoint group is the minimum required to complete the following procedure.
Perform the following procedure on the farm to which you are migrating the SSP.

Restore SSP associations and configure the SSP

  1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Application Management page, in the Office SharePoint Server Shared Services section, click Create or configure this farm’s shared services.

  2. On the Manage This Farm's Shared Services page, click Restore SSP.

  3. In the SSP Name section, type a name for the restored SSP. In the Web application list, click the Web application that you want to host the administration site for the restored SSP.

    If you want to create a new Web application to host the administration site for the restored SSP, click Create a new Web application. For more information about how to create Web applications, see Create or extend a Web application (Office SharePoint Server).

    The SSP Administration Site URL box is automatically populated with the URL of the administration site.

  4. In the My Site Location section, take the following actions:

    • To continue to use the existing My Sites location, verify that the Use the existing location from the SSP check box is selected.

    • To host My Sites from a different Web application, clear the Use the existing location from the SSP check box, and then select a Web application in the Web application list.

      If you want to create a new Web application to host My Sites, click Create a new Web application. For more information about how to create Web applications, see Create or extend a Web application (Office SharePoint Server).

      Type a relative URL for the My Site location.

  5. In the SSP Service Credentials section, type the user name and password that will be used by SSP Web services for communication between servers and for the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service when it runs timer jobs in the SSP.

  6. In the SSP Database section, type the name of the database server or use the default (recommended), and then type the name of the database.

    In the Database authentication area, click one of the following:

    • Windows authentication (recommended)

    • SQL authentication. If you click SQL authentication, type the account credentials in the Account and Password boxes.

  7. In the Search Database section, type the name of the database server or use the default (recommended), and then type the name of the search database.

    In the Database authentication area, click one of the following:

    • Windows authentication (recommended)

    • SQL authentication. If you click SQL authentication, type the account credentials in the Account and Password boxes.

  8. In the Index Server section, take the following actions:

    1. Click an index server in the Index Server list, or use the default.

    2. Type the path of the index server that will be used by the restored SSP to crawl content, or use the default.

      Note

      Changing the index server does not move the index. To move an index, you must use the Stsadm command-line tool.

  9. If you want to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to protect communication to and from Web services, in the SSL for Web Services section, select Yes.

  10. Click OK.

Attach site collection data from content databases

The final step of migrating a stand-alone installation to a server farm installation is the migration of content databases for each site collection. For each site collection on the stand-alone server, run the following command by using the Stsadm command-line tool.

Attach site collection data from content databases

  1. On the drive on which SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed, change to the following directory: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin.

  2. To restore a site collection, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    stsadm -o extendvs –url <URL name> –ownerlogin <domain\username> -owneremail <e-mail address> -exclusivelyusentlm –databaseserver <database server name> -databasename <database name> -apcreatenew –apidname <application pool name> -apidtype {configurableID | NetworkService} -apidlogin <domain\name> -apidpwd <application pool password>.

    For additional information, see Extendvs: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server).

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122600&clcid=0x409).

See Also

Concepts

Chapter overview: Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 in a server farm environment
Deploy in a simple server farm (Office SharePoint Server)
Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a stand-alone computer
Move to another farm (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using the command line
Stsadm command-line tool (Office SharePoint Server)