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There are four basic connection adapters that can be used to make connections to SharePoint from Migration Manager for SharePoint. These four adapters are: a local connection to a SharePoint site or server, a remote connection to a SharePoint site or server (using the Metalogix Extensions Web Service), a connection through the SharePoint Native Web Service (NWS), and a read only connection to a SharePoint Database (DB). This page reviews how to create a connection to a SharePoint Database.

Connecting to a SharePoint Database

This connection type is read only, and is generally only used when connecting to SharePoint 2003 instances (SPS 2003 and WSS 2.0). In case of performance concerns this connection type can also help, as the source data would be read directly from the database, and does not have to go through the source SharePoint APIs.

  1. In the main menu, select Add Connection, then select Connect to SharePoint Database - Read only from the drop down menu. This will open the Connect to SharePoint SQL Server dialog box.

  2. In the SQL Server Name section users have a few choices in how to enter the SharePoint Server Database location:

    • Users can manually enter the name or IP address for the SharePoint Database they want to connect to.

    • The drop down arrow can be selected, and users can pick any of the locations that are listed in the drop down menu. The list of locations is created from any previously accessed SQL servers.

    • The Browse button can be selected. This will open the SQL Server Browser dialog. Users can select from any of the listed local sources, or switch to view any Network source by goign to the Source drop down menu, and selecting Network from the available menu options. The Refresh button can be used to refresh the list of available options.

      • Note: Remote connections must be enabled in order for the Migration Manager to connect to any Databases on the Network tab.

    Select or enter the desired source.

  3. After selecting the location to connect to, users need to select what account they want to use for authentication. There are two options to select from.

    • User Current Windows user - This uses the default windows authentication method (Domain\User) for the user, and is set for the account that is currently logged in and using the Migration Manager.

    • SQL Server Authentication - When this radio button is click, users can enter another user account for authentication with SQL Server. This would use the same authentication method as SQL Server itself. A password can also be entered for this user. Clicking the Remember my password check-box will allow the migration Manager to remember the password for this SQL Server Authentication account.

  4. Once the location and user information has been entered, select Connect.

  5. This will open another dialog box. From this dialog users can select a specific SQL Server or SharePoint site to connect to. Users should note that the entered authentication user's Domain/Name is listed at the end of each of the SQL Server nodes, and that each SharePoint site node has its file size listed in brackets next to it. Users can either select the actual Database node, or they can select a specific SharePoint site node.

    Note: Any SQL or SharePoint server nodes that are unavailable will be marked with an "x" through the node. There are two main reasons why a node might be unavailable. The first is that the specified user doesn't have permissions to access that particular Database, and the second is that the Database is not a SharePoint schema Database.

    Select the desired node, and click OK.

  6. The Set Host Name dialog should open. When connecting to a Database the URLs for links that point internally to that SharePoint server will have a different format, and this will prevent link correction. To help enable link correction, the Migration Manager allows for users to set a "Host" name, on the DB connection. This host name should be in the "http://<ComputerAddress>:<PortNumber>" format, and should reflect the actual server name/port for the SharePoint server that it is for. The host name will be used to replace the different formatting from the DB connection, and this enables link correction to be run again since the links will be viewed in the proper format.

    For example, If connecting to a SharePoint DB for a system that has the web URL of "http://SharePoint:2010" you would want to set the host name as "http://SharePoint:2010" even though the database name will be different.

    Enter the desired host name, and click OK. Alternately, click Skip if no host name is desired (and link correction is not needed).

    Note: It is possible to go back and set the Host name after a database connection has been made. To do this, select the DB connection, right-click, and choose Properties. In the Properties dialog click the ellipsis (...) button at the end of the Host column, and this will open the Set Host Name dialog, allowing this value to be edited.

  7. The selected node will now appear in the Explorer view tab.