SharePoint 2003 - SharePoint 2007 Migration Tool Recommendation
I started on a project here in Greenville, SC this week. The project has 2 primary goals. Goal #1 is to migrate the existing WSS v2 content to the new Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform. Goal #2 is to create a site for the internal legal team to use that has a few requirements, most of which are provided by SharePoint 2007 out of the box. I have not dived into the implementation of goal #2 yet but am well into goal #1.
In the process of planning the migration I have had the opportunity to research and compare a bunch of 3rd party tools, as well as give some of the "upgrade" paths some thought. Personally, I am not a big fan of the "upgrade" paths for this particular project. An in-place upgrade is out of the question since my client only has a single server and if this process were to fail we would have to rebuild from backups. A side by side migration is possible, but I simply do not trust the concept. I have not tried it yet but again, I have that "gut" feeling if you know what I mean. After looking at these, and a few other options, and discussing the clients needs, it became apparent to me that all the client really cared about was the actual content.
So my search began for a tool that could move all of our content and leave the look and feel alone.
Enter Metalogix and their List And Library Migration Manager for SharePoint tool. I contacted them, discussed our needs and explained that I would like to evaluate their product. It seemed, in my mind anyway, that it did exactly what I wanted, move content only. I was promptly provided with an evaluation license key and started my evaluation.
This tool does exactly what it says it does. It moves lists and libraries, including all the meta data columns, to and from both 2003 and 2007. It has batch capability so that you can "queue" up a number of lists and libraries, and execute the migration all at once. It logs any errors, warnings or issues it finds. The tool allows you to view and edit the individual items in the lists and libraries as well as the properties of the lists and libraries themselves. The tool also has the capability to retain the ModifiedBy and CreatedBy users (assuming both servers are in the same domain), as well as the Created and LastModified dates, with the installation of an additional service on the target machine (that they supply).
Perhaps the BEST and most enticing feature in my opinion is that the tool uses ONLY the SUPPORTED API's supplied by each of the products (of course, I could not prove this since I do not have access to the source code, but that is what they advertise). It uses a combination of both the web service and RPC calls to perform its work. What that means is you DO NOT have to install this tool on any of your SharePoint servers (the service to maintain the Created and LastModified dates does need to be installed on the target machine however), it can be installed on your laptop or workstation and work remotely, so long as you have access to the SharePoint servers involved in the migration. Actually, the best feature is probably the fact that they are a Canadian company. :)
To top it all off I gotta say that the people I spoke with at Metalogix were exceptionally friendly and very helpful. They are also very receptive to new feature ideas and if any bugs or issues arise to immediately call them. Apparently there is quite a large demand for their product and they are releasing updates quite regularly that include additional features and functionality as well as the occasional bug fix I am sure. Every product has bugs! If I had to complain about something, it would be performance. It is not as fast as I would like, but given that it has to moved each and every document and/or item remotely from one server to another, I don't expect it to be done with 2GB of content in 5 minutes. I have been informed that they are trying to improve this in future releases.
So if you need to move content (lists and libraries) and don't care about look and feel, this tool is for you and in my opinion is worth every penny given the amount of time and money you and more importantly, your client, will save.