Migrating SharePoint from one machine to another machine - sharepoint-2010

I had a SharePoint server, now i want to move this from one machine to another machine.
This is what i did for the migration.
I have just installed sharepoint server in my new machine and i have removed the Sharepoint_config and wss_content databased from the new server. and i have restored both the databases from the old server. Then i tried to run the Central Admin and i got Unable to connect to content database error.
Is replacing the DB is wrong. is there any other way to migrate SP server from one machine to another. I have tried my taking Farm backup and restore i had many problem with that. so i feel replacing DB would be better for me. any suggestions please?

Move SharePoint between servers is a huge effort.
Data in databases are very depends on the SharePoint install and its environments. So, I suggest just re-install the SharePoint on the new server, and then restore site collection backups to the new install.
Install SharePoint Server on the new server machine
Backup site collections from the old server, follow this guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263441(v=office.12).aspx
Create Web Applications on the new server
Restore site collections from the prev. backups, follow this guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262087(v=office.12).aspx
Be aware, if you have farm level customize solutions (developed by Visual Studio) or css files deployed in the LAYOUT folder, don't forget to re-deploy them on the new server.

I guess this question is too old and my answer will not help topicstarter... However, I was looking to refresh my own knowledge on this topic and I feel it will be useful to share it here.
This solution is not good for every SharePoint deployments, of course, it's just a general idea.
And I don't think it suits production environments well... but if you are brave and foolish as myself, you can do it there as well, with some additional precautions like backups and so on.
Here are prerequisites:
SharePoint was initially installed in Farm mode (not in Single Server mode)
Both old and new servers are in the same domain
You know Farm Passphrase used for initial installation
Old server is still intact and accessible from the new server
Steps to do
Skip steps 2-6 if you don't want to move databases to new location
Install SharePoint on the new server and join to existing farm. See
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261752.aspx for details on joining procedure.
Ensure that the SharePoint is read-only. You can just shut down MS SQL DBEngine service if it's ok for your users.
Install MSSQL Server on the new server or other location you want. Remember, that it's not a good idea to keep SharePoint and MSSQL on the same server if it's not a demo/dev environment
Move all SharePoint databases to the new MSSQL Server. You can simply copy all DB files and attach it to the new SQL, or go full backup and restore way.
Important: Create an SQL client alias on the new server with cliconfg tool. See blogs.msdn.com/b/priyo/archive/2013/09/13/sql-alias-for-sharepoint.aspx for details.
Use your old SQL instance name as alias name. E.g. if your old server had SQL installed alongside with SharePoint on SharePoint.mydomain.com, alias name should be "SharePoint.mydomain.com"
Set Server name for alias to the new SQL location. Something like "NewServer.mydomain.com"
Ensure that you specify correct port number for SQL connection or configure network for default dynamic port. It is not necessary only if you have local SQL server on the same machine.
Create identical SQL client alias on the old server (this is needed to correctly remove old server from farm)
Remove old server from the farm. See this technet article for details
Update DNS settings or whatever you use to point users to the new server.
That's it. Hope it will help someone

