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Migrate content or sites after upgrade (Windows SharePoint Services)

  • Article

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

 

Topic Last Modified: 2008-10-28

In this article:

  • Migrate content by using import/export

  • Migrate a site collection by using backup/restore

After you have completed the upgrade process, you can redistribute content or sites as needed to fit your new environment. It is easiest to move content or sites before you open the sites to users again, so that they do not have to experience more than one outage window.

If you want to redistribute sites among your content databases, you can use any of the following methods to perform this action:

  • Import/Export   Use this method to move a subsite into a different site collection, or to move an entire site collection to a different database or Web application. With import/export, you can choose whether or not to include security settings when you import. To migrate content by using this method, use the import and export operations with the Stsadm command-line tool.

    Note

    You can import sites only into site collections that are using same language as the exported site.

  • Backup/Restore   Use this method to move an entire site collection to a different database or Web application. To migrate content by using this method, use the backup and restore operations with the Stsadm command-line tool.

  • Content Migration application programming interfaces (APIs)   Use this method to move smaller sets of data (down to the list or item level) between sites. For more information about using the Content Migration APIs, see Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Software Development Kit (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=76000&clcid=0x409).

Migrate content by using import/export

The import/export feature is based on the new Content Migration APIs. With import/export, you can migrate either subsites or entire site collections, and you can import a subsite into an existing site collection. Like the Smigrate.exe utility in the previous version, import/export requires that the site you import to already exists. Note that import/export does not include some site settings, such as Recycle Bin state and alerts.

Note

You can import sites only into site collections that are using same language as the exported site.

To use import/export to migrate a site or site collection, see Archive and retrieve content by using Stsadm import and export operations (Windows SharePoint Server 3.0).

For more information about using import/export, see Stsadm command-line tool (Windows SharePoint Services).

Migrate a site collection by using backup/restore

If you want to migrate an entire site collection, you can do so by using the backup and restore operations with the Stsadm command-line tool. First, back up the site collection you want to move, then delete it from the current database and take the database offline. Then, restore the site collection to the new URL. Be sure that there is no site collection already at the new location, or the restore operation will fail.

Note

If there is a site collection at the destination and you want to overwrite it, you can use the overwrite parameter with the restore operation.

To use backup/restore to migrate a site collection, see Back up and restore site collections by using built-in tools (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0).

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This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Windows SharePoint Services.