SharePoint 2007 to 2010 Database Attach Upgrade Procedure

This guide will help you attach and upgrade a SharePoint 2007 content database to a SharePoint 2010 environment, step by step.


Before Starting, Confirm the following:
• SQL version is at least SQL2005 SP3 and x64
• Permissions for sharepoint install & sharepoint farm admin accounts in SQL have dbo.
• Verify SharePoint 2007 is at least SP2.


Perform Pre-upgrade Checker to determine risks
A detailed article is located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262231.aspx 


*This gives you a detailed report output of the installed elements, the upgrade ability and approaches recommended based on your customization. 


**FYI: After reviewing my report, I was notified to manually copy over a custom Workflow .ACTIONS file as recommended. The report actually gave detail which was surprising!


Attaching the Restored SharePoint 2007 Database to SharePoint 2010


The steps for doing the database attach are as follows; please see this TechNet article for a more comprehensive step-by-step: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263299.aspx 

1. In SQL, create a backup of the current SharePoint 2007 database.
2. Once completed, restore the full backup to a new database; remember what you named it as you’ll need that later.
3. In the new SharePoint 2010 environment, ensure you have the web application that you’re going to target setup. (ex. blank Team Site created on the default site, port 80)
4. On the SharePoint 2010 server, open the SharePoint Management Shell as an admin
5. (Optional, but a good exercise) Execute the following powershell command: 

Test-SPContentDatabase -Name NEW_SP2010_DBNAME -WebApplication http://siteurl


*Note: on the Test powershell command, you will probably see some missing features, and in a lot of cases, these are the FAB40 templates. Install what you can, then proceed.


      6.  Next run the following command to Upgrade and Mount the content database to the new SharePoint 2010 environment:


Mount-SPContentDatabase -Name NEW_SP2010_DBNAME –DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -WebApplication http://siteurl


During this process, you will see an upgrade status in the powershell command prompt window. Alternately, you can view the upgrade status in Central Admin as well under the Database Options > Upgrade Status.


• Once it’s all done (this may take a while depending on your database size), remove both of the content DB’s from Central admin, then run the Mount command once again and test!