Thursday, November 06, 2008

Moving SharePoint Database Data and Log Files

1. Quiesce the Farm
2. Backup all of the databases that you are looking to move.
3. Turn off SharePoint Services (via Services console) to stop the connections to the databases
a. Office SharePoint Search Service
b. Windows SharePoint Services Administration
c. Windows SharePoint Services Search
d. Windows SharePoint Services Timer
e. Windows SharePoint Services Tracing
f. World Wide Web Publishing Service
4. Detach the databases that need to be moved.
5. Navigate to where the data and log files are stored and copy them to your destination.
6. Reattach your databases.
7. Restart your services.
8. Un-quiesce the farm.

3 comments:

  1. Hannah, just asking as I've seen many other hits via Google showing a whole lot more to it, making it rather daunting. I have zero exposure to SharePoint except the database server itself. Is it really as simple as what you've posted?

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  2. Moving data & log files really is this simple - have done it several times now and never had any issues.

    I would suggest trying out on a dev environment especially if you are not totally comfortable with SharePoint as it can be temperamental.

    Don't forget also that if things do go wrong you can always roll back to the files you had in the original location.

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  3. Hi,

    I would like to point out that in complex setups with using domains, shared services providers, and configuration databases, it is not as simple as posted above.
    Please read the following links to get the bigger picture:
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=65686896-c171-46a8-a95f-54f43ad79952&displaylang=en
    Moving all databases to a different database server or a server with the same name

    http://blogs.technet.com/corybu/archive/2007/06/01/detaching-databases-in-moss-2007-environments.aspx
    http://blogs.technet.com/corybu/archive/2007/06/21/sharepoint-site-migration-and-balancing-growth.aspx
    http://www.combined-knowledge.com/Downloads/How%20to%20move%20the%20Shared%20Service%20Provider%20Search%20database.pdf

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