Corey Roth [MVP] : SharePoint Upgrade

How to: Perform a SharePoint 2013 site collection upgrade with PowerShell

CoreyRoth — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:11:30 GMT

At SPC12, I gave a talk about PowerShell in SharePoint 2013. In that talk I upgraded a SharePoint 2010 site collection to SharePoint 2013. I wanted to follow-up with a blog post showing the steps involved. To begin the process, I have restored a copy of my content database from my SharePoint 2010 environment on the SQL Server for my SharePoint 2013 environment. The first thing we need to do is mount the content database with Mount-SPContentDatabase. In SharePoint 2010, this process would actually update the database and perform the upgrade. Now, it actually just attaches the database but leaves the site running in SharePoint 2010 mode. Effectively you are running a full copy of SharePoint 2010 inside SharePoint 2013. You can do this and upgrade each site collection one at a time to make the transition process a bit easier.

Typically, when you are doing this, you’ll execute Test-SPContentDatabase first and resolve any reported issues. Just like in SharePoint 2010, you need to install all of your customizations via solution package prior to mounting. Test-SPContentDatabase can help you find some of these customizations if they are missing. For simplicity, I am going to leave that out of my example today. Mount-SPContentDatabase typically takes two parameters: the name of the database and the URL of the Web Application to bind it to. Here is what the command looks like.

Mount-SPContentDatabase –Name DatabaseName –WebApplication http://server

When it runs, you’ll see a progress indicator.

When it finishes, you’ll likely have errors. You can track them down and re-mount. More than likely you’ll always have some kind of error regardless of how hard you try.

Now you can go to the site in your web browser. You’ll see your existing site running in SharePoint 2010 mode along with a banner prompting to start the site collection upgrade process.

You can start the upgrade process right there in the browser, but we want to use PowerShell. We can see the upgrade status of our site collections using Get-SPSite. This cmdlet has been updated to show you the current version (ComaptibilityLevel) of the site collection. A value of 14 represents SharePoint 2010 while a value of 15 represents SharePoint 2013.

Get-SPSite

To upgrade a site collection, test it out first using Test-SPSite. Like Test-SPContentDatabase, this command can help you identify any particular issues. In my case, I am going to upgrade my root site collection.

Test-SPSite http://server/sitecollection

SharePoint 2013 has a new concept for the upgrade evaluation site collection. Effectively this process schedules a job to copy your site collection, upgrade it, and then optionally notify you (if you add the –email parameter). You don’t have to use this, but it’s a good way to test things out if you have a tricky site with a lot of customizations.

Request-SPUpgradeEvaluationSite http://server/sitecollection

Executing the command simply returns you to a command prompt. Later a job will fire off and create the upgrade evaluation site collection. This appears to be controlled by the Create Upgrade Evaluation Site Collections job. It only executes once a day so if you want to get your upgrade evaluation site faster, you can go manually run it. After it completes, you can visit your site by appending –eval to your site collection name (i.e.: http://server/sitecollection-eval). When you visit the site you’ll notice the warning bar at the top telling users that this is only temporary. After 30 days or so the site will get deleted automatically.

As you see I have an error in a web part that I need to correct. This is why upgrade site collections can be useful in finding issues before cutting over.

Let’s upgrade out site collection directly now. I only received warnings from Test-SPSite so I am going to proceed with the upgrade and assume everything is going to work fine. :) We use Upgrade-SPSite to make this happen. Pass the URL to the site collection and be sure and include –VersionUpgrade. It won’t upgrade to the new version if you leave off that parameter.

Upgrade-SPSite http://server/sitecollection –VersionUpgrade

Depending on the size of your site collection, it may take some time. When it finishes, you’ll see something similar to the screen below.

Now, we can visit our upgraded site in the browser.

Site Collections Upgrades are a powerful new feature in SharePoint 2013 which I believe will really make the process smoother. Keep in mind, you can also use the new Copy-SPSite cmdlet to make a copy of your site collection and perform some tests there.

Adding missing web parts with the PortalLayouts feature after SharePoint 2007 upgrade

CoreyRoth — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:36:16 GMT

One thing I find annoying after attaching a SharePoint 2007 content database is that several of the new cool SharePoint 2010 web parts are simply not present on your upgraded site. This includes the new social web parts such as the Tag Cloud, Organization Browser, and Note Board. On an upgraded site, you may find that your Social Collaboration category looks like this:

I have talked about this in the past, but I’ve changed how I resolve the issue so I thought I would share a quick update. Before we begin, it’s a good idea to understand what has happened. In SharePoint 2007, you had site templates and they likely activated a feature called PortalLayouts. This feature still exists in SharePoint 2010, but it has changed. Specifically the file that we are interested in, webpartdwpfiles.xml, activates different web parts now.

Excuse me for the large display of XML here, but I think seeing it will make more sense. In SharePoint 2007, webpartdwpfiles.xml contained the following XML. Each File element installs a specific web part into the web parts gallery.

