Presented at SharePoint TechFest Houston 2015. All rights reserved.

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@davidfrette
#sptechfest
MIGRATION CONCENTRATE

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• Local to Houston
From Iowa
via Chicago
• Actuary turned
.NET Developer turned
SharePoint Developer
• 20 Years of Developing Solutions
About Me

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• Houston-based organization
• We provide Consulting, Solutions, and Development
• Microsoft Stack
About Moss Delight

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• Technology
• Energy, Oil and Gas
• Chemicals, Plastics, Manufacturing
• Medical
• Investment Banking, Commodities Trading
• Housing, Property Management, Transportation
Industries

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SUCCESSFUL MIGRATIONS
Are more about the PROCESS
than about the TECHNOLOGY

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AGENDA
Planning
Testing
Pre-GoLive, GoLive, and Post-GoLive
ProTips

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PRO TIPS

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PRO TIPS
• Script as much as possible
• Use Excel to create numerous little scripts and
watch them, don’t walk away
• Execute scripts simultaneously
– Upgrade databases
– Upgrade site collections’ schemas
Minimizing Downtime

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PRO TIPS
Step 1 - Build multiple scripts
Scripting Tips

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PRO TIPS
Step 2 – Balance the Scripts
Scripting Tips

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PRO TIPS
Step 3 – Balance the Scripts Better
Scripting Tips

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PRO TIPS
Use Excel to Generate Scripts

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PRO TIPS
Use Excel to Generate Scripts with PROD, QA, TEST

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PRO TIPS
• Keep multiple sets of scripts
• I prefer TFS over SharePoint
• Pipe the output to files
• Separate out the Go Live scripts!
– Practice them in DEV and QA
Script Tips

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PRO TIPS
Add hardware
• SP servers to run scripts
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
Add hardware
• Keeping SQL Busy means Keeping SQL Beefy
• SQL RAM is necessary for serving content
• SQL CPU is necessary for upgrading the content
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
Pre-Migrate Sites that can afford downtime
• Split them into new databases if necessary
• Remember, content is upgraded by DB
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Minimize dependency time
– Ask SQL DBAs to script their work if they don’t already
– Have separate teams working at the same time
• Reconfigure Load Balancing as soon as SP goes off-line
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Pick the right dates
– You depend on support of others
– Keep key resources dedicated to your project
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Remember to put these tasks in Pre-Go Live
– Deploy Solutions
– Build web applications
– Configure authentication
– Set policies
– Service Application Associations
– Create the AAMs
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Remember to put these tasks in Pre-Go Live
– Test authentication and access (update hosts file on
test PCs)
• Create a site collection
• Take an existing SQL Backup, upgrade it, and test
authentication and access
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Remember to put these tasks in Pre-Go Live
– Build non-upgradeable service applications
– Build upgrade service applications that aren’t subject
to change, ie, SecureStore
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Remember to put these tasks in Post-Go Live
• Keep them from running during rollout
– Timer Jobs
– Start Search
– Start UPS Sync
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Use a Migration Tool for specific sites
– Isolate these to separate databases
– Consider migrating them after Go Live
• Migrate them from 2010 to 2010 before Go Live
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Create separate migration paths for InfoPath
Forms and/or custom applications
– IE, migrate the Time Entry System at a later date
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• Limit your scope
– Phase new features in Releases
– Create Releases in your governance plan
Minimize Downtime

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PRO TIPS
• WYPFIWYG
• Make decisions quicker
• Use an experienced PM
• Get Executive Buy In
– Don’t get caught in power wars
– “We’ve never configured SQL this way”
– “We’ve never given people this permission”
Minimize Cost

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PRO TIPS
• Greater tolerance for errors, possibly lost content
• Place more ownness on the users
– Specifically Site Owners or Site Administrators
– And QA Testers
Minimize Cost

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PRO TIPS
• Consultants have an advantage beyond
experience
• We have a proprietary stock of documents,
worksheets, project plans, scripts, OneNotes, etc.
that we start out with.
Consultants

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Click to edit Master title style
PRE- GO LIVE!

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PRE- GO LIVE > The Plan
• Review your architecture
• Review your Go Live plan
–PPP P PPP
– Verify the technical requirements of each step
• Remember to include Change Orders in Project
Plan
• Review Change Order Schedule
• Review Ticketing System Schedule

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PRE- GO LIVE > The Technology
• Verify your service account passwords are correct!
• Ensure your crawlers and indexers are turned off!
• Check those database growth sizes!
– Set the initial files size close to the original’s.
– Set the growth to something reasonable, say 500MB.

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PRE- GO LIVE > Example Steps

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GO LIVE!

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GO LIVE > Task List
• Do you have a task list?
– Work thru every issue and move as many as possible
from GoLive to Pre-GoLive
– Limit Your Risk
– Minimize Downtime

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GO LIVE > Sample Task List

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TESTING

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How to avoid the migration
migraines in 3 easy steps.
Step 1 – Test
Step 2 - Test
Step 3 - Test

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TESTING > Test, Test, Test
• Test your 3rd party solutions
• Test your custom code
• Test your workflows
• Test your custom forms
• Test your migration software
• Test your plan
• Test your timing
• Test your skills
– Seriously…. If you don’t know PowerShell by now…

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TESTING > Test, Test, Test
• Test your environment rights
– SQL Rights
– Server Rights
– Service Account Rights
– UPS Account Rights! Arrrrgh!!

