Uninstalling MOSS

The final section of this chapter is about removing MOSS. Remember that when you install MOSS, you also install WSS. Unlike the earlier SharePoint 2003, now both MOSS and WSS will be removed when you uninstall MOSS. You can choose to remove just MOSS and WSS, or MOSS, WSS, and the databases. If the databases remain, you can later reinstall MOSS and WSS and reconnect to these databases.

Uninstalling the Portal Site but Leaving MOSS Intact

This removes the MOSS portal site and its team sites from a given web application, but it does not remove the binary files from the server. For example, you may have a test environment using a separate web application, and you might also have a production MOSS using another web application on the same physical Windows 2003 server.

To remove the test environment, follow these steps:

1. Start SharePoint's Central Administration tool: Start Administrative Tools SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.

2. Switch to the Application Management page, then click Delete site collection, in the SharePoint Site Management section.

3. Next to the label Site Collection, click on No Selection, then Change Site Collection, and select the site collection used by the portal site, then click OK.

4. On the next page, make sure that you have selected the correct site collection, then click Delete.

5. Optional: If you want to remove the web application as well, then select the Delete Web Application link on the Application Management page. Just make sure that there are no other site collections using that web application.

All binary files for MOSS and WSS are still there. You can now create a new portal using the same web application (unless you deleted it) or another one. If you want to do this, look at the earlier sections in this chapter where the steps for creating portal sites are described.

Removing MOSS Completely

A more drastic method is to remove MOSS completely from the Windows 2003 server. If this MOSS installation were using a SQL Express database, this would also be deleted, but if it was a preinstalled SQL Server, it would not be removed. If you want to remove a remaining database engine, you must do this separately after you uninstall MOSS.

To remove MOSS and WSS binary files completely from a Windows 2003 Server, follow these steps:

1. Start Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

2. Locate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and click the Remove button, and then Yes to confirm that you want to uninstall MOSS. Note that you may also get a second warning stating that you will delete sites. Click OK to accept this.

3. On the Maintenance Mode Options page, select the option Remove the server components of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and click Next.

4. When the removal process is done, you click Close to finish this program, then click OK to do a system reboot.

5. If this is a Basic installation of MOSS, then the removal of SQL Express 2005 now starts automatically. If this is an Advanced installation of MOSS, then the database binary files will not be affected; however, the databases MOSS has created on this SQL server will be removed during the removal of MOSS.

6. When the installation is completed, click Close, then click Yes to reboot the server.

When you remove MOSS, you also remove the virtual IIS web servers used by SharePoint's web applications, along with their corresponding application pools. The default web site, however, remains after the installation, along with its application pool.