MOSS Migration from Windows SharePoint Services

How to Migrate Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Migrating SharePoint 2007 sites to a MOSS Server environment is a step many growing organizations face. Often, companies move to a MOSS environment to increase the level of collaboration or to fulfill security and infrastructure requirements.

When making the move from SharePoint to MOSS, here are a few things you should know:

1. Since WSS and MOSS cannot run side by side on the same hardware, MOSS must replace the existing installation of WSS v3.0
2. Under even the best circumstances, there is always risk of losing data in the migration. For this reason, it is imperative data is first backed up to remove the possibility of loss.
3. Are you upgrading a stand–alone version of WSS to MOSS 2007? If the answer is yes, then the move from WSS to MOSS is permanent and non – reversible.
4. Are you upgrading a server farm? If so, it is possible to downgrade from WSS to MOSS although uninstalling requires additional steps and technical familiarity to do correctly.

Step 1 – Complete a Full Backup
Backups cannot be stressed enough – regardless of the server situation, the data should ALWAYS be backed up before making the move. Especially if you have business critical data hosted on your SharePoint, backups are crucial to be sure there is no loss in the transition.

Step 2 – Install MOSS 2007
Install and configure MOSS 2007. Installation for a server farm or for an individual server configuration is slightly different – for a server farm, you will have to run the Configuration Wizard on each server.
For detailed instructions on MOSS 2007 installations of both types, read the Microsoft WSS v3 to MOSS 2007 Upgrade Guide.

Step 3 – Check your configuration, check your data, and enable features
Review your MOSS installation thoroughly to be sure that all of your data was successfully migrated. Check your configurations and settings and then review the MOSS 2007 features and enable them as needed.

For additional details on Post–Upgrade configuration, read the Microsoft WSS v3 to MOSS 2007 Post–Upgrade Configuration Steps.
For additional help with the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 product: Microsoft Technical Library – Books on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007