We have a legacy WSS farm with many features and custom content types that we want to migrate to a plain WSS 3.0 farm. The legacy operators cannot turn off the features prior to an export. We’ve tried exporting (stsadm –o export) without compression and changing the XML files, but there are still dependencies that prevent a clean install to the plain WSS farm. Things we’re tried: - Removing the non-existent Requirements from the Requirements.xml file - In the Manifest.xml file: Changed the content type ID for SPObjects to standard SharePoint WSS items; Updated the customized default.aspx; Changed the BaseTemplate from the custom to DocumentLibrary, etc - Create fake features with the dependent IDs Each step gets us closer to successfully loading the sites, but there seem to be many hidden roadblocks. Plus if each site to import would require manual evaluation, this would be unsustainable. Are there existing techniques or tools (free, purchasable, etc) available that would allow a SharePoint WSS export with custom features to import to a plain WSS farm? Thank you.

Kormann, Which customizations are you referring to? You can create content types OOB using Browser interface. Did you create it using visual studio? Migrating content types and features which have been created using visual studio can be done only with the WSP or feature files. If you are unable to find the location of WSP files, the best thing to do would be to grab the feature files available in FEATURES folder in 12 Hive and deploy in the new farm. Instead of doing stsadm -o export, try doing stsadm -o backup from the old farm and use stsadm -o restore in the new farm. This should be done after you have deployed the features and content types. Also, make sure both the farms have same service pack installed. There is a tool out there which will do the same, available in codeplex. SPdeploymentwizard. For deploying custom features and content types that have been built using visual studio, I don't think there are any third party tools which do these. They are very specific to your environment. Hope this helps. V

You could try using Content Deployment Wizard (http://spdeploymentwizard.codeplex.com/). It's a codeplex project that allows you to export/import content deployment packages using the Content Migration SharePoint API (PRIME). It works with 2007. It depends on what you want to migrate and how customized your farm is but I believe it can be accomplished with this tool (however if you indeed have custom list definition (for ex.), then they will fail to work).. Also, when you say :"The legacy operators cannot turn off the features prior to an export." What stops you from creating a second WSS farm with all the legacy features, restore a backup from the legacy WSS farm. Then deactivate feature and remove the SP solutions. (but yet again if you indeed have custom list definition (for ex.), then they will fail to work). Florin DUCA MCITP Enterprise Admin, MCSE 2003 +Sec, MCITP/MCPD SP 2010, MCTS conf/dev WSS3/MOSS, MCPD ASP.Net 3.5, MCTS ISA 2006 Logica Business Consulting, France

You could try using Content Deployment Wizard (http://spdeploymentwizard.codeplex.com/). It's a codeplex project that allows you to export/import content deployment packages using the Content Migration SharePoint API (PRIME). It works with 2007 and 2010. It depends on what you want to migrate and how customized your farm is but I believe it can be accomplished with this tool (however if you indeed have custom list definition (for ex.), then they will fail to work).. Also, when you say :"The legacy operators cannot turn off the features prior to an export." What stops you from creating a second WSS farm with all the legacy features, restore a backup from the legacy WSS farm. Then deactivate feature and remove the SP solutions. (but yet again if you indeed have custom list definition (for ex.), then they will fail to work). Florin DUCA MCITP Enterprise Admin, MCSE 2003 +Sec, MCITP/MCPD SP 2010, MCTS conf/dev WSS3/MOSS, MCPD ASP.Net 3.5, MCTS ISA 2006 Logica Business Consulting, France

V, The users and management don't want any of the features and content types from the legacy WSS farm. They want the content (Docs, Lists) and the default metadata. We tried the -backup and -restore but without the features, there's no use. We looked at SPDeploymentWizard and wasn't sure if it would strip out the legacy deployed features. We'll look again.

Florin, Yes, the legacy WSS has custom list definitions and the sites use a custom site template: #10000, not #STS. Our reading of SPDeploymentWizard was it wouldn't be able to solve this. We're considering writing custom code to run through the Manifest.xml file, creating new site and adding the items using the SharePoint Object Model.

I really don't know if SP Deployment Wizard will strip out all the legacy stuff but for list definitions at least I think there will be problems. PS: how much content are you talking about? It seems like a custom app that recreates the hierarchy (sites/libraries/lists) and then copies the data should suffice (and honestly I think this is the only thing that would work in your case).Florin DUCA MCITP Enterprise Admin, MCSE 2003 +Sec, MCITP/MCPD SP 2010, MCTS conf/dev WSS3/MOSS, MCPD ASP.Net 3.5, MCTS ISA 2006 Logica Business Consulting, France

SPDeploymentWizard will not strip out any of the legacy data. If you are planning to remove the custom content types and features, you will need to make sure the content types are not being used for metadata purposes. You will have manually delete the content types and deactivate all the features on your environment. SPManager (available in codeplex) will help you to an extent in deleting the content types, but if the content type is still in use, it won't be deleted. Have a test environment set up and delete all the necessary content types and features in the test environment. You can then import it into new farm. V

About 300-500 sites. We wanted to see if there was an existing process or utility that we could use rather than building our own. Thanks.