I invested the 59 hours required to "upgrade" a WSS 2 site to a WSS 3 site. (You just have to do research for 46 hours to learn about the 80,340 things that can go wrong and how to mitigate them.) I have one minor problem: The blasted site is still a WSS 2 site after the "upgrade". What a debacle! I created a VPC of Windows Server 2003. I backed up the WSS 2 site from the hosting company, via SharePoint Designer 2007 SP2. I restored it to the VPC. I did an in-place upgrade from WSS 2 to WSS 3 on the VPC. I removed WSS 2 from the VPC. I tried to make a backup of the site now that it is WSS 3. It's a stupid .fwp, which will not restore to my production WSS 3 server. I need a .cmp file. How do I fix this ridiculous debacle? I could have recreated the site from scratch in binary machine language, using dial-up, with both hands tied behind my back in the hours wasted with trying to use the lame tools provided. Do I sound disgusted with crappy software? Wait, don't tell me; let me guess: One cannot use the GUI tools; One has to revert back to the command line à la 1955, because the developer begrudgingly implemented bare minimal functionality, with a couple dozen nice big bugs, in the GUI tool due to his affinity for the 1950s and jump codes?! I hope I'm dead wrong. , Lee

It probably is mission impossible if you are trying to use SharePoint Designer for all of this. The process really shouldn't be that hard. If you backup the content database from the production server and restore it to the WSS 3.0 environment you should be able to attach it to the SQL server and then add it as a content database to the new 3.0 system. For actions not done from the web GI, stsadm is used which is command line. This is consistent with most server applications. With regards to backup or migration, if you want an even cleaner process with full GUI then there are 3rd party tools for that, but they will cost money.SharePoint MVP | Developer | Administrator | Speaker-- Twitter -- Blog - http://nextconnect.blogspot.com

"The process really shouldn't be that hard." Agreed! Thanks for the prompt response and sharing your insight, Mike. I was pretty frustrated last night. My IT life is full of things that could--and should--be so easy, but are so needlessly difficult. I think the primary source of frustration is being given a tool that proclaims the ability to do what I need, luring me into completely wasting my time. SharePoint Designer has a backup function and a restore function. "Hey, SharePoint Designer can do that--except it can't." I do not buy the old "it's customary to have to use some (ancient) command-line tool on servers" bit. I'm running Windows Server--not "Command Lines Server". You know, Windows...Menus in the Menu Bar, "action" buttons in the Toolbar, smart dialog boxes, use of the computer mouse/pointing device, etc. ...Dare I say it, Wizards...and I suffer the wrath of geek-machismo, proud to like the should-be-defunct command line, because it protects their place in the world. I'm a wimp: I don't write my own drivers, and I posit that command line is ridiculous in the 21st century. Guilty as charged. If stsadmin is so useful, and it's meant to run on Windows, Microsoft should put a fully functional GUI on it, period. Hangings and witch hunts were "consistent with most" jurisprudence at one time. We're stuck in the rut of people who accept command line, because they are used to it, or just accept that nobody at Microsoft cared enough to give us a GUI. (The "old guard".) I stand firm. If you sell me Windows, I expect software for Windows, not DOS--imagine that! The W in WSS stands for Windows, right? Maybe I got DSS (DOS SharePoint Services by mistake). I'm actually leaning toward recreating the site, "by hand" or "from scratch" in WSS 3, because I cannot trust the tools provided, and they waste my time. It is unacceptable to put customers through this much grief to upgrade to the next version of the product! All involved should be ashamed. Their solution: a myriad of white papers, walk-throughs, KB articles, and excuses. Put that energy into making good tools--for Windows, not DOS. So, the problem is I'm having trouble moving my upgraded site (from an upgraded WSS 3 server to another WSS 3 server), and your solution is throw away the upgrade? One step forward and one step back? Microsoft: Lee, there are 3 ways to updgrade; just pick the one you like. Lee: Okay, I'll take "In-Place" for its ease. Microsoft: Okay, now that you're all done with the struggle, we just need to tell you that you picked the wrong one. Ha ha. Start over. , Lee