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Upgrade a stand-alone installation to new hardware by using RBS (database attach) (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

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Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010

This article discusses the upgrade procedures that are required to upgrade from a stand-alone Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system to an installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010 with Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) onto a new hardware platform.

Important

We strongly recommend that you read the article Upgrading from a stand-alone installation of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to SharePoint Foundation 2010 when content databases exceed 4 GB (RBS) for important information and recommendations about how to upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 together with RBS.

RBS is designed to move the storage of binary large objects (BLOBs) from database servers to commodity storage solutions. RBS is an add-on that can be applied to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. This implementation of RBS uses the SQL FILESTREAM provider. For more information about RBS and the FILESTREAM provider, see Overview of RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Because of the database size limitations in SQL Server 2008 Express, install Windows Internal Database and restore the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 databases into Windows Internal Database. You then install RBS, move the content database from Windows Internal Database into SQL Server, and then move the BLOBs into a content database that is set to use RBS.

By default, content databases in SharePoint Foundation 2010 are stored in SQL Server 2008 Express, which has a maximum size of 4 gigabytes (GB) per content database. Because SQL Server 2008 R2 Express supports content databases that are up to 10 GB, we recommend you install SQL Server 2008 R2 Express to support content databases. SQL Server 2008 R2 Express is a free upgrade that you can download and install from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=189418).

Note

This article assumes that you have installed SQL Server Management Studio on the database server in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 farm. If you do not have this software installed, you can download and install it from Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Management Studio Express (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=186132&clcid=0x409).

This article is not a comprehensive guide to upgrading to SharePoint Foundation 2010. Before you begin the upgrade process, read the following articles and create an upgrade plan:

In this article:

  • To prepare for the upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the original server

  • To prepare for the upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the new server

  • To install and configure Windows Internal Database on the new server

  • To move the content databases to the new server

  • To install SQL Server Express 2008 R2 on the new server

  • To install RBS on the new server

  • To install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the new server

  • To migrate the content database to RBS and complete the installation

To prepare for the upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the original server

  1. Verify that the user account that is used to perform this procedure meets the requirements listed in Initial deployment administrative and service accounts (SharePoint Foundation 2010), and that the user account is a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

  2. Verify that Management Studio is installed on the original server.

  3. Back up the content databases by using the procedure described in How to: Back Up a Database (SQL Server Management Studio) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=187768&clcid=0x409). You can use the default settings for most options, but you must use the following settings:

    • In step 1, you must set the instance name for Windows Internal Database as \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query.

    • In Step 12, select the option Destination. Make sure that the destination media has sufficient free space for the backup.

  4. Run the pre-upgrade checker that is discussed in the article Perform pre-upgrade steps (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

    The pre-upgrade checker report includes the names of all content databases. You have to have this list to migrate content databases to RBS. If you have multiple Web applications, you should also note which content databases are attached to which Web applications.

To prepare for the upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the new server

  1. Verify that the user account that is used to perform the upgrade and installation meets the requirements listed in Initial deployment administrative and service accounts (SharePoint Foundation 2010), and that the user account is a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

  2. Confirm that the hardware configuration supports SharePoint Foundation 2010. For more information, see Hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

  3. Verify that the available disk space meets the following requirements:

    • Available disk space is at least twice the size of the largest content database.

    • Available disk space is equal to or greater than the sum of the sizes of all content databases.

To install and configure Windows Internal Database on the new server

  1. Click Start, and click Server Manager.

  2. In Server Manager, click Features and then click Add Features.

  3. In the Add Features wizard, scroll down the list of features, and then select Windows Internal Database.

  4. Click Install.

  5. Exit Server Manager.

  6. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.

  7. Expand Services and Applications.

  8. Click Services.

  9. In the Services pane, right-click Windows Internal Database, and then click Properties.

  10. Use the drop-down menu to change the Startup type to Automatic.

  11. Click Start to start the service.

  12. Click OK, and then exit Computer Management.

To move the content databases to the new server

  1. Copy the content database backup files that you created in the procedure To prepare for the upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the original server to the new server.

  2. On the new server, download and install Management Studio from Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Management Studio Express (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=186132&clcid=0x409).

  3. Use the instructions at How to: Restore a Database Backup (SQL Server Management Studio) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=187769&clcid=0x409) to restore the databases by using Management Studio. Use the following settings for the restore procedure:

    • In Step 1, use the following name for the Windows Internal Database instance: \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query.

