Chapter 6. Migrating from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007
IN THIS CHAPTER
- Formulating a Migration Strategy
- Outlining Supported Migration Scenarios
- Examining SharePoint 2007 Migration Paths
- Performing an In-Place Upgrade of a SharePoint Environment
- Performing a Gradual Migration
- Performing Advanced Migrations
- Best Practices
Many organizations have existing SharePoint 2003 products and technologies deployed in production environments but are interested in taking advantage of the new features of SharePoint 2007. Many of these organizations have significant investments in the existing infrastructure, however, and need to ensure site functionality throughout the upgrade process.
SharePoint 2007 includes a migration option built in to the program media. This option seems deceivingly simple, and the process itself is not actually complex. That said, some features of 2003 do not migrate to 2007, and some web parts written in legacy format will not work in the new system, so it critical to perform an initial assessment and test the migration process before migrating a SharePoint 2003 environment to SharePoint 2007.
This chapter covers migration options from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007. Supported methodologies are compared, and the gradual and in-place migration options are demonstrated with step-by-step guides. In addition, advanced migration options using utilities such as STSADM and Microsoft ISA Server are illustrated.
Formulating a Migration Strategy
Migration from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007 for small environments is relatively straightforward and can be performed with minimal risk. For organizations with a complex or large SharePoint 2003 environment, however, migration to SharePoint 2007 can be a daunting task. Fortunately, the migration tools built in to SharePoint 2007 allow for a gradual migration approach; groups of sites are migrated slowly over time, allowing for reduced risk of failure or downtime and allowing administrators to test site functionality before finalizing individual site migrations.
The most difficult part of a migration subsequently becomes the validation portion, in which existing SharePoint 2003 site functionality is assessed and a determination is made as to whether it will migrate successfully. This can be even more difficult for those environments with a heavy investment in third-party add-ons to SharePoint 2003. Therefore, it is critical to formulate a migration strategy before beginning the process.
No direct supported migration path exists from the “1.0” version of SharePoint technologies, including SharePoint Portal Server 2001 and SharePoint Team Services. The only way to migrate these environments to 2007 is to first upgrade the servers and sites to SharePoint 2003, and then follow one of the migration paths demonstrated in this chapter.
Outlining Supported Migration Scenarios
The in-place upgrade process and the gradual migration process have limitations: not every version of SharePoint can be migrated, and not every version of SharePoint 2007 can be migrated to. The following are supported migration scenarios:
- Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 2.0 to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
- SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 w/ Standard edition Client Access Licenses (CAL)
- SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to MOSS 2007 w/ Enterprise edition CALs
For those organizations that want to upgrade from WSS 2.0 to MOSS 2007, an alternative migration approach must be chosen, such as those involving STSADM site transfers, a topic discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
Assessing Site Migration Readiness
The most critical task that an administrator needs to perform before beginning a migration is to assess the state of the current site structure. Multiple factors can affect how a site migrates, so those factors need to be taken into account and tested in advance. The following site customizations can affect the migration process:
- “Unghosted” sites—A site that is “unghosted” is one that has been customized using a tool such as FrontPage 2003 or Web Folders. After the site has been touched by one of these utilities, it will no longer migrate fully to a SharePoint 2007 site. Instead, it will inherit some of the look and feel of a SharePoint 2003 site, as the migration utility does not understand how to transfer the look and feel of a site that does not fit within default parameters. Fortunately, SharePoint 2007 gives administrators the rights to “reset” a site back to ghosted status after the migration, but this must be done on a site-by-site basis and can result in certain customizations being overwritten. You can find more information about this in the step-by-step migration guides in this chapter.
- Web parts—Any custom-created web parts, including third-party web parts, such as RSS feed readers or navigation components added to 2003, might not migrate correctly to SharePoint 2007. Some of the web parts included in SharePoint 2003, such as the MSNBC web parts, might not migrate correctly either. Therefore, you must test all web parts on a site after a site has been migrated.
- Specific programmatic tasks—Certain programmatic tasks that worked in SharePoint 2003 will not migrate properly and can be overwritten during the upgrade process. These tasks include customized themes, customized site logos, form library extensions, and remote check-in/check-out web services.
