Small Business Susan

Computer Information Agency:
http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/archive/2010/12/31/sbs-2003-companyweb-migration-–-part-1.aspx

"When you are considering whether a migration is worthwhile you need to 
consider a few things:

1. If SharePoint is just being used a file storage location, then simply 
copying those files via Windows Explorer to SharePoint Foundation 2010 
is probably a better bet since it effectively avoids the two step 
migration process.

2. If you have lots of lists and information other than files in your 
existing SharePoint then the most effective method to shift these is via 
migration. It is certainly possible to export and import lists to 
spreadsheets and then back into a newer version of SharePoint but if you 
have lots of lists then it is probably going to take too long to work 
through all the items. Conversely, if your site is only relatively small 
then exporting and importing maybe much easier.

3. If you lots of customizations to your existing SharePoint, by this I 
mean those done with a HTML editor like FrontPage, then I’d caution that 
migration will most likely be problematic. Likewise, if you added custom 
template and web parts then many of these will not survive the migration 
process and will most likely need to be removed/uninstalled prior to 
migration. That will al take time and generally break things.

4. If your SharePoint site is large (say >1GB) or is overly complex in 
its structure (i.e. lots of subsites) then migration is probably going 
to be more effective. The migration method basically involves detaching, 
copying and reattaching databases between SharePoint versions. If you 
have a lot of data then it is probably going to be much easier to do all 
this via a single file rather than trying to export and copy the data 
individually. However, beware of the default database limitations of 
Companyweb on SBS 2011 (10GB) because if your existing SharePoint data 
is already larger than this you are going to have to take appropriate 
steps on the destination SBS 2011 server to accommodate your data before 
you commence any migration process.

5. The migration process from SBS 2003 Companyweb is going to require 
the installation of a Windows SharePoint Services v3 (WSS v3) server. 
Where are you going to install this? On the SBS 2003 server? On a stand 
alone members server? On a virtual PC? To my way of thinking it really 
doesn’t make much sense to install WSS v3 on the existing SBS 2003 
server simply because doing that isn’t straight forward. Do it wrong and 
you’ll screw up all your existing SBS 2003 wizards. For me the best bet 
is to use Virtual PC as a staging server to move the content to WSS v3. 
This provides greater flexibility (roll backs, snap shots, etc) as well 
as effectively costing nothing (Virtual PC is free to download, you can 
use a trail license of Windows Server will migrating, etc). It will also 
leave your source SBS 2003 server more or less untouched providing roll 
back if required. Whatever you decide you are going to need to install 
WSS v3 somewhere!

6. Are your backups working? If you plan to migrate part of pre-scanning 
process will make slight changes to the existing SBS 2003 Companyweb 
databases. I am yet to see a situation where this caused an issue BUT 
that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. Anytime you plan to make changes 
to the source during a migration you need to ensure that you can return 
it to exactly the way it was before you made changes. I’d always 
recommend you do a stsadm –o backup on your existing Companyweb site on 
top of whatever else you are doing to backup the database. An stsadm –o 
backup command gives you a single data file that can easily be restore 
to a blank SharePoint site which in my experiences provides a huge 
amount of flexibility."