SharePoint Migration Guide – Overview and Planning Your Migration

Migrating SharePoint data seems like it should be a straightforward process but as with any task within SharePoint, planning is your greatest ally.

Any time you migrate SharePoint data from one server to another, additional applications, web parts, and features may need to be reinstalled.

Below I have listed several scenarios and the expectations you should have when performing each of them. In the coming weeks, we will expand on each of these with more detail on the process involved.

First Step – Determine your Account Creation Mode

The first major factor in planning your migration is to determine what account creation mode your WSS 3.0 site is running. If your site is on a corporate network, most likely it is running in Default Account Creation Mode. If your site is hosted by a SharePoint/MOSS Provider like Fpweb.net, chances are you are running in Active Directory Account Creation Mode. The quickest way to decisively determine which mode you are in is to access your site with an administrator account:

Go to Site Actions > Site Settings > People and Groups > New.

If the Users/Groups: box has a Create button, you are running in Active Directory Account Creation Mode, if it does not, then you are running in Default Account Creation Mode.

Active Directory Account Creation Mode

Default Account Creation Mode

Now that you know what Account Creation Mode you are in, we can further analyze what it will take to get your data migrated.

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Migrating WSS 3.0 to WSS 3.0

Migrating to a server using the same Creation Mode
Expectations
Difficulty: Easy
Content: Fully Migrated
Security: Fully Migrated
Users: Fully Migrated (unless the new site is on a different AD. If on a different AD users can be manually created then migrated within SharePoint. This will usually result in a password reset.)
Time: Minimal (unless on a different domain and users must be created, then Moderate.)

Migrating Default Account Creation Mode to Active Directory Account Creation Mode
Expectations
Difficulty: Moderate (due to export/import feature issues)
Content: Fully Migrated
Security: Not Migrated
Users: Not Migrated (you can extract a list of users from the old site and script their creation in AD/SharePoint)
Time: Moderate (unless migrating users, then Significant)

Migrating Active Directory Account Creation Mode to Default Account Creation Mode
Expectations
Difficulty: Moderate (due to export/import feature issues)
Content: Fully Migrated
Security: Not Migrated
Users: Not Migrated (you can extract a list of users from the old site and script their creation in AD/SharePoint)
Time: Moderate (unless migrating users, then Significant)

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Migrating WSS 3.0 to MOSS 2007 (Note, MOSS ONLY uses Default Account Creation Mode)

Migrating from a WSS 3.0 server using Active Directory Account Creation Mode
Expectations
Difficulty: Moderate (due to export/import feature issues)
Content: Fully Migrated
Security: Not Migrated
Users: Not Migrated (you can extract a list of users from the old site and script their creation in AD/SharePoint)
Time: Moderate (unless migrating users, then Significant)

Migrating from a WSS 3.0 server using Default Account Creation Mode
Expectations
Difficulty: Easy
Content: Fully Migrated
Security: Fully Migrated
Users: Fully Migrated (unless the new site is on a different AD. If on a different AD users can be manually created then migrated within SharePoint. This will usually result in a password reset.)
Time: Minimal (unless on a different domain and users must be created, then Moderate.)

In place Migration on the same server (ONLY works if the WSS site is using Default)
Expectations
Difficulty: Easy
Content: Fully Migrated
Security: Fully Migrated
Users: Fully Migrated
Time: Minimal

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Migrating MOSS 2007 to WSS 3.0
Although theoretically possible, this is a highly difficult and sometimes impossible task. You must access the old server and disable all MOSS features, then export/import. This method will often fail or take longer than just manually migrating the data from site to site.

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For more information on SharePoint migrations, please reference the following external links
Microsoft WSS v3 to MOSS 2007 Post-Upgrade Configuration Steps
SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard
Microsoft WSS v3 to MOSS 2007 Upgrade Guide

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Sharepoint Tidbits from the Trenches.