We have a live site in our DataCenter that is currently being used. It was originally WSS 2.0, I upgraded it to WSS 3.0. Prior to upgrade, I installed a test site using WSS 3.0 and built a site to show management, they liked the site and now want it in place of our existing site. How do I move everything in the test site and replace the existing Production site. I have seen some post but just want to make sure I'm doing it the right way. To recap scenario: Existing WSS 3.0 site (Previously upgraded from WSS 2.0) Created a test WSS 3.0 site and have it on the network for testing. We developed sites and subsites to see exactly how it worked. Now we need to replace the existing production site with the Test site and all it's content. So basically I want to delete what ever is on the Production site and replace it with the Test site information....this way we don't have to redo the whole create of the site. Thank you for any assistance.Jr. Admin

Backup/Restore works provided both servers are at the same version number of WSS 3.0. Another way is to save the content database and then create WSS 3.0 from scratch on the new server and say that you want to use that content database. But look up "upgrade WSS 3.0" on either the Microsoft site or (for a shorter list and probably better selection of hits) in my v3 site's MS Articles section (http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v3%20Articles/Latest%2020.aspx) choose the "Maintenance" View). Among others this will give you this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288690(office.12).aspx if the new server is Windows Server 2008 and this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc719752(office.12).aspx for restoring WSS 3.0 databases. But there are more links there that might suit you better. SP 2010 "FAQ" (mainly useful links): http://wssv4faq.mindsharp.com/default.aspx WSS3/MOSS FAQ (FAQ and Links) http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/default.aspx Both also have links to extensive book lists and to (free) on-line chapters

Thank you for the reply...They are both running WSS 3.0 and both running on 2003 Server. They are both connected to a SQL 2005 DB as well. I found a couple of links that might work, could you please confirm. Move content DB - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288554(office.12).aspx Backup and restore - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288019(office.12).aspx I just want to make sure that all the sites/subsites and rights we have setup transfer without having to redo the test site. Thanks for your help, Jr. Admin

OK, so I have started to backup and restore my Test Content DB from using the above link for Backup and restore. I did a backup using the Content management tools and it creates a folder with a lot of .bak files. I then copy those files to my other SQL 2005 DB and wanted to preform a restore but when I got to choose the files, it wants a specific bak file and there are a lot to choose from. How do you restore the backuped DB on the new SQL server. BTW - if you ever do a full backup on your WSS 3.0 and you get access denied, you want to make sure the the UNC path you use is the name and not the IP address. I had \\192.168.110.20 but it failed until I changed the path to \\sql01. FYI.... Any help on how to move the and restore the DB would be appreciated. ThanksJr. Admin

Backing up in one farm and restoring in another farm is riskier in case if there is any version conflict or patches version conflict, Please consolidate the steps what you've done after the upgrade in Test environment. If you've scripted then its great else all were manual steps, re-running the same manual steps in production involves less risk.Aravind http://aravindrises.blogspot.com

You can also backup your Content DB from Test server and restore on Prod SQL Server using SQL Management Studio. I would suggest you go through the following article on How to Move content databases between instances of SQL Server (Office SharePoint Server 2007) This is what you will basically have to do. Backup the Content DB from SQL on your Dev Server, Using the SQL Management Studio. Restore the Content DB in SQL Server of your Production farm, again Using the SQL Management Studio. Create a new Web Application on the Production server in SharePoint 2010. Detach the Content DB from Central Administration or using the stsadm -o deletecontentdb command Attach the restored Content DB from Central Administration or using the stsadm -o addcontentdb command Change the Port Number/Host Header of the existing Prod Site. Set the Port Number/Host Header of the newly created Web APP to the same as the old prod site, this way you will have both the sites, just in case needed for future. Note: You will also need to deploy any customizations that you might have done on the test server on the production server too. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any further doubts on the same. -Mukesh

