Developing the Migration Strategy

Before migrating from SharePoint 2001 technology to SharePoint 2003 technology, a migration strategy needs to be developed that identifies the sites and workspaces that will be migrated, what to do about elements that cannot be migrated, and the approach that will be taken with regard to how the migration will actually take place.

NOTE

SharePoint 2003 technologies must be installed on a server running Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Therefore, a migration to SharePoint 2003 also involves a migration to Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Refer to Chapter 6, "Installing SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services," for additional information about the process of installing Windows Server 2003 and preparing it for the installation of Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

The sites and workspaces in the old environment need to be reviewed and a list developed that includes sites that are being used as well as sites that are not being used or are no longer required. Migrating only the necessary sites saves both time and resources.

After identifying the sites that will be migrated, review the section "Addressing Elements That Are Not Directly Migrated" later in this chapter to determine what needs to be done for elements that cannot be directly migrated.

Next, determine how the migration will take place. When moving from one version of a product to another, generally, two strategies can be used:

• In-place upgrade/migration An in-place upgrade involves installing the new version of the product on the same server as the previous version, replacing the old version of SharePoint. A migration process is performed with the data to get it to the desired end state. An in-place upgrade for SharePoint 2003 also involves upgrading the operating system to Windows Server 2003.

  CAUTION

  An in-place upgrade is not recommended, since the operating system needs to be upgraded, and a roll-back is generally not possible. It is also not possible to compare the new installation with the old one to ensure that migration was successful. In addition, the old server hardware may not be robust enough to handle SharePoint 2003's requirements.

  
  

• Parallel systems With this option, SharePoint 2003 is installed on a separate server or servers and the data or information migrated to the new system. Both systems are in operation at the same time, with the new one in a "test" mode. A small group of users perform transactions on both the old and the new systems so that the results can be compared. When the parallel test is determined to be successful, the test group of users migrates off the old system and uses the new system exclusively. Gradually, users move off the old system and migrate to the new. After all users are migrated, the old system is taken offline.

If SharePoint has been in use for a fair amount of time, a decision needs to be made whether to do a gradual cutover or an all at once cutover. There are pros and cons to either process, and this decision would need to be made during the discovery and design process.

Providing users with something that looks and feels similar to what they are used to (such as backwards-compatible libraries in the SharePoint 2003 environment) may meet with much better acceptance than implementing a whole new SharePoint 2003 environment. Providing users with a user guide that highlights differences in the way things are done using SharePoint 2003 as opposed to SharePoint 2001 technologies also works toward gaining acceptance of the new product.

Taking the time to develop and plan a migration strategy results in a much smoother migration with a greater success factor.