Yesterday I did a webcast on Preparing Today for the Upgrade to SharePoint 2010.  I got nearly 100 questions and comments.  It was very well attended and the feedback was awesome.  We had over 1000 people register and over 450 people online at peak.  I’ve stripped out the good job, duplicates, and questions that I simply would have to say… that’s NDA. 

 

What is "today's" release date for SharePoint 2010?

I can’t add anything to what Chris Capposella said in the Press Pass.  First half of 2010 is the current official word.

Will it work on SSEE?
Yes it will work with SQL Server Enterprise Edition for 64 bit SQL 2005 or SQL 2008.

Why do you have to have 64bit sql server when they're totally separate?

In conversations I’ve heard it’s for performance reasons.

Has there been any word concerning Google Chrome compatibility with SP2010?

No word.  Did you know that Chrome is in beta?  The expanded support for Firefox as a tier 1 browser with improvements for Safari is awesome news.

How similar is the PreUpgradeChecker to the Pre-upgrade Scan Tool that came out when moss 2007 was released? How is it better?

Let me save this question for my next blog post.  Tons of reasons.

What information will be release at the October conference? Will you be there?

Let me quote the conference website: http://www.mssharepointconference.com

This year’s conference will be looking towards the future with a broad array of deep content centered on the next version of SharePoint, SharePoint 2010 and at the same time be firmly planted in the present, sharing real world experience and guidance

SP2010 requirements... VM or Physical only?

There’s no reason to go backwards in time.  Virtual will continue to be supported in fact, HyperV may be the most common deployment type out of the gates.  The announcements around supportability for virtualization about a year ago basically set in stone support for virtualization technologies for years to come.  I would venture that around 50% of SharePoint deployments are based on virtualization technologies.  That won’t be changing any time soon.  I expect more will come to embrace it.

In VS2008, SharePoint workflow development is still in 32bit. What about VS 2010?

Good question for the VS team.  What I find on the net is emulation modes.  I’m not the best to answer this.  RicoM takes this question head on with “Why is there not 64 bit version of Visual Studio? (yet)”

How many people are attending to get an idea of the percentages in your polls?

There were 450+ at peak, most of the polls had ~250 respond.

May be a little off topic but do you know of a white paper or document out there that describes development best practices and migration.

Yeah definitely off topic, but I’d check out the SharePoint patterns and practices.  For developers on migration there’s the migration portal on MSDN. Given this is a Quest webcast they have a ton of migration tools (click migration).

 

Where can I get more information on Quest tools on migration?

Those looking for information on the Quest tools should go to http://www.quest.com/sharepoint

What do you consider to be a really large site collection?

More than 15GB when it’s with a others and you rely on STSADM tools for management.

More than 100GB when it’s in it’s own database and you rely on SQL for management.

Should SQL server be on windows 2008 64 bit?

That wasn’t clarified in the SharePoint team blog post.  I’ll let them clarify.

What did you say about read-only that you mentioned was cool? I didn't catch that.

I mentioned that the preupgradecheck is read only.  It makes no changes when run.

Hi, Will it be a free upgrade from 2007 SharePoint if we are on Microsoft Enterprise agreement?

You’ll have to work with your MS Licensing rep.

I had heard SP 2010 will support larger content DB's over 100GB, any truth to the rumors?

You can run databases larger than 100GB today, but it takes solid management of the lists.  Look at the SharePoint 2010 sneak peak videos on large list management and throttling rules.

We're fond of updating registry settings. Do you recommend against this as a (non) best practice?

I don’t have context for this question.  For search and indexing, registry might be the best way.  For other things it might not.

Where do you install and run spDiag Joel.

It currently requires running locally on the server due to the extensive use of the object model.  Read and get more on the SharePoint Team blog on SPDIAG from Jie.

Can you upgrade from 2003 to 2010? Or do you first have to upgrade to 2007 and then to 2010?

Microsoft hasn’t changed their tune.  They support version to version upgrades (no skipping).  Third party vendors will support this.  Watch for announcements.

What kinds of rules would you put in the custom rules file? Can you give an example or two?

Check out the existing rules.  An example of one could be to check and report on databases larger than X.  Or give you a list of lists with workflows.

What is the processing overhead of running PreUpgradeCheck? Is it safe to run against a production environment?