    • In Step 5, enter the correct database name to be restored. We recommend that you use the same name that was used when the database was backed up.

    • In Step 7, select the database file that you copied in Step 1.

    • Accept all other default options and complete the restore.

To install SQL Server Express 2008 R2 on the new server

  1. Download SQL Server 2008 R2 Express from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=189418).

  2. Follow the onscreen instructions to install SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.

    For additional information, see How to: Install SQL Server 2008 (Setup) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=187771&clcid=0x409).

    Especially note the following settings:

    • On the Instance Configuration page, specify whether to install a Default instance or a Named instance. If you create a named instance, note the instance name. You have to supply this name in a later procedure.

    • On the Server Configuration — Service Accounts page, you must specify login accounts for SQL Server services. You can assign the same login account to all SQL Server services, or you can configure each service account individually.

    • On the Database Engine Configuration page, make sure that the domain account that is being used for this installation is listed as a SQL Server administrator.

To install RBS on the new server

  1. Go to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=177388 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=177388) to download the RBS_X64.msi file.

    Important

    You must install the version of RBS that is included in the SQL Server Remote BLOB Store installation package from the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. The version of RBS must be 10.50.xxx. No earlier version of RBS is supported for SharePoint Foundation 2010.

  2. Open the folder that contains the .msi file, and double-click RBS_X64.msi to start the Install SQL Remote BLOB Storage Wizard.

  3. In the Install SQL Remote BLOB Storage Wizard, on the Feature Selection page, expand Server, click the down arrow next to Execute scripts, and then click Entire feature will be unavailable.

  4. Expand FILESTREAM Provider, expand Server, click the down arrow next to Execute scripts, and then click Entire feature will be unavailable.

    Note

    The database that will host the scripts does not yet exist. It is created during the database upgrade process. The Execute scripts option will be installed automatically during the installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010.

  5. Complete the wizard by using the default values.

    During the installation, a dialog box appears about an RBS Maintainer task. Click OK in that dialog box to proceed with the installation.

To install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the new server

  1. Install SharePoint Foundation 2010 by following the instructions in Install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the farm servers. You must use the database instance name that you created in Step 2 of the procedure To install SQL Server Express 2008 R2 on the new server that you performed earlier in this article. If you used the default named instance in that step, you must enter it here as “SQLExpress”. If you used the default instance, then you must enter " " here instead of using the default SQLExpress named instance.

    Note that you are creating a new installation ofSharePoint Foundation 2010. You are performing a database attach upgrade, not an in-place upgrade.

    Note

    After you install SharePoint Foundation 2010, do not create any Web applications until instructed to do this later in this article.

To migrate the content database to RBS and complete the installation

  1. Verify that the same user account that was used to install SharePoint Foundation 2010 and RBS is the user account that is performing this procedure.

  2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

  3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

  4. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

  5. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command to migrate the content database to RBS. You must repeat this command for each content database. Refer to the list of content databases that was generated by the Pre-upgrade checker in Step 4 of the procedure To prepare for the upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on the original server earlier in this article.

    Move-SPBlobStorageLocation -SourceDatabase "<DbName>" -DestinationDataSourceInstance "<InstanceName>"

    Where:

    • <DbName> is the name of the content database that you restored into Windows Internal Database.

    • <InstanceName> is the name of the SQL Server database instance that you created in the procedure To install SQL Server Express 2008 R2 on the new server earlier in this article. If you used the default named instance in that step, you must enter it here as “SQLExpress”. If you used the default instance, then you must enter " " here instead of using the default SQLExpress named instance.

  6. Create the Web applications that attach to the content database. For information about how to create a Web application in SharePoint Foundation 2010, see Create a Web application (SharePoint Foundation 2010) or Create a Web application that uses Windows-claims authentication (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

  7. Type the following command to attach and upgrade a content database to a Web application:

    Mount-SPContentDatabase "<DbName>" -WebApplication <http://SiteName>

    Where:

    • <DbName> is the name of the database.

    • <http://SiteName> is the name of the Web application.

    Repeat this command for each content database.

    For more information, see Move-SPBlobStorageLocation and Mount-SPContentDatabase.

  8. Create or restore needed customizations onto the new system. For recommended post-upgrade steps, see Perform post-upgrade steps (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

See Also

Concepts

Plan for RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

Other Resources

Downloadable book: Upgrading to SharePoint Foundation 2010
Resource Center: Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Foundation 2010