Migration from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 - Things to be considered.

Friends, I have just migrated a SharePoint farm recently. I am just sharing my experience. SharePoint 2013 doesn't provide a scope of in place upgrade. We only have two options left. Migration through third party tool. Migration through Database attach process.

If we go for Database attach process in case of migration failure we have the legacy (Old SharePoint 2010) system.

Database Attach Process Steps

This requires a working SharePoint 2013 farm, ready to attach legacy databases.

• Copy databases from the legacy farm to new SharePoint 2013 farm database server.
• First upgrade service applications in the new SharePoint 2013 farm by attaching service application databases.
• Next upgrade content databases in the new SharePoint 2013 farm.
• Then site collection owners and administrators decide when to upgrade their site collections to the new user interface (as visual upgrade as in SharePoint 2010)

Things to be considered             

• SharePoint and SQL Servers to be patched to latest service pack updates and running the configuration wizard after the updates.
• Check the SharePoint version number of each server to ensure that each server is fully patched.
• Windows event log errors and warnings to be fixed as many of these as possible.
• Take care of critical errors in health checker.
• Delete unused stuffs (sites, sub sites, customisation)
• Consider large lists more than 2000 items.
• Consider the size of Database 10 GB database will be much faster and quicker than 1 TB.
• Look for SharePoint 2013 unsupported stuffs (e.g. PowerPoint broadcast sites, Fast Search Center)
• Make sure all sites use SharePoint 2010 experience.
• Consider any issues with multilingual sites.

Managing Customisation.

• From SharePoint 2007 to 2010 we have an advantage of pre-upgrade check tool. This tool included a report of all installed features and customisation in the farm but this is retired now.
• The good thing is SharePoint 2013 supports parallel hive so customisation in 14 hive can be maintained.
• Customisation to be listed out. There may be some issues with third party products. It may involve some development effort.
• Evaluating and accessing the customisation it should be decided whether to keep the customisation, rebuild or discard this.
• Examples of customisation to be considered while upgrading are Site definition, Feature, Workflows, Server Controls, Event Handler, Theme Master Pages, Java Script, and Web Parts.
• SharePoint 2010 version must match the SharePoint Version. For example SharePoint 2010 Enterprise edition cannot be upgraded to SharePoint 2013 foundation.

Have a fantastic migration experience.