SharePoint Migration Checklist: 28+ Must-Have Quick Checklist Items

SharePoint Migration Checklist: Sometimes, while we do the SharePoint content database migration via the detach and attach method, we may encounter errors. However, if we open the migrated site, it does open and work. Here, I will explain how we can reduce the possibility of getting errors and some basic tips and tricks in the migration project.

SharePoint Migration Checklist: Basic tips and tricks in SharePoint migration project

End of this article we will learn the below:

• SharePoint migration project plan
• Best Practices for a Successful SharePoint Migration or Upgrade
• Quick Tips for a Successful SharePoint Migration Plan
• SharePoint server migration steps
• Step by Step Guide to Migrate from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016
• SharePoint migration steps
• SharePoint migration tool troubleshooting
• SharePoint content database migration checklist
• How to see all running workflow instances in SharePoint 2013.
• Find All InfoPath Form Libraries and lists in SharePoint
• PowerShell script for running Test-SPContentDatabase
• PowerShell script to remove features by ID
• SQL query for the listing setup file information
• PowerShell script to remove the web part by ID
• SQL query to  list down web part information
• SQL query to get event receiver information
• PowerShell script to remove event receiver

Descriptions: SharePoint migration project

Even though we get some errors during the database upgrade, we may ignore them as this is generally common behaviour in a migration project.

Even I had faced a similar issue and figured it out by doing the proper analysis in the source system. One of the key parameters for success in the migration project is proper planning and analysis of the source environment.

Try to get an inventory from your source system about all custom solutions and where (in which sites) these custom features are activated. I am sure from the inventory report you will find there are many features that are not really being used in the source system. So you can remove those unwanted features from the target environment after running the Test-SPContentDatabase command.

For cleaning up the features, you may use the below PowerShell script (available at the below link):

• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dawiese/2017/05/09/post-upgrade-cleanup-missing-server-side-dependencies/

Sample PowerShell script for running Test-SPContentDatabase:

$wa=Get-SPWebApplication "https://sharepoint.contoso.com"
$outputPath= "\\tools\files\Output\Test_Wss_Content_MissingAssembly_{0}.txt"
-f (Get-Date -Format hhmmss)
$dbName="WSS_Content_MissingAssembly"
$slqServer= "SPSQL"
Test-SPContentDatabase -Name $dbName -WebApplication $wa -ServerInstance $slqServer -ShowLocation:$true -ExtendedCheck:$false | Out-File $outputPath Write-Host "Testresults written to $outputPath"

PowerShell script to remove features by ID:

$featureID = "ed37484a-c496-455b-b083-3fc157b1603c"
$siteID = "108d28e9-dac1-4eea-9566-6591394e6d40"   
 
#Display site information
$site = Get-SPSite $siteID  
Write-Host "Checking Site:" $site.Url
 
#Remove the feature from all subsites
ForEach ($web in $Site.AllWebs)
    {
        If($web.Features[$featureID])
            {
                Write-Host "`nFound Feature $featureID in web:"$Web.Url"`nRemoving feature"
                $web.Features.Remove($featureID, $true)
            }
            else
            {
                Write-Host "`nDid not find feature $featureID in web:" $Web.Url
            }   
    }
 
#Remove the feature from the site collection
If ($Site.Features[$featureID])
    {
        Write-Host "`nFound feature $featureID in site:"$site.Url"`nRemoving Feature"
        $site.Features.Remove($featureID, $true)
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "Did not find feature $featureID in site:" $site.Url
    }

SQL sample for listing setup file information:

USE WSS_Content_MissingAssembly_Snapshot
  
SELECT id, SiteID, DirName, LeafName, WebId, ListId
FROM AllDocs (NOLOCK) where SetupPath = 'Features\ContosoLIb_Feature1\DocLib_WP\DocLib_WP.webpart'

PowerShell script to remove setup files by ID:

#File Information
$setupFileID = "07462F03-A4C6-455C-B383-947DDE85DF36"
$siteID = "108D28E9-DAC1-4EEA-9566-6591394E6D40"
$WebID = "4E068646-2C87-4868-924E-850C31F607DF"
 