For these reasons and for many more, it is critical to test the migration process in a lab environment, to ensure that site elements will migrate properly.
Creating a Prototype Test Environment
As previously mentioned, it is critical to test the migration process in a lab environment. Doing so requires the current SharePoint 2003 environment to be restored onto a separate server and then upgraded via either the gradual or in-place migration options described in this chapter. If you do this, the actual production environment remains untouched, and you can fully discover the potential migration issues.
It is ideal to have knowledge workers for each site test the migrated site on the prototype server in advance. If you give the prototype server a different fully qualified domain name (FQDN), both the legacy 2003 site and the migrated 2007 version can coexist, thus enabling end users to validate functionality.
For example, if the Sales Department team site is normally accessed by https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/sales, the Prototype sales site that has been migrated can be accessed by https://sp-pilot.companyabc.com/sites/sales. Thus, if errors occur during the upgrade, they can be addressed in advance of the actual move.
Ideally, during this prototype phase, a hold is placed on any type of serious site modification, such as custom web parts, FrontPage modification, and any types of activities beyond the scope of standard SharePoint document management functionality. This hold limits the risk that a site customization made after the prototype server is built will cause issues not seen during the actual testing process.
SQL Database Upgrade Considerations
The database technology used by both SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007 is Microsoft SQL Server. Both versions of SharePoint support installation on either SQL Server 2000 Service Pack (SP) 3a or later, or SQL Server 2005. Because both versions of the SQL Server product are supported, it is not necessary to upgrade the SQL Server database component to migrate an environment to SharePoint 2007. If the SQL Database is upgraded, there is no effect on the SharePoint environment (aside from downtime from the migration process), and a SharePoint migration has no effect on SQL Server.
That said, some organizations use the opportunity afforded by a SharePoint environment to also migrate their SharePoint databases to SQL 2005. This is typically done when new hardware is used for the new 2007 environment. Migration to a new server is not directly supported, however, but some advanced migration options allow for this type of scenario. These types of scenarios are covered in later sections of this chapter.
Examining SharePoint 2007 Migration Paths
Although the SharePoint migration tools seem to allow for only two types of migrations, several different approaches to migration can actually be considered, depending on the needs of the environment. Some of the migration options allow for migration to new hardware; others reduce the risk of a migration approach by using multiple servers and migrating site by site.
Examining the In-Place Upgrade Approach
The most common and straightforward approach to migration is just to insert the SharePoint Server 2007 media, or the WSS 3.0 media, and click the In-Place Upgrade button. This option has some distinct advantages, namely speed and simplicity. This migration option also carries the greatest risk, however, and results in all the support calls occurring at the same time. In addition, it is only a viable solution for those servers with less than 30GB of total SharePoint data.
This migration option physically goes through each site on the server and changes the look and feel, web parts, and all other site components to SharePoint 2007. After completion, the same content databases and their contents (such as documents, lists, and other content) are intact, but now populated with 2007 sites and site components.
Examining the Gradual Migration Approach
The gradual migration approach option allows organizations to install both SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2003 on the same server, with separate content databases created for each platform. Site collections are then migrated to the 2007 side of the server one at a time or in groups. The server translates HTTP requests made to the server to the proper set of content. For example, if the https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/sales site has been migrated, but the https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/marketing site has not been migrated, the server automatically pulls up the right set of content, even though both are using the same FQDN and the content resides in different content databases.
Considering Alternative Migration Strategies
Sometimes neither the in-place or the gradual migration option meets the needs of a particular scenario. This chapter discusses such scenarios with respect to their specific needs, as follows:
- Need to keep 2007 environment completely separate
- Need to run both 2003 and 2007 versions of a site at one time
- Need to build 2007 environment on brand new hardware
These needs can be addressed by using an advanced migration scenario. As shown in Figure 6.1, a staging server is set up running SharePoint 2003. Sites are backed up from the production server and copied to the staging server via STSADM, which creates full-fidelity backups of the site content. The staging server is then upgraded to SharePoint 2007, which upgrades the site content. The sites are then backed up again, this time using the 2007 version of STSADM. They can then be imported to a third server via STSADM, this one configured with SharePoint 2007.
