Information about SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Azure, Mobility and Productivity from the Computer Information Agency
For documentation of how to migrate Companyweb on SBS 2008 please see the following link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527602.aspx
This is constantly being updated from the documentation team so that should always be your first referral for information now and in the future.
Don’t forget our Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide (http://wssops.saturnalliance.com.au) for information about installing, migrating and maintaining Sharepoint on SBS 2003.
I’ve been working through the suggested Microsoft Companyweb migration from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 and I think that a step has been overlooked.
In the document:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527482.aspx – Steps Performed on the Destination Server
towards the bottom there’s a section called “Create a new Windows SharePoint Services Web application named OldCompanyWeb”. At the bottom of this section it says:
15. The Operation in Progress page is displayed. This operation takes approximately 30 minutes. The new Windows SharePoint Services Web application is created, and the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 CompanyWeb database is upgraded to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
16. The Application Created page is displayed. It notes that you need to reset IIS to finish creating the new Web site. You will do this in a later procedure. Close Central Administration for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Problem as I see is that you need to create a Site Collection by returning to the Application Management tab and selecting the option Create Site Collection (or click on the link in displayed in page above). If you don’t do this then companywebold is not created as a site and you’ll never see if you try and type into the browser.
All that I see is missing that you need to Create a Site collection, call it companywebold, select a Team site template and you’re done.
However, the documentation goes into checking the Site Level Administrator (which won’t work unless you have created a top level site) and then does an iisreset and says:
You now have a working Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site that is named OldCompanyWeb and that contains the structure and documents of your old Windows SBS 2003 CompanyWeb Web site.
From what I see, that won’t be the case unless you insert the additional step to create a top-level site.
I have been testing the SBS 2008 migration process but initially struck some issues during the process. After repeating the process and getting the same results my guess was that it was something to do with ISA 2004 on the source SBS 2003 since I was attempting to migrate SBS 2003 Premium. Don’t ask me why but I reckon that’s what it is.
To remove ISA 2004 out of the loop I decided to attempt the same migration but this time from SBS 2003 Standard. I’ve got to say that it has gone flawlessly.
As you can see from the above screen shot I did have some warnings, but when I looked at these all they were was:
because I was running this on an isolated network on under Hyper V it simply meant that SBS 2008 couldn’t get to the Internet to get some updates. Not a big issue.
As I said before, the whole process so far of attaching the new server to the domain is a snap since it picks up everything from the answer file you create prior to the migration. There is still a little more to do to complete the migration but I am extremely confident that too will be a snap.
I’m documenting Microsoft’s suggested method of companyweb migration after which I’ll also be developing what I reckon is a quick method.
Stay tunes.
Here’s a video to show you how straight forward the installation of SBS 2008 RC0 is. After just a few click you should have a system up and running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy7wkmamMs
As usual, don’t forget all our other videos at http://www.youtube.com/saturnalliance.
Here’s another great community based Sharepoint project but unfortunately it only runs on Microsoft Sharepoint Office Server (MOSS). Damm.
That aside it is a great example I think of how using Sharepoint as a basis for you information storage is a good move. I expect in the future to see more and more releases like this that are built on the Sharepoint framework. Sharepoint is simply a tool. It allows the easy capture, sharing and location of disparate data. Best of all it is easily customized without the need to write one line of code, yet it can be extended to what you see above as well.
All in all a very flexible product.
I use Live Writer, a free download from Microsoft, to create my blog posts and upload then to my blog. Live Writer works really well with Sharepoint but there have been a few issues, such as embedding YouTube videos. Microsoft have released an updated version of Live Writer, that is still in beta but is claimed to fix this and add a swag of new features.
Find all the information about the update and a link to download the software here. Here’s a summary of the fixes and improvements:
I have thus downloaded it and installed it over the top of the previous version and am now composing this first blog post with it. So if you are now reading this you know that I have been able to at least post updates to my blog with the new version. With that sorted I’ll try some other stuff shortly and let you know the improvements.
One of the other things that I have been playing with of late has been Live Mesh from Microsoft. Basically, you install a client on your PC’s and Mobile devices and then nominate which directories on these machines you want sync’ d. This means that the information in these folders will be available on all machines. It also means that a copy of the folders is also kept on the Internet so you can access your data from machines that are not part of your Live Mesh.
