SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

Gradual Upgrade

Similar to an in-place upgrade, a gradual upgrade takes place on the same hardware that is used for your previous version. However, in a gradual upgrade, you can control which sites are upgraded at any point, and it allows you to run both versions of your portal at the same time. When you implement a gradual upgrade, the starting and ending topologies are exactly the same, except for the following differences:

• During and after the upgrade, the frontend web servers run both SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Office SharePoint Server 2007. The site collections that were upgraded run under Office SharePoint Server 2007, whereas site collections that could not be upgraded or were not selected to be upgraded continue to run under SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

• During and after the upgrade, the application servers run both SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 services. Upgraded portal sites consume Office SharePoint Portal Server 2007 shared services; portals that have not yet been upgraded or cannot be upgraded consume SharePoint Portal Server 2003 shared services. Additional services (such as Microsoft Excel Services) can be added after the upgrade.

• During and after the upgrade, both the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 databases are available. Content for upgraded sites exists in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 databases; content for sites that could not be upgraded or that need to remain as they were continue ...