Figure 6.1. Advanced migration scenario.
During the pilot phase of the project, sites are tested on the new 2007 side, but production changes are made to the old 2003 side. After a site has been officially migrated (for example, the Marketing Site in the diagram), the old site is locked into Read-Only mode, and the migrated 2007 site is put into production.
The obvious challenge in this scenario is to devise a method by which the same FQDN for the farm (for example, sp.companyabc.com) redirects the requests made to a site to the proper site on which the production side of the site is located. A product that can filter HTTP traffic at the application layer, such as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006, can perform this function, splitting traffic sent to https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/sales to the old 2003 server and https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/marketing to the 2007 server, as illustrated in the diagram.
This migration scenario has some distinct advantages, as follows:
- The production 2003 environment is left untouched.
- The 2007 farm can be built fresh, with complete design flexibility to create a farm different from the 2003 one.
- Sites can be migrated between versions (for example, from WSS 2.0 to MOSS 2007, or from SPS 2003 to WSS 3.0).
- The process can be tested multiple times, by rebuilding the staging server.
- Users can pilot the migration because access can be granted to both sites at the same time.
This advanced migration scenario is described in more detail in the step-by-step sections later in this chapter.
Performing an In-Place Upgrade of a SharePoint Environment
The most straightforward path from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007 is the in-place upgrade. This option is typically used on small to mid-sized SharePoint deployments because it involves an immediate upgrade of all site collections to SharePoint 2007, using the existing database.
Installing .NET Framework 3.0
Before the server can be upgraded, the 3.0 version of the .NET Framework must be installed on the server. It can either be installed using Microsoft Update (http://update.microsoft.com) or by directly downloading it from the following URL:
Or, just go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and search for “.NET Framework 3.0.” To install the .NET Framework 3.0, follow these steps:
1. Run the downloaded setup program for .NET Framework 3.0.
2. At the license agreement dialog box, shown in Figure 6.2, accept the terms and click Install.
Figure 6.2. Installing the .NET Framework 3.0 package.
3. The .NET Framework will begin to install itself in the system tray. You can view the progress by clicking the system tray. Click Exit when the install process has finished.
4. Be sure to run Microsoft Update again after installation to check for any updates and security patches for the software.
Running the Pre-Upgrade Scan Tool
Microsoft stipulates that a scan of the sites must be performed using a command-line tool called the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool. If you attempt to upgrade a server before this tool is run, the upgrade will not allow you to continue. The only problem is that the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool can only be accessed after MOSS 2007 has been installed, leading to somewhat of a “chicken or the egg” problem. What this means is that you will need to first install MOSS 2007 on a separate server, just to be able to extract the tool itself. You can then bring the tool files over to the server to be upgraded and run them from the command line.
When MOSS 2007 is installed, the files that you need are called PRESCAN.EXE and PREUPGRADESCANCONFIG.XML; you can find them in the following directory:
C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12BIN
This assumes that C: is the drive where SharePoint is installed. After copying both files over to the SharePoint 2003 server and placing them in the same folder, you can run the tool by following these steps:
1. Open a command prompt window (Start, Run, cmd.exe).
2. Navigate to the folder where the tool and the XML file were copied to.
3. Enter the following prescan.exe /c preupgradescanconfig.xml /all and press the Enter key, as shown in Figure 6.3.
Figure 6.3. Running the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool.
4. After the file completes, review both the XML log file, shown in Figure 6.4, and the Text file, shown in Figure 6.5. Each file gives useful information about potential issues, the number of unghosted sites, and other critical site information.
Figure 6.4. Viewing the XML results of the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool.
Figure 6.5. Viewing the Text file results of the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool.
Correcting Pre-Upgrade Scan Tool Issues
Using the log files generated from the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool, an administrator can address issues in advance of the migration. This might involve fixing web parts identified as not supported, reghosting sites, and other fixes. The logs can also help to identify which sites will have the most issues after the migration.
