How to: Redirect SharePoint Products and Technologies to Use a New Content Database

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Whenever you move, rename, or fail over the data-tier server that hosts the data for SharePoint Products and Technologies, you must redirect the Web sites for team projects to use a new content database so that the project portals will remain accessible. As part of this redirection, you must detach and reattach the content database. When you detach the content database, you remove the reference to the database for the project portal. In the background, the list of sites in the content database is removed from the configuration database, but the content database and its data are unchanged. When you reattach the content database, the list of sites that are stored in the content database is re-added to the configuration database.  

Note

The data-tier server must be operational for you to complete the procedures in this topic.

Required Permissions

To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the server that hosts SharePoint Products and Technologies.

To redirect project sites to use a new content database for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

  1. Log on to the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, open Computer Manager, and make sure that the following components are started:

    • IIS Admin Service (IISADMIN)

    • HTTP SSL (HTTPFilter)

    • Windows SharePoint Services Timer (SPTimer)

    • World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC)

    • SharePoint Central Administration v3 (application pool)

    • SharePoint Central Administration v3 (Web site)

    For more information, see How to: Stop and Start Services, Application Pools, and Web Sites.

  2. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.

    The Central Administration window for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 opens.

  3. Click the Application Management tab.

  4. Under SharePoint Web Application Management, click Content Databases.

    The Manage Content Database page opens.

  5. Click WSS_Content.

    Note

    WSS_Content is the default name. Your installation might use a custom name for this database.

    The Manage Content Database Settings page opens.

  6. Select the Remove content database check box, and then click OK.

    Note

    This step detaches the database but does not delete any content.

  7. Click OK in the warning dialog box that appears.

  8. Open the Command Prompt window, and change directories to the Windows SharePoint Services bin directory.

    By default, you can find this directory in %programfiles%\Common Files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\BIN.

  9. Type the following command to add a content database:

    **stsadm -o addcontentdb -url http://**SharePointServerName -databaseserver newDataTierServerName -databasename WSS_Content

    Note

    WSS_Content is the default name. Make sure that the name that you type matches the name of the content database that you deleted in step 4.

  10. (Optional) If you backed up any custom site definitions, custom site templates, or custom Web parts for SharePoint Products and Technologies that you want to keep, restore these components now. For more information, see Recommendations for data protection and recovery on the Microsoft Web site. 

  11. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and click Services.

  12. Right-click Windows SharePoint Services Timer, and then click Start.

To redirect project sites to use a new content database for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0

  1. Log on to the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services 2.0, open Computer Manager, and make sure that the following components are started:

    • IIS Admin Service (IISADMIN)

    • HTTP SSL (HTTPFilter)

    • SharePoint Timer Service

    • World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC)

    • TFSWSSADMIN (application pool)

    • Windows SharePoint Central Administration (Web site)

    For more information, see How to: Stop and Start Services, Application Pools, and Web Sites.

  2. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Windows SharePoint Central Administration.

    The Central Administration window for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 opens.

  3. Click Configure virtual server settings, click Default Web Site, click Manage content databases, and click the name of the content database.

    By default, the name of this database is STS_Content_TFS.

  4. Select the Remove content database check box, and then click OK.

    Note

    This step detaches the database but does not delete any content.

  5. Click OK in the warning dialog box that appears.

  6. On the Manage Content Databases page, click Add a content database.

    The Add Content Database page opens.

  7. In Database Information, click Specify database server settings. In Database name, type STS_CONTENT_TFS.

    Note

    By default, the name of this database is STS_Content_TFS. Make sure that the name that you type matches the name of the database that you deleted in step 3.

  8. Under Database Capacity Settings, in Number of sites before a warning event is generated, type 9000. In Maximum number of sites that can be created in this database, type 15000, and then click OK.

  9. (Optional) If you backed up and want to keep any custom site definitions, custom site templates, or custom Web parts for SharePoint Products and Technologies, restore these components now.

    For more information, see Backup and Restore Options for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 on the Microsoft Web site.

  10. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and click Services.

  11. Right-click SharePoint Timer Service, and then click Start.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Fail Over to a Mirrored Data-Tier Server

How to: Move from a Single-Server to a Dual-Server Deployment

Resolving Configuration Issues in SharePoint Products

Other Resources

Managing Data