#Get file
$site = Get-SPSite -Identity $siteID
$web = Get-SPWeb -Identity $WebID -Site $siteID
$file = $web.GetFile([GUID]$setupFileID)
 
#Report on location
$filelocation = "{0}{1}" -f ($site.WebApplication.Url).TrimEnd("/"), $file.ServerRelativeUrl
Write-Host "Found file location:" $filelocation
 
#Delete the file, the Delete() method bypasses the recycle bin
$file.Delete()
 
$web.dispose()
$site.dispose()

SQL query to list down web part information:

USE WSS_Content_MissingAssembly_Snapshot
  
SELECT WebID, SiteID, DirName, LeafName, tp_WebPartTypeId, tp_WebPartIDProperty
FROM AllDocs WITH (NOLOCK) inner join AllWebParts on AllDocs.Id = AllWebParts.tp_PageUrlID
WHERE AllWebParts.tp_WebPartTypeID = '817a5bd9-0698-4c62-7c51-5c9966468f0d'

PowerShell script to remove the web part by ID:

$siteID = "108D28E9-DAC1-4EEA-9566-6591394E6D40"
$webID = "4E068646-2C87-4868-924E-850C31F607DF"
$dirName = "sites/lab5-4/SitePages"
$leafName = "Home.aspx"
$webPartID = "g_bb56b03e_b830_4e37_ba16_62250601ac26"
 
#Get Web
$web = Get-SPweb -Identity $webID -Site $siteID
 
#Build page url
$pageURL = "{0}{1}/{2}" -f ($site.WebApplication).url, $dirName, $leafName
 
#Get SPFile
$page = $web.GetFile($pageURL)
 
#Delete the web part on the current published page
$webPartManager = $page.GetLimitedWebPartManager([System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.PersonalizationScope]::Shared)
 
#Delete web part by ID
$webPart = $webPartManager.WebParts[$webPartID]
$webPartManager.DeleteWebPart($webPart)
$web.Dispose()

SQL query to get event receiver information:

USE WSS_Content_MissingAssembly_Snapshot
  
Select Id, SiteID, WebID, HostType, hostId 
FROM EventReceivers (NOLOCK) where Assembly = 'ContosoLIb, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=1b7baa1677de7aa0'

PowerShell script to remove event receiver:

#Variables
$hostType = "0"
$siteID = "108D28E9-DAC1-4EEA-9566-6591394E6D40"
$webID = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
$hostID = "108D28E9-DAC1-4EEA-9566-6591394E6D40"
$assemblyID = "80A9D912-768A-4289-91AB-9BF368922F8F"
 
 
#Perform cleanup
 
if ($hostType -eq "0")
    {
        $site = GEt-SPSite -limit all -Identity $siteID
        ($site.EventReceivers | ?{$_.id -eq $assemblyID}).delete()
        $site.dispose()
    }
    elseif ($hostype -eq "1")
    {
        $web = Get-SPWeb -Identity $webID -Site $siteID
        ($web.EventReceivers | ?{$_.id -eq $assemblyID}).delete()
        $web.dispose()
    }
    elseif ($hostype -eq "2")
    {
        $web = Get-SPWeb -Identity $webID -Site $siteID
        $list = $web.lists | ?{$_.id -eq $hostID}
        ($list.EventReceivers | ?{$_.id -eq $assemblyID}).delete()
        $web.dispose()
    }

Above code reference URL:

• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dawiese/2017/05/09/post-upgrade-cleanup-missing-server-side-dependencies/

Basic tips and tricks in migration project

For planning and preparing the checklist for content DB migration – you may refer to the below content:

The basic steps are as below: 

• Prepare a detailed inventory of the environment
  Clean up the old environment
• Test content
• Prepare destination environment and analyze new environment configurations
  Communicate with users
• Start migration
• Read-only mode until migration completes
• Post-migration, third-party tools, and resources

Reference URL:

• https://www.advaiya.com/blog/sharepoint-2016-migration-checklist/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/upgrade-and-update/checklist-for-database-attach-upgrade-sharepoint-2013

Top 28 Keys in SharePoint Migration: SharePoint content database migration – SharePoint migration steps:

Here based on my personal experience, I have listed out the SharePoint content database migration steps at a high level:

1. Create a new SQL server with SQL high availability group and configure SQL listener.
2. Create a new SharePoint farm.
3. Configure the service application that you had on the previous farm.
4. Try to migrate the service application data like Manage metadata service, search service, etc..otherwise create these services and get those service application data thru database migration.
5. Create an all-new web application on the target farm as many you had on the previous farm.
6. Deploy all custom solutions if you have one, from the previous environment to the new environment.
7. Configure the alternate access mapping for all the web applications on the new farm.
8. Verify the central administration settings for all pages from CA – by comparing old CA and new CA.
9. Verify each web application settings from the new CA – by comparing the old CA and new CA.
10. Verify web config files for each web application from the new environment – by comparing the old web.config file and the new web.config file.
11. Verify the IIS settings of each web application by comparing old IIS settings.
12. Prepare an inventory for all running workflows.
13. Good to complete all running workflows.
14. Prepare an inventory for all InfoPath forms in source SharePoint.
15. Prepare an inventory for all data connections used in the InfoPath forms.
16. Plan the migration over the weekend.
17. Announce to the users about the downtime of SharePoint.
18. While declaring downtime estimate at least 20 percent buffer time for any uncertainty.
19.  Plan for any other dependent teams like – SQL, networking for their availability.
20. Make old farm read-only ( all web applications).
21. Take all content database backup from the old database server and restore in new SQL server thru backup restore or detach and attach process.
22. Once confident with all these verifications – start the mounting of the content database in the new application.
23. During mounting the database we might get some errors some we might ignore, but some errors we might fix.
24. After migrating to a new SharePoint environment immediately change the InfoPath data connection URL to the new URL(target SharePoint data connection URL).
25. Then open all the InfoPath forms which we have generated from source SharePoint.
26. Access the sites – and perform all basic testing – do not forget to test permissions.
27. If all is well – finally change the DNS for all the URLs from the new environment – so that it will continue to work with the old same URLs only – in the backend just we need to map the DNS to the new server that we have created.
28. Declare go live – I have followed the same steps and it was successful.

Notes:

• Sometimes, even though we change the data connection correctly from the new SharePoint environment, still we will get the data connection error. Then we need to disable the loopback in the registry. And also we need to verify the layout path in the target SharePoint data connection because the layout path in source and target are different. Example: SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2016.
• Need to be calm and cool: If we face some uncertain issue that is a show-stopper for the migration, we should not be tense. Generally, when we do the migration within the given downtime, people get tensed to deal with troubleshooting. So need to relax and work. 🙂

How to get all InfoPath forms and workflows from the SharePoint web application?

Using the below PowerShell script, we can get all InfoPath forms and workflows from the SharePoint web application:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") > $null 
 
function global:Get-SPSite($url)
{ 
 
    return new-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($url) 
 
} 
 
#Get the web application 
 
$WebAppURL= "<Web Application URL>" 
 
$SiteColletion = Get-SPSite($WebAppURL) 
 
$WebApp = $SiteColletion.WebApplication 
 
  
 
#Write the CSV header 
 
"Site Collection `t Site `t List Name `t List Url `t Docs Count `t Last Modified `t WF Count `t Live WF `t Live WF Names `t Form Template" > c:\temp\InfoPathLibs.csv 
 
  
 
#Loop through all site collections of the web app 
 
    foreach ($site in $WebApp.Sites)  
    { 
 
       # get the collection of webs 
 
       foreach($web in $site.AllWebs)  
        { 
 
            write-host "Scaning Site" $web.title "@" $web.URL 
 
               foreach($list in $web.lists)  
               { 
 
                if( $list.BaseType -eq "DocumentLibrary" -and $list.BaseTemplate -eq "XMLForm") 
		{ 
 
			$listModDate = $list.LastItemModifiedDate.ToShortDateString() 
			$listTemplate = $list.ServerRelativeDocumentTemplateUrl 
			$listWorkflowCount = $list.WorkflowAssociations.Count  
			$listLiveWorkflowCount = 0  
			$listLiveWorkflows = "" 
         
 
			foreach ($wf in $list.WorkflowAssociations)  
			{ 
 
			 if ($wf.Enabled) 
			 { 
 
			 $listLiveWorkflowCount++ 	 
			 if ($listLiveWorkflows.Length -gt 0)  
			 {  
			 $listLiveWorkflows = "$listLiveWorkflows, $($wf.Name)" 
 			}  
			else  
			{  
			$listLiveWorkflows = $wf.Name 
 			} 
 