Performing the Upgrade
After the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool has been run and any site corrections have taken place, the upgrade process can begin on the server. To perform an in-place upgrade, follow these steps:
1. Run Setup from the MOSS 2007 media.
2. Enter the correct product key when prompted and click Continue.
3. Check the box to accept the terms of the license agreement and click Continue.
4. From the Upgrade dialog box, shown in Figure 6.6, select to perform an automated in-place upgrade and click Install Now.
Figure 6.6. Selecting the In-Place Upgrade option.
5. The upgrade process will now begin, and might take a long time, depending on the amount of data to be migrated. After it is complete, keep the box checked to run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard and click Close.
6. At the welcome screen for the upgrade, shown in Figure 6.7, click Next to continue.
Figure 6.7. Upgrading to MOSS 2007.
7. Click Yes when prompted about services being restarted.
8. Click OK at the warning about language packs.
9. Select the type of security that will be used for the SharePoint Central Admin page. Kerberos is the most secure, but requires additional configuration in the domain. NTLM will work in all situations. Click Next to continue.
10. Click Next at the summary screen.
11. Click Next at the completion screen.
12. When prompted with the message shown in Figure 6.8, read the message carefully. If there are multiple servers in the farm, you must bring them all to this point in the upgrade process before continuing. If this is the only server, or if the others are at the same point, click OK to continue.
Figure 6.8. Viewing an upgrade warning.
13. After the migration is complete, click Finish.
14. The SharePoint Central Admin page will launch. Authenticate with the credentials of the admin account used to perform the upgrade.
15. The Upgrade status page will display, similar to what is shown in Figure 6.9. Wait until the page displays that the upgrade has succeeded, similar to the page shown in Figure 6.10. The upgrade is now complete.
Figure 6.9. Viewing the upgrade status.
Figure 6.10. Completing the in-place upgrade.
Resetting Unghosted Sites to SharePoint 2007 Site Definitions
As previously mentioned, sites that have been “unghosted,” or modified with tools such as FrontPage 2003 or Web Folders, will appear to have 2003 style elements after the upgrade. Many of these style elements are unsightly and can interfere with the navigation elements that 2007 has. It is often ideal to reset these pages to the 2007 site definitions, to preserve a common look and feel for the sites. This process must be performed on the root of each unghosted site collection via the following process:
1. Navigate to the home page of the site collection.
2. Click the Site Settings link. (On an unghosted page, the Site Settings link should appear on the top bar, whereas for a regularly migrated page you would need to click Site Actions – Site Settings.)
3. Under the Look and Feel category, click the Reset to Site Definition link.
4. From the page shown in Figure 6.11, select whether to reset individual pages or the entire site. Click Reset.
Figure 6.11. Resetting site to SP2007 site definition.
5. Click OK when warned about losing customizations.
6. Navigate to the home page of the site and verify functionality after the change.
Performing a Gradual Migration
The gradual migration process is ideal for those organizations that cannot take the risks associated with the in-place migration option, or that have more than 30GB of data in their SharePoint 2003 farm. This option enables administrators to take their time with the migration process and only migrate specific site collections at a time. The process to get a gradual migration started is the same as the start of the in-place migration process; and in the interest of not repeating information, the steps that are repetitive are listed at a high level, as follows:
- Install the .NET Framework 3.0.
- Run the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool.
- Mitigate any site issues identified with the Pre-Upgrade Scan tool.
- Run the Setup tool from the MOSS 2007 media.
When running Setup and reaching the step shown in Figure 6.12, select the Gradual Upgrade instead, and then follow these steps:
Figure 6.12. Selecting a gradual upgrade process.
1. Select Yes, perform a gradual upgrade, and then click Install Now.
2. Select the check box to run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard and click Close.
3. Click Next at the welcome screen.
4. Click Yes when warned about restarting services.
5. Click OK at the warning about language packs.
6. From the Connect to a Server Farm dialog box, shown in Figure 6.13, select to create a new server farm and click Next to continue.
Figure 6.13. Creating a new server farm for the upgrade.
7. Enter the database server and specific a database access account. Click Next to continue.
8. From the SharePoint Central Admin Web Application dialog box, select the authentication provider, keeping in mind that Kerberos security requires additional configuration in the domain. Click Next to continue.