Related

Creating a Database Server for home use in SQL Server 2005 Express

I am looking to create a database server that can be used to store data using a VB.net application. When I initially installed SQL Server 2005 Express edition, I believe I installed this using the LocalDB option.
As it stands my application is a simple tool which utilises the Process.Start command under certain situations, depending on user input, to launch Game Servers for use at a gaming LAN I assist in running.
I wish to progress the application by being able to update, delete and query a database created in SQL Server 2005 Express. I understand the use of connection strings etc, however I am wondering if the installation using LocalDB will mean that I cannot connect to the server to process the data I require.
Can I continue to use the LocalDB option and create a Database Server for specific use using my application or is a different installation option required?
Secondly, can someone point me in the right direction of how to create a new Server for this purpose? All of my searches so far have provided results for creating a database only, and not the server.
I have a couple questions about what you are trying to do.
First, why are you installing SQL Server 2005? It was released almost a decade ago.
I would go with 2012 express edition.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29062
Second, install the management tools. SSMS is a nice GUI to do work in.
Third, If you are spinning up anything other than express, there are licensing costs which are quite high. 9K for standard and 25K for enterprise per socket or such.
Here are the versions and features list from microsoft.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144275.aspx
Last but not least, having the express edition on another computer is fine. However, you will have to use a network protocol such as TCP/IP instead of shared memory.
It will take longer to send Tabular Data Stream (TDS) to the other computer versus talking to memory on the same computer.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/c4f06669-41fd-42e6-b4a9-564cf04ca9f7/how-to-choose-between-shared-memory-named-pipes-tcpip-via?forum=sqlgetstarted
Good luck with your project.
You can use a local instance of SQL Server just fine, if you want to set up a separate server for some reason then you'll need either a 2nd machine on which to install SQL Server, or to spin up a virtual machine. If running Windows 8 (and barring hardware limitations) you have Hyper-V at your fingertips.
This is not a complete answer for you but may give you some things to think about.
First you might want to think about your choice of database. If you don't have a compelling reason for using 2005 you will probably at least want to move to SQL Express 2008.
Second, to answer the part about creating a server... A server is something that serves data. In a general sense a computer configured to be contacted by external machines and respond with data is a server. A web server runs a program like IIS or Apache to respond with web pages. A database server contains a database and allows connections to that database. So as long as you install the database on a computer and configure it to allow external connections, you have your database server.
In MS SQL there are several things that need to be set up to allow a database to accept external connections. One is that the SQL Server Browser service will need to be active. Another is that the database itself will need to be configured to allow external connections (SQL Authentication type probably).
Hope this helps.
Addition:
SQL Remote Connection Configuration
Disclaimer, I don't have SQL Express 2005 installed but I think the settings are found in the same place in 2008. If the info here is not exact to SQL Express 2005, the general terminology used here should be enough to get you headed in the right direction to find the specifics.
While viewing the database in Server Management Studio or Enterprise Manager, right click the database server instance name (the root of the tree) and select properties. There should be a section title Connections and within this section there should be an option "Allow remote connections to this server". Make sure it is checked. The other setting you need in this properties menu is under the security area. There is a radio button for "Windows Authentication Mode" and "SQL Server and Windows Authentication Mode", you want the second that allows both.
The next step you have may be to create a new user, add a password, and connect the user to the database. That will give you the credentials you will use in your database connection string while programming. I usually add new users through the security section of the database then set the User Roles for each database that I need to connect to. It is good practice to limit the permissions to those needed by the application. Typically this is read and write, but sometimes you can get away with just read. The less the better.

Looking for a free DNN community edition website Backup and restore procedure working with DNN 7 and SQL server express 2008 r2

I am looking for a free DNN community edition website Backup and restore procedure working with DNN 7 and SQL server express 2008 r2.
I usually design and develop website in local PC as my connection speed to the actual server is low. And then I want to publish (deploy) the result in the server. I may need to repeat this procedure a few times as our website is always under development and I need to add new pages or update the existing ones.
I use DNN 7 community edition. I have already googled and have found plenty of commercial tools for this backup and restore. But the free methods seems to be 1.
old or
not working properly or
not a straight forward procedure or
very buggy.
I have gone e.g. through the 4 links given in
http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/134680/HOW-TO-Move-a-DotNetNuke-installation
without any success.
Could you please help me 1.
how I could develop my website in local PC and then upload the
result in the server?
And later after adding a few new pages in the local PC how I could sync the result with the server?
Thank you very much in advance for your help and consideration.
.
.
.
"when using SQL express, if I simply copy the entire local folder to production (including the APP_DATA folder, which contains the database)." ... How I could just save the newly registered users data in the website's database before copying entire local folder to production and restore this data after copying. In other way, I want to update the page contents and added designs but I don't want to loose newly registered users data between two consecutive website updates. I hope could find a working procedure for this because working online with server is very slow due to my connection speed and I have to keep a replica of the website in the local PC and add new pages or programs in the local PC and then update the result to the server when required. The specs of two systems are as follows:
local PC: Windows 8 Pro (with admin access)
Server (VPS): Windows web server 2008 (with admin access)
1) The easiest way to do this, when using SQL express, is to simply copy the entire local folder to production (including the APP_DATA folder, which contains the database)
2) Repeat step 1, but you'll lose any changes you made in production since the last time you pushed things up.
DNN doesn't really support this type of synchronization as a platform. They tried to offer it in their Enterprise product, but it worked so poorly they scrapped the feature.

Can SQL Server Express LocalDB be connected to remotely?