Definitely safe to run against production.  It is read-only and is an stsadm command built right into the product.  It actually runs pretty quickly.  To get comfortable with it I recommend running it in your other pre production environments first.  You can force it to run specific rules if there are some specific ones you want to run.  Think of it as a best practices analyzer.  Essentially it’s built on the best practices analyzer engine.

What is any of preupgrade says failed (list size) and despite of that you go ahead with the upgrade ?

List size is an information only section.  It’s an FYI.  You should be aware of it, and look at it after the fact.

Is this the current stsadm or a new download?

PreUpgradeCheck is in SP2 the update, and the latest monthly cummulative update.

Must you install SP2 before upgrading to 2010?

Yes. I’d recommend the SP2 update, but ultimately there are often fixes in the latest update that could assist in the upgrade.  Compare SP2 of WSS 2.0 to SP3 of WSS 3.0 and look at upgrade fixes.

HAs microsoft fixed the bug in sp2 that reset your license and built it into the actual download?
What is v3 SP2 ?

Yes, the fix was in the SP2 update and included in subsequent cummulative updates.  More on the team blog on SharePoint SP2 update.

Is it known whether there will be an inplace upgrade, e.g. MOSS 2007 to MOSS2010?

Yes, there’s info on that in the preupgradecheck.

We will be upgrading from SP 2003 to SP 2010. Any additional recommendations? Will the same upgrade check tools apply?

You’ll need to upgrade to SharePoint Server 2007 if you plan to use the in the box tools.  Otherwise you should talk to third party companies who offer migration tools, like Quest.

How can we get the tech preview?

The technical beta is limited.  Talk to your MS account rep. They can try to nominate you, but most of the dates for nomination have passed.

Will there be the option to change the key of the Beta to make it a full licensed copy when it is released?

Technical beta to prod isn’t supported.

Is there anything new coming in site administrator that you can talk about?

We haven’t announced the 2010 plans, but the latest version does have updates.

What is the Sharepoint to sharepoint migration manager?

I assume you are asking about improvements in Migration manager around 2010, which haven’t been announced yet.  Quest is working on validating all their products and making improvements and new products around SharePoint 2010.

I had read that with the infrastructure updates that the Preparetomove command was no longer necessary. I saw that you recommended it. Can you give some feedback on what happens if you don't use it?

PrepareToMove command is often overlooked.  It is used to tell the SSP that the database is going away.  If you don’t use it, the SSP including the profiles, mysite and alerts can be confused.  If you don’t run it, from what I understand all things will eventually work themselves out now.

 
Hi Joel, we have customized master pages and page layouts of our intranet. Mainly to change the look & feel. Will we be able to migrate these, or do we need to reset them and recreate manually in 2010?

I can’t make comments on 2010.  Although you should look at the IT Pro sneak peak video on visual upgrade.

Talk about the issues for 1 TB site collection users.
There are manageability concerns around databases of that size when managed by people that aren’t use to TB databases, but let’s assume that 1TB+ databases aren’t a big deal for your SQL team.  What about restores and disaster recovery?  OK so you have a plan for that.  What about SQL blocking?  That’s the one that usually catches people off guard.  It’s large list operations, or large site operations like updates and deletes that can cause locking and effect everyone else in the db.

 

Any indication of when a preview of Sharepoint 2010 will be available?

No official word.

Will there be more template offerings from Microsoft similar to the Fab 40?

I hope so.  No word.  I think they have set a precedence in the past 2 releases.

Do we need to bring our large content database (300Gb+) down to 100GB

That’s up to you.  It will make upgrade faster and easier to manage.

What is the cost of upgrading from MOSS to 2010

Cost?  Time and space.  You’ll have to talk to your rep about licensing.

Are there any good Object Model references for SP 2010 available? Technet links?

Have you seen the SDK?  It’s still in flux, but worth a peak. 

SharePoint Products and Technologies: 2010 Developer Documentation

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=94AFE886-3B20-4BC9-9A0D-ACD8CD232C24&displaylang=en

In the ramp up to 2010, how much risk is involved with upgrading SP2? Should we have alreay done this, or is it something we need to take great care with?

SP2 is required and is one of the most important things so you can run PreUpgradeCheck.

