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Hi I am Saritha working as Sharepoint Consultant

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

WSS 3.0 - Move a subsite with subsites

I'm working in a test WSS 3.0 environment and I would like to be able to move a subsite with subsites to another environment.  There are several ways to move a WSS 3.0 site.  The first one I tried almost worked.  I will document my attempts (and reason each attempt was or was not successful here. 
SharePoint Designer
The technique:
  • Create a placeholder for the new location of the site
    • Use WSS 3.0 browser
      • Create a site using the Blank Site template.
  • Create a backup of the site to be moved
    • Use SharePoint Designer
      • Open the site to be moved
      • On the Site Menu - point to Administration - Backup Web Site - Check Include Subsites
      • Creates a .cmp file
  • Restore the backup to the new location
    • Use SharePoint Designer
      • Open the site (new location)
      • On the Site Menu - point to Administration - Restore Web Site
      • Use the .cmp file 
Limitations:
  • The site hiearachy for the new location must be the same as the original location. 
    • For example: If you have
      • Portal Site - Projects Site - IT Projects Site - Project A Site - Project A Documentation Site - Project A Final Dcoumentation Site
      •  you cannot move it  to  move it to
      • Portal Site - Project A Documentation
  • There is a size limitation of 25MB

SharePoint Site Template
The Technique:
  • Create a Site Template
    • Using WSS 3.0 Browser:
      • Save the site you want to move as a template – include content
      • If moving to a different site collection:
        • Go to Site Gallery (at top level)
        • Save the template to a good place in the file system (like your desktop)
        • Go to the root site of the Site Collection of the new location
        • Go to the Site Gallery
        • Upload the saved site template (.stp file)
      • Browse to the parent site of the new location
      • Create a new site with the template you just uploaded (Select a template – Custom tab)
Limitations:
  • Subsites are not included
STSADM Export / Import
The Techique
  • Use STSADM command line tool
  • Export the subsite to a .bat file
  • Import the .bat file to the new site location
  • Must have the following permissions:
  • login account for SQL server for SharePoint databases
  • Site Collection Administrator for new location (?and maybe original location)
Results
  • Subsite and subsites were restored
  • Used -includeusersecurity parameter and SharePoint groups and users in these groups were moved
Limitations
  • STSADM is not user friendly with error messages.  Check the Application Event Log.  The message received in the command window may not be indicative of the true problem.

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