Upgrade process from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

To upgrade from SharePoint 2010 Products to SharePoint 2013, you use the database-attach method to upgrade. In the database-attach method, you first create and configure a SharePoint 2013 farm. Then you copy the content and service application databases from the SharePoint 2010 Products farm, and then attach and upgrade the databases. This upgrades the data to the new version. Site owners can then upgrade individual site collections.

TechNet Article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262483.aspx

Upgrading from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 Step by Step:

This is a step by step guide on upgrading a SharePoint 2010 site to a SharePoint 2013 (Customer Preview) and as with any Beta release is subject to change. For further information on planning and upgrading content and services to SharePoint 2013 you can visit the recently published TechNet site here:

Also make sure to check out Bill Baer's great post on Upgrade, and special thanks to Bill for sharing his custom solution used for this post.

1.      Add and deploy any required O14 custom solutions in your SharePoint 2013 farm, notice that all O14 solutions being deployed under 14 hive but eventually it's recommended to migrate the custom code to O15.

2.      Backup and restore the SharePoint 2010 content database to your SQL Server hosting SharePoint 2013 farm.

3.      Run Test-SPContentDatabase cmdlet to identify missing components along with potential errors and related warnings. Check the upgrade log and deploy any missing components and re run the cmdlet to verify.

4.      Attach the content database to the desired web application using Mount-SPContentDatabase cmdlet.

5.      After successfully mounting the content database to web application, the site should be accessible in 14 mode.

6.      To upgrade the site simply click on "Start now" link on the toolbar, you can also go to SiteUpgrade page from Site Setting page as well.

7.      Click on "TRY A DEMO UPGRADE" link to verify the site collection upgrade (This step can be performed by Site Collection Administrators, farm admins can run

Request-SPUpgradeEvaluationSiteCollection cmdlet as well).

8.      Provision a temporary site collection to validate the site post-upgrade.

9.      An email should be sent out to Site Collection admin when the temporary site is provisioned.

10.      After validating the temporary site we upgrade the site by going to SiteUpgrade.aspx page and clicking on "Upgrade the Site Collection" button (Farm admins can run Upgrade-SPSite cmdlet as well).

11.      During the upgrade The SiteUpgrade.aspx page shows the progress and provides a link to an upgrade log for troubleshooting purposes.

12.  Your site collection should now be accessible in 15 mode along with all new capabilities enabled in the farm and for the hosting web application such as Social and Office Web Apps.

Curtsey: Zillions Thanks to Ali Mazaheri for his explanatory Post.

If you have any issue during the upgrade do let me know. I would be my pleasure to work for you.

What is going around with SharePoint 2013: SharePoint Conference 2012 Keynotes.

If you want to learn, what is going around with SharePoint 2013, you can watch the SharePoint Conference 2012 keynote.


There’s also a lot more going on with SharePoint; be sure to check out the following resources.

• Preparing for SharePoint 2013 Development (on-demand webinar)
• Preparing for SharePoint 2013 (November 27 webinar)
• SQL Server and You: Be a top notch SharePoint DBA (December 3 webinar)
• Be Prepared for SharePoint 2013 (December 11 webinar)
• SharePoint 2013 Preview and SharePoint Designer: Q & A with Asif Rehmani (blog post)

Hyper-V Q & A with John Savill

Q: Are Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 guest OSs supported on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V?

A: Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 are no longer supported by Microsoft, and so can't be supported on Hyper-V. Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V actually dropped integration service support for Windows 2000, which means it's no longer possible to use synthetic devices (such as network and storage) and there are no services to integrate with Hyper-V.

The net effect is the performance would be poor compared to an OS using synthetic devices, because emulated devices would have to be used. The recommendation would be to run Windows 2000 virtual machines (VMs) on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V server, which still has integration service support for Windows 2000.

Another (unsupported) option to try could be taking the integration services from Hyper-V 2008 R2 and installing on the Windows 2000 VM, then running on the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. This would give some synthetic device support and some integration with Hyper-V but would be completely unsupported by Microsoft. Longer term recommendation would be to migrate to a newer, supported OS as soon as possible.

For Windows NT 4, there really is no support. The legacy processor compatibility mode that helped NT 4 run on Hyper-V is gone in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, and emulated devices would definitely have to be used. However, the performance might meet what you need so this could be worth a try.

Q: When upgrading a Hyper-V host from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows 2012, can I save the state of a running VM and resume it after the upgrade?

A: No, you can't save the state of a running virtual machine (VM). The save state format of Windows Server 2008 R2 is not compatible with Windows Server 2012, in the same way the save state format of Windows 2008 wasn't compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2. 

You should shut down all VMs on a host prior to performing an upgrade of the Hyper-V host. Note that if you have online snapshots of a VM which also uses saved state as part of the snapshot, and then these snapshots will work after the upgrade to Server 2012.

Q: How can I attach USB devices to a Hyper-V virtual machine?

A: There are two scenarios for USB devices to be accessed in a virtual machine (VM):

1.      As part of a user's session on a VM

2.      Always available to the VM; for example, a USB dongle that must be available for a piece of software or service to function

Hyper-V doesn't allow the pass-through of a USB-attached device on a host to a VM. This would break the desired abstraction of the VM from the hardware, and therefore stop VM mobility. However this doesn't mean there are no solutions.

For the first scenario, a USB device available as part of a user's session on a VM, the solution is to use the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) capability to pass a locally attached USB device on the user's local device directly through to the remote VM. With Windows Server 2012 and RemoteFX technology, it's possible to redirect almost any USB device over RDP.

The second scenario, a USB device to always be connected to a VM even when a user isn't logged on, requires the use of third-party solutions that enable USB over IP. The solutions work by having a physical server that has all the USB devices connected to it and runs a service that enables the USB devices to be accessed remotely over IP.

The VMs then run a piece of client software that connects to the USB device over IP, and it looks to the VM like a local USB device. The benefit to these types of solutions is the VM can still be moved between hosts without losing connectivity to the USB device. There are many solutions available; among them are two I have seen used by my customers:

• Silex SX-2000U2 
• Digi Anywhere USB 

These questions are answered by John Savill, from WindowsITPro, Millions Thanks to him.

Windows 7 Security and managing UAC Prompts.

Windows 7 migrations are in full swing or completed.  As part of this desktop refresh, many companies have removed local administrative rights on the endpoint and are using the Windows 7 built-in security features.  Have these met your expectations?  Are your end users calling IT support to get assistance with prompts for UAC passwords?

Darren Mar-Elia, Microsoft Group Policy MVP, will walk us through the components of the Windows built-in security features and in which situations they work the best.  He’ll also introduce other methods for enhancing endpoint security within Windows 7 as related to managing UAC dialog boxes and best practices for managing administrator rights.

Next, Viewfinity will show you how to suppress the UAC dialog box and manage rights and privileges on Windows endpoints and servers. Using a fully automated process to identify common privilege needs across the entire user base, you can aggregate privilege needs and create a single policy for a collective group of users.  No longer will the removal of administrator rights be disruptive to your end users or a burden on IT.

Register Now!

Curtsey: Windows IT Pro

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