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TESTING > Test, Test, Test
• Test your Service Applications
– User Profile Service
• Profiles
• Synchronization Process
– Managed Metadata
• Term Stores, Groups, Term Sets, Terms
• Keywords
• Content is tied to the right terms
– Others, too
• They don’t contain content

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TESTING > Test, Test, Test
• Test your browsers
– Does drag and drop work with all browsers
– Does the grid view work
– Can you use tablets and mobile devices
– Does the VPN work

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TESTING > Test, Test, Test
• Test your clients
– Do your files open in the client?
– Do your files open in the browser when needed?

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TESTING > Test, Test, Test
• Test your migrated content
– Are webparts working (Content Editor?)
– Are the views working?
– If conflicts with site owners arise, refer back to the QA
site

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TESTING > Claims Authentication
• Move-SPUser
• Find the ones that don’t move over. Remove
them.

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TESTING > Some Issues

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TESTING > Refine your plan
• Try to follow your plan as best as possible.
• Note the changes and determine if you need to
change the plan in QA.

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PLANNING

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PLANNING > Know your scope
• SharePoint migration is not just an upgrade
• It’s a new platform
• It’s a rollout
• It’s a mess of decisions

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PLANNING > Know your architecture
• Every SP migration contains a new build, with new
features, and new configurations
• Architecture is more than hardware
• Configuration is
critical to performance,
security, and stability.

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• 1 – to – 1
• 1 – to – Many
• Many – to – 1
• Many – to – Many
• On Premise – to – Cloud
• Something – to – Hybrid
• Something – to – Something
PLANNING > Farms

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PLANNING > Review your governance plans
• Who are the business owners / project sponsors?
• Who are the decision makers?
• What processes need to be updated?
• Ask these questions now. Don’t let someone
surprise you.

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PLANNING > Contact your site owners
• Let people know change is coming.
• Get people on board
– Give people something to look forward to
• Require each one to sign off on QA. No
exceptions.
– Document the approval, then set the site to Read-
Only
• Ask Site Owners to clean up some of their sites

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PLANNING > Know your message
• Remember, users are not moved or migrated
– Sites are migrated.
– Might be phased. Might be all at once.

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PLANNING > Review your growth plans
• Check the sizes of your site collections
• Check your database FILES!
– Ask DBAs to shrink those log files
– Check those database names while you’re in there!
• Review your Site Topology

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PLANNING > Review your Topology
Site organization transfers right over.
Migration is a great time to re-organize.
It’s time to split up sites and change URLs.

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PLANNING > Review your Content
• Redundant copies don’t vanish.
• Obsolete content doesn’t become relative. Nor
does it become valuable.
• Search doesn’t unclutter itself.
• Don’t waste valuable time on unused InfoPath
Forms or obsolete solutions or obsolete third-
party products.
• Check deprecations on technet.

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PLANNING > CLEANUP
Those who fail to clean up the past
are condemned to migrate it.

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PLANNING > Purge Sites

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PLANNING > IMPLEMENTATION LIST
• Do you have an implementation task list?
– Use Excel =)
• Maintain this list from start to finish
• As you build Test, keep everything documented
• As you build QA, refer to the Test list
• As you plan for Go Live, use QA list

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PLANNING > IMPLEMENTATION LIST
• Work thru every item and move as many as
possible from GoLive to Pre-GoLive
• Limit Your Risk
• Minimize Downtime

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PLANNING > Upgrade Process
General Process:
• Build Farm
• Migrate Databases
• Create Web Applications
• Customizations
• Upgrade Content Databases
• Upgrade Site Collections
But this isn’t a real process.

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PLANNING > Upgrade Process
If Production is specially hardened, follow this process
DEV TEST
QA QA UAT PROD

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PLANNING > Know Your Upgrade Path
Solutions and
customizations
Service
Applications
Content
3rd Party
products
What’s
deprecated
InfoPath
Forms

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PLANNING > What’s Deprecated
Document
Workspace
Meeting
Workspace
Personalization
Site
Tweak to Excel
Services
Web Analytics
service
Foundation
Search
Some FAST
connectors have
been replaced
A few others

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PLANNING > Upgrade Service Applications
Managed
Metadata service
application
PerformancePoint
Services service
application
Secure Store
Service
application
User Profile
service
application
Search service
application,
maybe

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PLANNING > Decisions
• Are we forcing people to new UI?
• Are we purging old sites?
• Are we migrating MySites that probably should
have been purged by cleanup?
• Are we migrating sites with near-deprecated site
templates?
• Sites with deprecated templates obviously won’t
migrate.
• Can we rebuild Search or is upgrade required?
• Will custom applications be 15 or 14?

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D a v i d F r e t t e
dfrette@mossdelight.com