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Module Name="WebPartPopulation" Url="_catalogs/wp" Path="dwp" RootWebOnly="TRUE">
    <File Url="siteFramer.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,ContentRollupWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Miscellaneous;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="owa.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,OutlookWebAccessWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owainbox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,OutlookWebAccessWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owacalendar.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,OutlookWebAccessWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owatasks.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,OutlookWebAccessWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owacontacts.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,OutlookWebAccessWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="contactwp.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,MiscellaneousWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Miscellaneous;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="AdvancedSearchBox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="PeopleSearchBox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchBox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchCoreResults.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchHighConfidence.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="searchsummary.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="searchstats.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="searchpaging.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="PeopleSearchCoreResults.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchBestBets.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchActionLinks.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="CategoryWebPart.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SiteDirectoryWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Site Directory;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="CategoryResultsWebPart.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SiteDirectoryWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Site Directory;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="TopSitesWebPart.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SiteDirectoryWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Site Directory;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="ThisWeekInPictures.DWP" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,DefaultWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="TasksAndTools.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,DefaultWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="RssViewer.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,DefaultWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="TopAnswer.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SummaryResults.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
  </Module>
</Elements>

Here is what the file looks like in SharePoint 2010.

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Module Name="WebPartPopulation" Url="_catalogs/wp" Path="dwp" RootWebOnly="TRUE">
    <File Url="siteFramer.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,ContentRollupWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Miscellaneous;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="owa.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,MyInformationWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owainbox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,MyInformationWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owacalendar.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,MyInformationWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owatasks.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,MyInformationWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="owacontacts.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:spscore,MyInformationWebPartGroup;"></Property>
    </File>
    <File Url="contactwp.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,PeopleWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Miscellaneous;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="AdvancedSearchBox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="PeopleSearchBox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchBox.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchCoreResults.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="searchsummary.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="searchstats.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="searchpaging.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="PeopleSearchCoreResults.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchBestBets.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SearchActionLinks.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="TopAnswer.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="SummaryResults.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="Refinement.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="PeopleRefinement.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="QuerySuggestions.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="CategoryWebPart.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,ContentRollupWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Site Directory;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="CategoryResultsWebPart.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,ContentRollupWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Site Directory;#" />
    </File>
    <File Url="RssViewer.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,ContentRollupWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="TagCloud.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,PeopleWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="SocialComment.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,PeopleWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="ProfileBrowser.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:core,PeopleWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Default;#"/>
    </File>
    <File Url="DualChineseSearch.dwp" Type="GhostableInLibrary">
      <Property Name="Group" Value="$Resources:Microsoft.Office.Server.Search,SearchWebPartGroup;"></Property>
      <Property Name="QuickAddGroups" Value=";#Search;#" />
    </File>
  </Module>
</Elements> 

If you look at some of the differences, you’ll notice that several web parts have been added in 2010, but several have also been removed. Web Parts that have been added include:

Tag Cloud (TagCloud.dwp)
Note Board (SocialComment.dwp)
Organization Browser (ProfileBrowser.dwp)
Dual Chinese Search (DualChineseSearch.dwp)
Refinement Panel (Refinement.dwp)
People Refinement Panel (PeopleRefinement.dwp)

Web Parts that have been removed in SharePoint 2010 include:

This Week in Pictures (ThisWeekInPictures.dwp)
Top Sites (TopSitesWebPart.webpart)
I need to… (TaskAndTools.webpart)

When you do an upgrade, you’ll still have your removed web parts in the gallery. However, if you are on a new installation and want one of those old web parts, you’ll have to do a little work. From what I have read, you can export the .webpart or .dwp file of the web part and upload it to the solution gallery manually on your new server. It appears the underlying code is still present in the assemblies, just the web parts definitions have been removed from the web part gallery.

However, we’re interested in adding the new SharePoint 2010 web parts to the site collection’s web part gallery. You can manually upload them if you so choose. However, I’m not really a fan of that solution, but it will work in a pinch. Instead my solution now is to activate the PortalLayouts feature again. The feature is hidden, so your best bet to do this is with PowerShell. We do this with the Enable-SPFeature cmdlet. Since the feature was technically already activated in SharePoint 2007, we have to use the –force parameter. Here is the complete command for a root site located at http://sp2010.

Enable-SPFeature –Identity PortalLayouts –url http://sp2010 –force

If the command worked successfully, you should receive no errors and another command prompt. At this point, you can add your new web parts to an existing page. You should see three new ones in the Social section as shown.

I have not encountered any issues by reactivating this feature yet. It works for me and hopefully it works for you too. If you are missing web parts, try it out and see how it works for you.

Remember to set SQL permissions before doing a database attach upgrade

CoreyRoth — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:51:00 GMT

For some reason, I always forget to set permissions on the database in SQL Server when I am doing a database attach upgrade in SharePoint 2010. I figure if I forget it a lot maybe other people do, so I thought I would post a quick tip on it. Before even trying Test-SPContentDatabase or Mount-SPContentDatabase, make sure you open SQL Server and set the right permissions. You need to edit the permissions on the account that you are running the PowerShell commands with and make this account a db_owner on the content database. If you don’t, you will get an error stating that you don’t have the required permissions and you will look silly in front of your client. :-) It’s not a big deal to resolve, but I figure if I write this maybe I won’t forget to set it next time I do an upgrade.