At the moment Live Mesh is still in Tech Preview (which means you have to sign up for a beta) and you only get 5GB of online storage. Given that, from what I have seen so far it is a pretty good product. The installation is simple and nominating your Live Mesh folders is a snap. The Live Mesh client give you information about other machines in you Live Mesh and their status.
I find Live Mesh a handy little addition since I need to keep information in certain folders up to date on all my machines. This means I can work on documents in one location and know that if I move somewhere else I can continue to keep working on the same document. Another handy feature is that it provides an automatic backup of your documents. So if the hard disk on one of my machines fails I know my documents are located not only on other machines but also online. All I need to do to get access to them is logon via a web browser or install the Live Mesh client on a new machine and re-sync.
Personally, I see this sort of technology playing a bigger and bigger role. We are only now seeing the beginning of ‘cloud computing’ but mark my words this will be big. Most people really only want access to their ‘stuff’, they don’t care where it is they only want to get to it. They also don’t want to have to worry about backing it up and here’s where stuff like Live Mesh starts to come into its own. I agree there are issues around privacy but I feel these will soon be overcome with the integration of seamless encryption that means everything in a Live Mesh is automatically encrypted to a level beyond that any government agency can break. At that stage business will start jumping on board but long before consumers are going to lead the way with these sort of products.
It is all about having access to your ‘stuff’ no matter where you are and for me so far Live Mesh is a winner.
For those of you who are long time readers of my blog (shame on you if you’re not!), you’ll know a while back I went through trials and tribulations virtualizing all my CIAOPS machines. Basically, this meant that I could now run the entire infrastructure on a single piece of hardware. I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t a perfect solution but it did save lots of space, kept the power bills down and made management much easier.
Then after recent escapades getting SBS 2008 working I was so impressed with Microsoft Hyper-V I thought that migrating my existing virtual machines to Hyper-V would give it a nice boost in performance and again allow me to reduce the total hardware I have to maintain.
The first step in the process I figured was simply to transfer the existing virtual PC’s to the new hardware still running Microsoft Virtual PC. Even though the host operating system is Windows 2008 64 bit and “doesn’t” support Microsoft Virtual PC it will run. So the idea was simply transfer the machines to new hardware as a starting point. I duly shut down the virtual PC’s on the original hardware and committed all the changes to hard disk and then copied the images off onto the new hardware.
What I found on the new Windows 2008 64 bit host system with Microsoft Virtual PC was that the images did load but once there were two or more images operating they ran really slow. Ok, I thought, if I’m already this far down the track I’ll go Hyper-V. Another great thing about Hyper-V is that they can use existing Microsoft Virtual PC hard disk images, will alleviates the need to re-create the machines from scratch. This is pretty impressive when you consider that the virtual machine images I was going to use had been originally created in a 32 bit application. It’s a nice and easy way to go to 64 bit in my books.
I knew the major issue with Hyper-V was going to be the network cards since they would be different from those already installed under Virtual PC. Problem is you can’t add the Hyper-V additions to better support the new environment until you remove the old Virtual PC additions. So I had to fire the machines back up in Virtual PC, remove the Virtual PC additions and then save the virtual PC image back to disk. Now, after restarting the virtual machines in Hyper-V I could install the Hyper-V additions (needs 2 reboots). After that the only thing I needed to do was re-activate the operating system. Migration complete – I love virtualization!
Now all the CIAOPS infrastructure (including this Sharepoint blog) is running on a single machine under Hyper-V. Combined with an improved broadband link I think the performance is markedly better. What do you think?
The great thing is that I can still use the host same machine for testing virtual SBS 2008 RC0 and at a later stage can do a migration from my existing SBS 2003 R2. I also like the way that Hyper-V allows you to take snapshot backups which is going to be a real bonus when it comes to putting on updates and testing. Rolling back to a previous snap shot is a sinch. I’ve still got plenty to learn about Hyper-V but if you haven’t looked at it I recommend you as I think it is going to be pretty big.
Now, I’ll admit that what I have in place probably could be improved even further but on a cost basis I am ecstatic with what I have been able to achieve and the additional flexibility it is going to provide. It also has been very beneficial to get exposure to Hyper-V which I am liking more and more every day. If Hyper-V keeps working this well I am very confident that we’ll be using for most customers in the future, it just makes so much sense on so many levels.
Finally, one of the big benefits so far is also that the issues I was having with my Sharepoint blog server seem to have gone away. Maybe it’s just like getting new hardware? All I know is that it runs a hell of lot faster now!
CIAOPS 