The sample intranet site presented in this article is hosted on Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (which is required for SharePoint 2010) with SQL 2008 Express 64-bit.

First, let’s look at the SharePoint 2007 site we migrate. For this demonstration I created a simple MOSS 2007 Enterprise environment based on the Collaboration template, which contains some generic web parts we’ll test on SharePoint 2010, Document Center and Search Center. I setup and double checked the search, because I wonder if the migrated SharePoint would be able to use the search database crawled in the previous, 2007 version of SharePoint. Search is an important issue for migrating Sharepoint installations with large amount of data where a full crawl of the content may take weeks.

My Intranet Site in MOSS 2007

Now, install SharePoint Server 2010 right on the existing installation. In the Setup window, we can view the server requirements, installation guide etc. We will skip this part and proceed straight to the Installation.

SharePoint Server 2010 installation screen

First we need to install software prerequisites. We may already have all required components since we are already running MOSS 2007, but to be sure, we’ll go select this option.

The preparation tool window that launches checks our server for the required components, and installs them if needed. The components that will be updated are:

• Application Server Role and IIS Role
• SQL Server 2008 Native Client
• Microsoft “Geneva” Framework Runtime
• Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0
• Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services ADOMD.NET

Let’s open the preparation tool. After reading the short tool description and accepting the terms, the preparation tool will start updating the server immediately.

SharePoint Server 2010 Preparation Tool

After succesfull configuration, the summary screen will be displayed and the tool will likely request a  reboot of the system.

Preparation Tool Summary Screen

When Finish button is clicked the system will reboot automatically. After the reboot, the Preparation Tool launches again and finishes the rest of the steps. Now our system is ready to install SharePoint Server 2010, so select that option from the setup pane.

We will be prompted to enter the license key (which is necessary even when Sharepoint 2010 is in Beta):

Product Key window in SharePoint Server 2010 Setup

After the key we have to read and accept licence terms. Next screen advise that MOSS 2007 was detected.
Continues…