Share via

Merge content databases (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

  • Article

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

 

Topic Last Modified: 2009-04-17

You can merge content databases when a database is smaller than expected and it is convenient to combine several site collections into one database to help with load balancing.

Merge content databases

Use the following procedure to merge content databases that are associated with your site collections.

Important

We recommend that you install the April Cumulative Update before you merge content databases. This update fixes known issues with the Stsadm mergecontentdbs operation. For more information, see Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Before you use the mergecontentdbs operation within the Stsadm command-line tool, make sure that there is free space available on the hard disk that is equivalent to at least three times the size of the source site collection. To determine the size of your site collection, refer to the StorageUsedMB attribute of the enumsites operation. For more information, see Enumsites: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).
To complete the following procedure, you must be a member of both the Farm Administrators group and the Administrators group on the local computer. You must have Full Control permission for any site collection that needs to be moved. The account that you use to perform this procedure must be a member of the db_owner fixed database role in Microsoft SQL Server.

Merge two or more site collection databases

  1. At a command prompt on the drive where SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed, change to the following directory:

    %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin

  2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
    Stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url <URL> -sourcedatabasename <database name> -destinationdatabasename <database name> -operation 2

    where url is the address of the Web application that contains the site collections that you want to move; sourcedatabasename is the name of the first database that you want to merge; destinationdatabasename is the name of the second database that you want to merge; and operation 2 is the “Full Database Merge” operation.

    For more information, see Mergecontentdbs: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).

  3. Restart IIS by typing the following command, and then pressing ENTER:
    iisreset /noforce

See Also

Concepts

Add, split, and merge content databases (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)
Add a content database (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)
Move site collections to a new database (split a content database) (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)