                     }  
                 } 
 
					#Write data to CSV File  
                   $site.RootWeb.Title +"`t" + $web.Title +"`t" + $list.title +"`t" + $Web.Url + "/" + $List.RootFolder.Url  +"`t" + $list.ItemCount +"`t" + $listModDate +"`t"  
 
+ $listWorkflowCount +"`t" + $listLiveWorkflowCount +"`t" + $listLiveWorkflows +"`t" + $listTemplate >> c:\temp\InfoPathLibs.csv 
 
             } 
 
           } 
 
        } 
 
    }  
  
 
#Dispose of the site object 
 
$siteColletion.Dispose()  
Write-host  "Report Generated at c:\temp\InfoPathLibs.csv" -foregroundcolor green 

Reference URL:

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Find-all-lists-that-have-dc9a0420

Issues in SharePoint migration project

Various types of issues and their descriptions with fixes during running the Test-SPContentDatabase :

Notes:

1. You may ignore the error or exception from the Test-SPContentDatabase command, still, your Mount-SPContentDatabase will work.
2. While running the Mount-SPContentDatabase for a certain content database – if you get an exception or up to some extent some errors, you can ignore those and continue in further migration, still, your migrated site will work fine, and in these scenarios, if you see database upgrade status from central admin, we can see upgrade completed with errors status but we can live with this.
3. After content DB migration thru database detaches and attach approach – we may see some issues in the migrated master page, CSS, and javascript code, as a result, we may expect some differences in the migrated site look and feel and other CSS and scripting related issue – this is a general behavior which we need to fix manually even though it is time-consuming.

Key takeaways from this article: SharePoint Migration Checklist

From this article we have learned the below:

• SharePoint migration project plan.
• Best Practices for a Successful SharePoint Migration or Upgrade.
• Quick Tips for a Successful SharePoint Migration Plan.
• SharePoint server migration steps.
• Step by Step Guide to Migrate from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016.
• SharePoint migration steps.
• SharePoint migration tool troubleshooting.
• SharePoint content database migration checklist.
• How to see all running workflow instances in SharePoint 2013.
• Find All InfoPath Form Libraries and lists in SharePoint.
• PowerShell script for running Test-SPContentDatabase.
• PowerShell script to remove features by ID.
• SQL query to list down the setup files information.
• PowerShell script to remove the web part by ID.
• SQL query to list down web part information.
• SQL query to get event receiver information.
• PowerShell script to remove the event receiver.

Which SharePoint migration tool is right for your migration project?

You can do the best SharePoint migration tool assessment and pick the right migration tool for you from here: Which SharePoint Migration Tool is Right for You? Find Out Now Top 5.

References: SharePoint Online Migration Checklist

• https://www.advaiya.com/blog/sharepoint-2016-migration-checklist/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/upgrade-and-update/checklist-for-database-attach-upgrade-sharepoint-2013
• https://sharegate.com/blog/sharepoint-content-database-migration-monitoring

See Also: SharePoint Online PowerShell

You may also like the below SharePoint Online PowerShell tutorials:

• Office 365: Getting started with SharePoint PnP PowerShell – installation
• In 2 steps convert a classic SharePoint page to modern using PnP
• Office 365: Retrieve hub sites and associated sites using PnP Powershell
• Create a modern team site using PnP PowerShell in SharePoint
• In 4 steps access SharePoint online data using postman tool
• SharePoint admin center: Learn SharePoint online administration in an hour – step by step
• SharePoint REST API: GET vs POST vs PUT vs DELETE vs PATCH
• Office 365: Understanding the hub site in SharePoint online
• Post Upgrade Cleanup – Missing Server Side Dependencies

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SP Doctor

I am your SharePoint and Power Platform doctor and guide. Sharing knowledge with my fellow colleagues, friends, and the tech community makes me utmost happy in my job.

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