9. Click Next at the summary dialog box.
10. Click Finish when complete. The SharePoint Central Admin tool will launch and prompt for credentials. Enter the credentials of the admin performing the migration.
The SharePoint Central Admin tool contains lists of instructions on how to proceed with the gradual upgrade. Click the Gradual Upgrade Next Steps link shown in Figure 6.14 to receive instructions on how to proceed.
Figure 6.14. Proceeding with the gradual migration.
Adding Additional Servers to the Upgrade Farm
After the first server has been installed and configured to initiate the gradual upgrade process, you can install and add additional servers to the farm as necessary. The installation process for adding servers to a farm is covered in detail in Chapter 5, “Installing Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.”
After all servers have been added to the farm, the roles of the servers should be assigned before continuing with the upgrade process. This includes assigning which servers will handle Excel Services, which ones will handle Search and Indexing, which ones will be the incoming email servers, and which will handle the other server roles.
Upgrading Site Collections Using the Gradual Approach
After all servers and services have been assigned, the upgrade process can continue. To proceed, follow these steps:
1. From the SharePoint Central Admin tool, select the Operations tab.
2. Under the Upgrade and Migration category, click Site Content Upgrade Status.
3. Under the Next Action column, shown in Figure 6.15, click Begin Upgrade.
Figure 6.15. Proceeding with the gradual migration.
4. In the Set Target Web Application dialog box, enter to create a new application pool, configure it with the service account username and password, assign database names for the SSP and Search databases, and leave the rest of the options at the default. Click OK.
5. After the web application has been created, go back to the Operations tab and click Continue Upgrade. From the dialog box in Figure 6.16, select the root site (/) to be upgraded; it must be upgraded before any other sites are. Then click Upgrade Sites.
Figure 6.16. Upgrading individual sites.
6. Review the summary page, and then click Upgrade Sites.
7. Watch the status of the Upgrade Running timer job. When complete, the status field will display “No upgrade job pending. Upgrade succeeded.”
Repeat steps 5 through 7 for remaining sites. Sites can be upgraded on a schedule most convenient to your organization. Remember to consider resetting the site definitions to SharePoint 2007 site definitions for unghosted sites via the process outlined earlier in this chapter.
Finalizing the Gradual Migration
After all site migrations have completed, you can finish the migration process as follows:
1. From the SharePoint Central Admin tool, click the Operations tab.
2. Under the Upgrade and Migration category, click the Finalize Upgrade link.
3. From the page shown in Figure 6.17, click the Complete Upgrade button.
Figure 6.17. Finalizing the gradual migration.
4. Click OK at the warning.
When this task is complete, you can uninstall SharePoint Portal Server 2003 from the server(s), and the migration process is complete.
Performing Advanced Migrations
As previously mentioned, several more-complex migration scenarios can be accomplished using either the gradual or the in-place migration options. For these options, flexibility to migrate individual sites to multiple servers needs to be preserved. Fortunately, using the STSADM command-line tool to export sites from one server to another allows for a third migration option. This option, described earlier in this chapter and illustrated in Figure 6.1, gives organizations more design flexibility.
Setting Up the Staging Server
The concept of the staging server for advanced migrations allows the actual migration work to be offloaded to a separate machine. This machine is built to be a temporary server. Indeed, it needs to be rebuilt every time a new refresh of the sites is imported from the 2003 server. For this reason, it is often ideal to virtualize this server on either Virtual Server 2005 or VMWare. This allows for a quick reprovisioning of the server as needed, without having to reinstall SharePoint Portal Server 2003, all the patches, and other configuration settings.
Exporting and Importing Sites Using STSADM
The key to this migration strategy lies with the STSADM command-line tool. This tool is extremely powerful and can be used for myriad administrative tasks. Of particular note is its ability to make a full-fidelity flat-file backup of a site collection. This allows it to export a site out to a flat file and then import it to a different server.
The one limitation is that the STSADM file can only import a backup file onto a server running the same version of SharePoint as the machine it was exported from. This limitation explains the need for a staging server.