We build a test area using Server 2003 Std SP2 and installed WSS 3.0. We wanted to see if we could configure it to meet our minimal needs, of course with some help, we were able to get a site up and running. In our Production area, our server is running Server 2003 R2 SP2 and we had WSS 2.0, I upgraded to WSS 3.0 and wanted to remove the existing SP site and replace it with our Test area site. Scenario: Machine A (Prod): IIS - Port 80 Content Database: STS_Content Web Application: intranet Machine B (Test): IIS - Port 80 Content Database: WSS_Content_8bb0ee2... Web Application: Home This is where we are at, again we would like to replace the existing Web Application with our test Web Application. I have done a full backup using Central Administration on both servers. I was thinking of doing things manually so I could take it step by step. Please let me know what other information is needed. Thanks, Jr. Admin

Thanks, I'll give this a try...I am very new to SP, so I will follow your steps. I tried to follow the link you suggested, but I could not get it to accept my files that I transferred over. When I tried the restore, I put in the unc path but it could not see the files. I'll try the steps above and see how it goes. Thanks,Jr. Admin

OK, so I have completed steps 1-5...and now when I got to the site to verify I see the content(http://cb-home-intranet:8081/) I get prompted for a username and password. I thought perhaps this was an IIS thing so I went to the properties of the web site and checked enable anonymous, but I'm still prompted. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jr. Admin

Do not change anything in IIS, I would suggest you revert back the changes. To add a user Add a user account to the newly created Web App from User Policy [Go to the Central Administration site and click on Manage web applications . Click on your new web application, then click on the User Policy button in the ribbon ; this brings up the User Policy dialog. Go through the wizard and add the user with Full Control ]. Open the Web APP and login using the previously added user account. Also do check the Alternate Access Mappings for the web application , that it contains the http://cb-home-intranet:8081 url. Check the following video on How Do I: Configure an Alternate Access Mapping in SharePoint 2010 If you want to enable anonymous access check the following article Turn on Anonymous Access in SharePoint 2010 Note : You will also need to deploy any customizations that you might have done on the test server on the production server too. Hope that helps, let us know if you have any further doubts on the same. -Mukesh

Do not change anything in IIS, I would suggest you revert back the changes. To add a user Add a user account to the newly created Web App from User Policy [Go to the Central Administration site and click on Manage web applications . Click on your new web application, then click on the User Policy button in the ribbon ; this brings up the User Policy dialog. Go through the wizard and add the user with Full Control ]. Open the Web APP and login using the previously added user account. Also do check the Alternate Access Mappings for the web application , that it contains the http://cb-home-intranet:8081 url. Check the following video on How Do I: Configure an Alternate Access Mapping in SharePoint 2010 If you want to enable anonymous access check the following article Turn on Anonymous Access in SharePoint 2010 Note : You will also need to deploy any customizations that you might have done on the test server on the production server too. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any further doubts on the same. -Mukesh

Do not change anything in IIS, I would suggest you revert back the changes. To add a user Add a user account to the newly created Web App from User Policy [Go to the Central Administration site and click on Manage web applications . Click on your new web application, then click on the User Policy button in the ribbon ; this brings up the User Policy dialog. Go through the wizard and add the user with Full Control ]. Open the Web APP and login using the previously added user account. Also do check the Alternate Access Mappings for the web application , that it contains the http://cb-home-intranet:8081 url. Note : You will also need to deploy any customizations that you might have done on the test server on the production server too. Hope that helps, let us know if you have any further doubts on the same. -Mukesh

Do not change anything in IIS, I would suggest you revert back the changes. To add a user Add a user account to the newly created Web App from User Policy [Go to the Central Administration site and click on Manage web applications . Click on your new web application, then click on the User Policy button in the ribbon ; this brings up the User Policy dialog. Go through the wizard and add the user with Full Control ]. Open the Web APP and login using the previously added user account. Also do check the Alternate Access Mappings for the web application , that it contains the http://cb-home-intranet:8081 url. Note : You will also need to deploy any customizations that you might have done on the test server on the production server too. Hope that helps, let us know if you have any further doubts on the same. -Mukesh