I am looking into using the new SQL Server Express LocalDB (I think it is code named "Denali") for a desktop application.
It is currently running with SQL Compact, but the user is wanting to share the database between multiple PCs on a network. Unfortunately this is not something that SQL Compact can do, so I am investigating other solutions.
The client requires the ability to send database files easily to other sites or to back them up to a flash disk, so I am avoiding going to SQL Express because there is quite a bit of "administrator" knowledge required to backup and restore.
So, my questions is, does the new SQL Express LocalDB support remote connections to the database over a network and/or through a shared network folder with the mdf file in it?
LocalDB does support supplying a path for an attached local DB in it's connect string (AttachDbFileName) hence the shared network folder option.
NOTE: This question pertains to "LocalDB" the new version of SQL Express 'Denali' and not to SQL Server Express 2008 or prior.
See article here announcing LocalDB's release: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2011/07/12/introducing-localdb-a-better-sql-express.aspx
No, SQL Server Express LocalDB doesn't accept remote connections.
The idea with shared network folder might work, but only if you are able to make sure the LocalDB instance is shutdown before you try to copy the file. Also keep in mind that only one LocalDB instance can have any given database file open at the same time. and don't forget about the log files!
Additional security warning: unlike SQL Server Compact databases, SQL Server Express databases (including LocalDB ones) are not designed as secure data exchange format. For instance, they can contain malicious code in .NET assemblies embedded in them. So you should never open databases from untrusted source.
Maybe providing the customer with a simple tool that automates the backup process would be a better idea?
This isn't a fresh thread, but I would like to share my experience with SQL Server Express database LocalDB.
I have a WPF C# project using SQL database with LocalDb Engine. It is working fine no problem, I can use the database with the WPF app. I wanted this app to work on network with more PCs.
On the network another PC can use the database from my PC using UNC path in the connection string.
It seemed to me the remote connection is working. However when the remote PC is connected, I am not able to use the database with my local WPF app. If I run my app first the remote PC could not connect. So this tells me that the remote connection is working, but the multiple connection is not allowed.
OK, I didn't give up and I run the app from my PC twice and I saw it is working which tells me that the same SQL LocalDB engine can handle multiple connections locally only.
I hope this experience will help someone. Thanks.
In short, yes it can. Here is a tutorial on how to configure it.
Also, here is another post with a potential issue that might occur.
Both explain how to configure SQL Server Express to accept Remote Connections.

Installing SharePoint 2010 on a dev machine with an external database

I've been following Microsoft's guide for installing a dev environment on Windows 7:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx
In order for it to not run like a dog I've created a SQL Server 2008 instance on our database server specifically for this dev machine. The article does mention that you might be wanting to use an external database in regard to making sure the database cumulative update is installed. It doesn't make any other mention of configuring it to use a external database. I was hoping that the configuration wizard would then prompt about which database to use but annoyingly it just set-up the configuration database locally.
How do I go about installing SharePoint on a dev environment with an external database, and will I need to reformat this machine and do it all again?
Well, this depends on what your environment looks like. For instance, is this machine part of a domain?
If so, it should be as simple as selecting "Server Farm Install", or something like that when you did the binaries installation. Then, when you run Products and Configuration Wizard, it will ask you for DB info. Note: if you are doing this, I would recommend you to be part of the 'sa' role on the database server as you will be creating databases.
If you are not part of a domain, it gets a little trickier, but not too bad. Check out this article.
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/fromthefield/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=112
-= Plan B =-
You can always give this a whirl. This is the method we use to keep the DB guys from screaming. It also allows us to give our databases nice names.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262869.aspx

Install Sharepoint on a server with other databases already on it?

We have a DB server with a couple web app db's on there (don't get a ton of traffic). We'd like to make use of the server and allow it to be the DB server for sharepoint. I'm assuming it's not good practice and that sharepoint should have it's own exclusive db server. Am I right in that conclusion, or is it alright if we put the database on a server that already hosts other databases.
You can install SharePoint on an existing DB server, sure. Unless your environment is going to be huge, I don't see why you would give it its own DB server. It will use an embedded SQL Server instance if you want, but you'll get better performance if you have the full-blown version. We're running a few SharePoint apps on our DB server with a number of other applications.
The way in which I solve this is to install a second SQL Server instance dedicated to SharePoint, as SharePoint likes to have a lot of control over the database and spews all sorts of stuff such as logins, etc. across the instance, which you really want to separate from your standard line of business instance.
The added bonus is multiple SQL Server instances on the same physical machine are included in your licence.
Be careful with the SQL Server collation. I think SharePoint requires a particular setting for this. See http://www.moss2007.be/blogs/vandest/archive/2007/07/24/sharepoint-2007-and-sql-server-collation-latin1_general_ci_as_ks_ws.aspx for one reference.
Prior to centralizing our environment we had many Sharepoint sites located on servers with existing applications. I'm not a fan of adding an additional named instance as this increases the administrative overhead for the DBA. You have to know how much use you expect of your Sharepoint instance then measure the resource utilization of your existing applications balance it from there.