SharePoint 2010 Upgrade – Checklist

Welcome to CoolWriteups. Below I have put together a set a activities to check to ensure a smooth upgrade of your MOSS 2007 environment to SharePoint 2010.

Before the upgrade

• If you have a Nintex database to upgrade, ensure you have first updated the 2007 Nintex database to the latest version (2.0.1.5 at the time of writing this) in your existing 2007 environment or move it to a Test 2007 environment and update it there. Then install Nintex Workflow 2010 software on your new 2010 Production Server, update it to the latest version (2.3.5.0 at the time of writing this) if you have to. To find out the version of Nintex, check the Licensing page under Nintex Workflow Management. Then restore the updated 2007 Nintex database in the 2010 environment and attach it to Nintex Workflow 2010 by using the Database Setup page found under Nintex Workflow Management;
• Before starting the actual upgrade, ensure that all the content databases are restored to the new 2010 Production Database Server and all accounts have been recreated ensuring that the FARM account has DBOwner rights on the content databases;
• Make sure you have enough disk space allocated to the drive where the content databases reside. For example a 350GB content database will grow by approximately 10GB. I know what you’re thinking, so 360GB would be fine? I would recommend the drive be 500GB just to be on the safe side;
• Also, ensure that the log file is set to autogrow and that no maximum limit is set on it’s size in the Database properties window in SQL Server Management Studio. If your log files are stored on a different drive make sure the drive is more than 150GB in size, your 350GB content database’s log file is likely to grow to approximately 150GB so make sure you have allocated atleast 200GB to the drive. More is better.

During the Upgrade

• Log into your Production Application Server with the FARM account and open a Powershell command prompt. Type in the following command: Mount-SPContentDatabase -Name -DatabaseServer -WebApplication [-Updateuserexperience], where:

  ‘databasename‘ is the name of the database you want to upgrade.

  ‘servername‘ is server on which the database is stored.

  ‘url‘ is the URL for the Web application that will host the sites.

  Updateuserexperience is the choice to update to the new user experience or stay in the old user experience (part of Visual Upgrade). When you include this parameter, the site is set to preview the new user experience. Omit this parameter if you want the site to remain in the old user experience after upgrade. For more information, see Plan visual upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010). Refer to this link for more details: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263299.aspx#AddDB

• Once you run the command, you can keep track of the upgrade by opening the Central Administration page then > Upgrade and Migration > Check Upgrade Status;
• You can also start Task Manager on the SharePoint 2010 Application server, click the ‘Networking’ tab to see if there is any traffic going through to the Database Server.
• Most important is the Upgrade log file which can be found in the 14 Hive in the Logs folder or if you have your log files stored in a different drive then check there. The Upgrade log file will give you information about the start time of the upgrade, what it has done, what features are missing, errors, warnings etc;
• Other options to check the progress of the upgrade include Opening SQL Server Management Studio then right click the Server Instance and select Activity Monitor to make note of the processes running against the content database that is being upgraded to SharePoint 2010. Keep an eye out for any locks;
• You can also open a new Query Window in SQL Server Management Studio against the content database and enter the following query: SP_HELPDB ‘DBName’ which will give you a list of properties along with information about the log file, the size etc. This is important as most upgrades fail due to a lack of disk space allocated or the log file is set to have a maximum limit that is less that what it needs;
• During the upgrade the SQL Server will record any errors which can be found by clicking SQL Server Agent in SQL Server Management Studio, then click the Error Logs folder, select SQL Server as the option (not SQL Server Agent) and then double click the ‘Current’ log file. This will tell you if there are any errors and what caused the error.

Questions and Comments always welcome.

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