At this point, you might be asking why we were still running WSS 3.0. Simple, it met user needs and worked well. While full-blown SharePoint offers a lot of rich features, the bulk of our demand was for a robust document library and workspace and project sites. The free version of SharePoint accomplishes all of that. I could not justify the cost.

What I will be recommending is the in-place upgrade of SharePoint Foundation 2010. There are alternatives and I encourage you to read up on them, but what I needed was a smooth migration of my existing document libraries, sites and user rights. The in-place upgrade accomplishes all of this with the only downside being that the production site has to be down during the upgrade. The entire upgrade itself can easily be done in an hour, so schedule two to be safe.

The Tough Part – Getting everything to a 2008, 64-bit server

My instance of WSS 3.0 was using a Server 2008, 64-bit server as the application server, but a Server 2003 server with SQL 2005. In order for a smooth in-place upgrade, you will want your WSS 3.0 instance running on all 2008, 64-bit machines.

This means testing. If you are already on a fully 2008, 64-bit environment, go ahead and skip this part.

What you will need:

1. A workable installation of WSS 3.0, but they are out there on the Internet. I was able to find it on MSDN. This was the trickiest part! Small version differences will mean that your back up will not restore to this version.
2. Download Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, also from MSDN.
3. 2008, 64-bit servers to test with. Do your best to duplicate your production environment.
4. A copy of a recent back up of SharePoint.

If you are not backing up your current SharePoint instance, stop here. Get your production environment backing up immediately. This is not only good practice, but you will need the backups to complete this migration.

Moving on, I created a duplicate of my application server (I cannot recommend virtual servers enough!) and then used the new database server. I installed WSS 3.0 and restored from my back up, which I have detailed here. This gave me an exact replica of the environment I would be using.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Here’s what we will be doing, first in the test environment and then production:

1. Verifying that we have a valid backup of our data
2. Uninstalling our current version of SharePoint
3. Re-installing WSS 3.0, but this time to the all 2008 environment
4. Restore your data from your back up
5. Installing the SharePoint Foundation 2010 prerequisites. This will add components that would have been installed had you upgraded to SharePoint 2007.
6. Run the SharePoint Foundation 2010 in-place upgrade

I ran through this process several times. I wanted to be comfortable with the process and to beat it up a bit to see what shook loose. Happily, it’s a pretty straightforward process. Move to your production environment when you are ready.

Post-installation instructions

I ran into two issues after my installation: search did not immediately work and I needed to create a backup job.

Assign the site to an indexer to get search to work
This blog post explains it very well.

Use Powershell to back up the farm
Create a job using Powershell to back up your data. Details on creating the backup are on Technet and from there, you schedule your Powershell code to run by creating a job.

 
Everything always happens at once. That rule continues to prove itself. This week, we added three new sites to the Clermont County network.

Clermont Citizen Corps
We inherited this site from a team of volunteers and it really was not getting frequently updated. The first step was to determine an in-house team to manage the site and we then tied it to FEMA’s “Resolve to be Ready in 2011” campaign to help build momentum.

Insect Issues
Recent outbreaks of issues with the Asian Longhorn beetle, bed bugs and the Emerald Ash Borer have spurred a lot of questions from the public. In an effort to make finding information easier, we created a new site at Bugs.ClermontCountyOhio.gov that will serve as both a source of new information as well as a resource to our other sites.

Treatment Alternatives for Street Crimes
The TASC team had been talking about putting up a website for months. Once they had a bit of content together, I convinced them that it was better to launch a small site and get the ball rolling than to continue to debate what would be on a potential, abstract site. The ball is rolling!

The recent revamping of the Recorder’s website includes a redesign to include her favorite colors and a logo she designed herself.

I took the opportunity to help craft a new direction for their online content, using statistics and feedback to deliver something more in tune with what users need. A combination of existing county images as well as a photo shoot I arranged added a more personal touch to the site. I was able to identify several methods of eliminating paperwork to deliver solutions entirely online as well as to develop simple tools that will help users calculate cost and to figure out proper formatting for their documents (See the PDF we developed). We then added a custom-built email tool that will allow them another means of communication with frequent users and the public at large.

Find out more in the official press release.

In conjunction with an upcoming marketing campaign, we have redesigned ClermontForKids.org. I worked with the team to design a look that worked within the new brand image.

The county commissioners have fourteen offices that report to them. Each department would submit a report every week to report on their progress, but of course these all came in through various means and formats.

Our internal application delivered the following:

I am happy to report that the tool has been very well-received, referred to as “an immense time saver” by all in the commissioners’ office. They were so pleased that they asked us to begin work on streamlining another reporting process.