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Stump the Panel » Site Managers and Site Collection Managers

1. 

   amila
   Member

   Hi,

   I have a MOSS setup with two servers. I want to preapre a virtual disk of this setup. I tried to get a backup and then restore this in to a clean MOSS installation of the virtual disk. I am getting verious errors and can someone pl. guide me on the following;

   1. can i restore a backup in to a clean installation (just after running the configuraion wizard), without creating any web apps.

   2. when restoring as a new configuration, do i have to give the previous setups login names and passwords. However it says only to do so if using SQL authentication. The original setup used a different AD ad the new one use another AD.

   "If using SQL Authorization a login name and password are need to access this information. If no user name and password are provided then windows authorization is used."

   3. Do i have to pre-preapre any databses. Or else what are the rights that i have to assign.

   A detailed guide on the restore process (farm restore in to a diffrent domain) would be highly useful

   thanks in advance
   amila

   Posted 11 months ago #
2. 

   AutoSponge
   Administrator

   Trying to push 2 physical servers into a virtual one while simultaneously migrating to a new AD and changing all the names and logins could be a nearly impossible task depending on how complex your install was in the first place.

   What's the business need? Will this process be repeated? How much content do you have in the source site? Could you consider building the new site then migrating content between sites?

   Posted 11 months ago #
3. 

   erugalatha
   Member

   If you treat this like a disaster recovery then this is not too complex. You will need your databases backed up in SQL though. The follow the steps:

   1. Install SharePoint on the new server.
   2. Run the configuration wizard to connect it to the new SQL server. If you are connecting to the same SQL server delete (I would backup first) the Admin Content and Config databases. The configuration wizard will recreate these.
   3. Install the same updates and services packs as on the original server. I did this with SP 2007 SP1. Make sure you run the configuration updates after the service packs.
   4. Restore your website content databases and your two shared services databases (SharedServices1_DB and SharedServices1_Search_DB for example). In my case I had only three web applications. Portal, MySite, and SSPAdmin or 5 databases all together. Dont worry about the search database. You will have to recrawl your website anyway. MAKE SURE THE DATABASE NAMES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THEY WERE ORIGINALLY.
   5. Recreate your web applications. My case they were portal, mysite, sspadmin. When you create them this is your chance to change a URL or a port number or enter a host header. When you get to the database name, put in a fake name such as WSS_Portal_DeleteMe. You will delete this database later. Do this for all your webapplications.
   6. Next step is to remove the temp database from each web application and attach the real database you restored in step 4. To do this go to Central Administration -> Application Management -> Content Databases. Select the web application you would like to change. Select the database name (for example WSS_Portal_DeleteMe). Check the box in the next screen to remove content database. You should now see no database attached to the web application (it also remove it off the sql server). Select add a content database. For the database name put the name in EXACTLY as you restored it which should be EXACTLY like it originally was. Dont worry about the Search Server field since you have not started that service yet. Do this for all your web applications. You now have three new web applications attached to your 3 restored content databases.
   7. Start required services on new server. Go to Central Administration -> Operations -> Services on Server. Start the Windows SharePoint and Office SharePoint searches. Let it create a new database.
   8. Restore your SSP (these are the other two databases you restored earlier). Central Admin -> App Management -> Manage this farm's shared services (Click in the Shared Services link on the left!). Select Restore SSP. Name the SSP (Can use the same name as before SharedServices1 or change it. I would leave it so it matches the DB name) Make sure you select your SSPadmin and MySite web applications your created earlier and your restored database names. Do I have to mention again to make sure the names are exact! Select the index server (it is now available since you started the service). You will get a warning stating you are changing the association of the existing web applications. Click OK.
   9. Install any 3rd party web parts or custom ASPX pages before you try and open the site so it does not mess with any formatting.
   10. Open your SSP website and start a full crawl and user import. You should notice that all your SSP settings are still there.
   11. Since you did not restore the Sharepoint_AdminContent database you will have recreate things like smtp server names. These are all easy things that can be found off the main Central Admin Page. You should even go through the steps they list and complete each one.
   You should now have a fully functioning SharePoint site on a new server with a new sql server.

   This was taken from the following URL: http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/MS-SharePoint/Q_23185385.html

   Posted 11 months ago #
4. 

   amila
   Member

   Thanks erugalatha for the detailed description which i am going to try out..

   and autosponge,the requirement is to create a virtual disk for development / testing purposes. The existing set up is not complex, one web server and one db server. One site collection, one SSP and my sites. Content is minimum, (almost nothing). The concern is not the content but

   1. To recreate the same setup for dev. purposes
   2. try out the possible scenarios for disaster recovery.

   Will it be easy, if i use the same AD name and AD accounts? I don't mind creating a new virtual disk similar to the web server config. However this should be the AD and the db server as well. Any comments are welcome

   Posted 11 months ago #
5. 

   AutoSponge
   Administrator

   I have one comment on the 2-server setup. If you're creating both as separate virtual machines running on the same server, they will fight for resources. You need a VERY robust box to handle this. I had better performance in dev running everything in a single VM.

   You can create several VMs (from the same image) with the same accounts you just need to make sure they have unique server names when you put them in AD. I'm not a systems expert so I didn't even try to change a server's name once MOSS was installed--it seemed like a nightmare. I created a base image that held everything up to the point of installing MOSS. When I need a new server, I pull out the image, give the server a new name, put the new comp in AD, then install MOSS. If I need content, then I probably use a console app (until I get my DPM server).

   Posted 11 months ago #
6. 

   erugalatha
   Member

   I agree AutoSponge. Use the 11 steps above but do your restoration into a single VM. I have completed this just today both into a single VM so I can develop on a MacBook running 1 VM and also into a 3 server VM environment which I will use to test service packs & hotfixes before deploying into Production.

   Posted 11 months ago #
7. 

   amila
   Member

   I am bit confused at the step 4. I have 2 web applications (one for the site collection and one for the SSP + Mysites) and below are the databases;

   1. Content database for the web application – (webapp1)
   2. Content database for the web application – (central administration)
   3. Content database for the shared services 1 (SSP1)
   4. Configuration settings for shared services 1
   5. Search database for shared services 1
   6. Search database for search server
   7. Configuration data for the entire server farm.

   Pl. elaborate on the exact dbs i have to use.
   thanks in advance

   Posted 11 months ago #
8. 

   erugalatha
   Member

   Amilia,

   Step 4 is completed inside SQL Server Management Studio. The content database normally restored here is sometimes named WSS_Content_Some_Huge_GUID. (Just in case, create the database with exact name first and then restore into the newly created database from your backup)

   The Shared Service Provider database that you need to restore is usually the database associated with the Web App you are trying to restore. In Central Admin go to "Shared Services Administration" in the quicklaunch. Then drop down the menu on the SSP that you want to restore and choose Edit Properties. Scroll down on the resulting page and you'll see the name of the database that you need to restore. You should have taken a backup of this already from your live environment first in order to restore it in here - same for the content database.

   That is usually all you'll need to restore in SQL Server.

   Posted 10 months ago #
9. 

   amila
   Member

   thanks guys, this worked really well and was easier than i thought.
   It restored everything (including the changed master page) other than the custom theme; fantastic.

   Posted 7 months ago #

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