Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 on Small Business Server: Field Guide

Published on 09 December 2010 • Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Recently I needed to do an upgrade from SharePoint 2007—to be exact, WSS 3.0—to SharePoint 2010. "No big deal," I thought, "I’ve done it before." Assumptions, they do make for interesting life experiences, because this was something different—this was an upgrade on a Small Business Server (SBS) deployment.

For those who do not know, SBS is a lightweight all-in-one server product. So when you install it, you get Windows Server 2008, plus Exchange Server, plus ISA, plus SharePoint, and more—ALL PRE-CONFIGURED! It is fantastic for use in small companies.

Microsoft has produced a fantastic upgrade guide for this very scenario: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff959273(WS.10).aspx, but I think it’s missing a few footnotes of things I encountered during my upgrades, which this blog post aims to share.

Check Lists

I’ve created two checklists of things you should do ahead of time:

Software

This is the software you will need during the upgrade.

• SharePoint 2010 Foundation Installation Media
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Express with Advanced Services (x64)
• SBS Update Rollup 4 (from Step 14)—download details in the Microsoft Guide
• WSS Service Pack 2 (x64)
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Environment

Some prep work for your environment ahead of time:

• Get a service account created on the domain for SharePoint.
• Get a service account for SQL Server 2008 R2 (it can’t use Network Service on a domain controller).
• Check for a public internet FQDN and gather its details—you’ll need this when setting up Alternate Access Mappings (AAM).
• Get the domain name used for email.
• Check for a local domain name for the site (typically companyweb). Verify it can be accessed from the server and from a workstation on the network.
• Ensure this is installed on a domain controller—some scenarios assume a non-DC, but with SBS, many steps break if it’s not.

Notes

Here are my additional notes for the guide. Some steps are left out if there was nothing special to note.

Step 1

• To check the WSS 3.0 version, enable the Version column in Add/Remove Programs. Service Pack 2 shows as 12.0.0.6421 (or higher).
• Alternatively, enable Show Updates in Add/Remove Programs and verify SP2 is installed.

Step 4

• There’s no need to disable the service during the copy, unless the server is rebooted or someone accesses SharePoint during this step.
• Critical: Back up the files first, then copy the content database files (MDF/LDF) to a secondary location—this will be their new home.
• Ensure the database files are not read-only.

Step 6

• This is a full farm install, not a standalone one.

Step 7

• If the site no longer exists, that’s okay.

Step 8

• If the Central Admin "Getting Started" Wizard appears, you can cancel it.
• Set the app pool identity to Network Service.

Step 13

• If you get a Default Web Error, it means the default and intranet AAM names are identical—edit them to differ.

Additional Steps Post-Upgrade

• Log in to the site and run the visual upgrade (Site Settings → Title, Description & Icon → Update the user interface), or it’ll look like no work was done!
• Verify the content database is configured with a timer service and search server.
• BACKUPS ARE CRUCIAL! → Microsoft’s Guide
• If search is broken, check for the WSSv3 loopback issue—though this should be resolved by the SBS rollup installed. For reference: Technet Blog Post on Event 2436.