Does the preupgrade checker make any changes to the content dbs? the previous MOSS 2007 prescan tool did so you could only upgrade after running it?

No.  No changes.  Still, I obviously recommend running it in production and in all your environments really.  Get comfortable with it first.

Does the preupgradecheck tool offer different output when run against WSS vs. MOSS?

Yes.  The WSS one has info on WSS Search topology and uses the WSS rules.  The Sharepoint Server one uses WSS and MOSS rules and includes unique info on SSP for example.

Where is that last photo from?

Near “Top of Europe”, on the train to JungFrau in Switzerland.

I'm new to sharepoint, assuming all the prerequisites have been met, how easy will it be for me to upgrade to SharePoint 2010?

New to SharePoint.  Welcome.  Sean has done his best to make it easy, but it really depends on the complexity of the environment you’re upgrading.

If we have a 2003 server with 32 bit, what will be the best approach for the upgrade.

You could setup a new Windows Server 2008 MOSS farm with SP2 on 64bit OS & HW and do a 2007 db attach, then you’d be ready for upgrade to 2010 when bits become available.

When and where is the Sharepoint Conference?

See http://www.mssharepointconference.com it’s in Las Vegas in October 19-22.

Does SharePoint 2010 come with an SLA or something now that they care about so much about performance to make me move to 64 bit sql?

LOL.  I’m not aware of an SLA.  64bit is what you’ll be told to do today if you call support with perf problems with your 2007 environment.  64bit is the way to get your memory addressed and to truly scale SharePoint.

Does the checker identify site templates too

If you’re referring to the Fab 40 yes you’ll see their features.  If you’re talking about custom site templates, like simple STP’s, no.

Maybe this was already talked about, but is Sharepoint designer still a production design tool?

There is such a thing as SharePoint Designer 2010.  Looking forward to it becoming non disclosure.

Is there still a prescan 'like' tool that makes changes? I just want to click and go.

Look at the variationsfixtool in STSADM.  Not a lot of fix and goes.

Where do we get the new upgrade checker, is it already built into 2007 SP2?

Built into sp2 update.  stsadm –o preupgradecheck

SharePoint 2010 and VMWare support? Virtual SQL Server?

VMWare has been there.  Announcement was made about a year ago.  SQL server virtualization… I tell people not to virtualize SQL, but for small and medium environments you could likely get away with it with dedicated disks.  SQL is IO intensive.

Hi Joel - great presentaton - would you suggest review of connected aspects of sharepoint e.g. exchange, AD, Report services, PPS etc - and when should that be done?

That’s a huge question.  more than a simple answer.  I would suggest a review.  I would rarely put exchange and AD and SharePoint on the same box.  Even PPS I’d put it on a dedicated SharePoint environment.  Reporting services, I’ve recently been convinced by Paul Culmsee is a good thing to have connect to your SharePoint environment with the newest SSRS 2008 version.  I like to keep my SharePoint environments clean.

Is it suitable to test upgrade on a standalone server when you have a multi-server farm?

It’s a good idea to get the gist of upgrade. 

Dinner time here in Sweden:-) Thanks fro a great presentation. See you in Las Vegas
Awesome to have a global audience.

Should we use Virtual servers or Stand alone server for sharepoint - what do you recommend?

I’m good either way.

 

Does checker give information on workflows or designer workflows? does it identify unghosted pages?

No it doesn’t identify unghosted pages.  You could write a rule to do this.  There is a small section on workflow in the preupgradechecker.

Any advice for a large organization migrating 10,000+ SP 2003 site collections to MOSS/2007 with plans to migrate to 2010 within a year?

Make sure that farm you’re going to is installed with Windows Server 2008 64bit SP2.  I’d go with a db attach it will be much cleaner otherwise wipe and reload when you are done.  SharePoint is faster when it doesn’t have the legacy code on it.

 

Thanks!

Joel

Let me end by saying happy birthday Hans Christian Ørsted.  I know I’ll miss SharePoint Saturday in Copenhagen in 8 days, but it’s definitely in my thoughts.  I would have liked to have seen that crowd, but it’s not in the cards.  I’m actually on my way to a family reunion in Yellowstone, yesterday we went to Silverwood theme park including boulder beach water park, and today we hit Glacier National Park.  We’re in a beautiful part of the world.