The process to back up a site with STSADM is the same in SharePoint 2003 as it is in SharePoint 2007. The only difference is the actual location of the file. In SharePoint 2003, the file is located in the C:Program filescommon filesmicrosoft sharedweb server extensions60in, whereas in SharePoint 2007 it is located in the C:Program filescommon filesmicrosoft sharedweb server extensions12in folder. The only change in the folder path is the 60in and 12in folders, but it is important to note the difference in location.
Exporting a site collection using STSADM is the same process for both 2003 or 2007, as follows:
- From the source server, open the command prompt by going to Start, Run and then entering cmd.exe into the Open box.
- Enter the following into the command-line box: cd Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12in (replacing the 12Bin path with 60Bin if on a 2003 server).
- Enter stsadm.exe –o backup –url http://servername/sitecollectionname -filenameSiteCollectionBackup.dat –overwrite (where servername is the name of your server, and sitecollectionname is the top-level site in a collection, as shown in the example in Figure 6.18).
Figure 6.18. Backing up a site collection using STSADM.
To import the site to the destination server, follow these steps:
1. From the destination server, open the command prompt by going to Start, Run, and then entering cmd.exe into the Open box.
2. Enter the following into the command-line box: cd Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12in (replacing the 12Bin path with 60Bin if on a 2003 server, as illustrated in Figure 6.19).
Figure 6.19. Restoring a site collection using STSADM.
3. Enter stsadm.exe –o restore –url http://servername/sitecollectionname -filenameSiteCollectionBackup.dat (where servername is the name of your server).
Upgrading the Standby Server to SharePoint 2007
After sites have been exported from the source server and imported into the standby server using STSADM, use the in-place migration steps outlined in this chapter to upgrade the site collections to 2007.
Once upgraded, the sites can be exported out to flat files again, this time as 2007 site backups. They can then be imported into the destination 2007 farm.
This technique can be repeated as necessary until all site collections are upgraded.
Using ISA Server 2006 to Provide for Split Migration Paths
If you need to split web traffic destined for the original farm to both the old 2003 server and the new 2007 server, an application layer–aware HTTP scanner such as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 is needed. A tool such as this can redirect traffic destined for https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/marketing and traffic destined for https://sp.companyabc.com/sites/sales to two different server locations. For Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted sites, the ISA Server needs a copy of the SSL certificate.
There would be two ISA rules that are configured with a single listener that listens for traffic destined for sp.companyabc.com in this example. Each rule would forward the traffic to a different server. The Paths statement of each rule would then include the appropriate sites, such as /sites/sales for one server and /sites/marketing for another.
For more information about configuring ISA Server 2006 for use with SharePoint 2007, see Chapter 20, “Providing Secured Remote Access to SharePoint Using ISA Server 2006.”
Summary
SharePoint 2007 products and technologies give organizations an unprecedented number of new features and capabilities. For those organizations with legacy SharePoint 2003 environments, the temptation to migrate quickly to SharePoint 2007 is strong. It is important to review migration options, however, because different migration approaches might not work for all organizations.
Choosing between the gradual migration option, the in-place migration option, or an advanced migration approach is just one of the steps. Proper migration technique involves testing the selected process in a prototype lab environment and involving knowledge workers in a pilot of the migrated environment. Using these techniques, the overall risk of a SharePoint 2007 migration is greatly reduced, and the benefits of SharePoint’s document management and collaboration platform can be more easily realized.
Best Practices
- Review the Pre-Upgrade Scan results files and address issues documented by the tool before beginning the upgrade process.
- Perform the chosen migration technique in a prototype lab environment before running it in the production environment.
- Use the in-place upgrade process only for those environments that are smaller than 30GB in size, and for those environments without a large number of customized web parts or other complexities.
- Examine third-party and custom designed web parts for interoperability with SharePoint 2007, checking with the Microsoft Software Development Kit for the types of code that are supported in a SharePoint 2007 environment.
- Reset unghosted sites to SharePoint 2007 site definitions where possible to ensure consistency across sites.
- Use the STSADM utility to export and import sites from one server to another for the creation of a prototype server or to support an advanced migration scenario.
- Consider the use of an application layer inspection-capable HTTP filter device such as ISA Server 2006 to provide for the ability to split HTTP traffic to multiple servers, thus enhancing the ability to migrate a single namespace to a new server using a phased approach.