SharePoint 2010 copy production environment to test environment in same AD

Question

I'm a system admin and not very familiar with SharePoint yet.  My company wants me to take our production environment (one web/app server and one SQL server) and mirror it to our test environment in the same AD.  As I've read, we need to backup and restore content databases and recreate the web apps to look like those in production.  Can anyone give me more details or tell me best practices on this? 

Answer 1

This article will assist you in moving your databases.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc512725.aspx#Permissions

You may want to look at some referencing articles as well.

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Alpesh Nakar's Blog Alpesh Just SharePoint Just SharePoint Updates

Online SharePoint Saturday India June 25 2011 Contributing Author SharePoint 2010 Unleashed

MCTS: SharePoint 2010 Configuration MCITP: SharePoint 2010 Administrator

Answer 2

Were you ever able to successfully do this? Would be interested in any details you can provide..

Answer 3

Do you already have Sharepoint set up on the test environment or are you trying to create a mirror image of your production environment. 

Here is what I would do.  I would go ahead and set up my sql server.  Then I would set up my WFE and install SharePoint.  Then I would install SharePoint on my application server (choosing what services you want running on the server).

The only mirror that you need really is the content database that you currently have in production.  Just have your DBA make a copy of the content database and move it to the text development sql box. 

In the new WFE - after you have installed SharePoint you will then create a web app.  Example:  myserver:11
Create a site collection Example:  myserver:11/  This new site collection will have a content database attached to it.  Name it content_11

After you verify the site is up go into SharePoint Management shell and run:  Dismount-SPContentDatabase -identity wss_content_11.  It will ask you if you are sure and hit enter

Then attach the content database that was moved over to the test sql server:  Type:  Mount-spcontentdatabase -identity wss_nameofcontentdatabase -webapplication http://myserver:11

Now you will be able to go to the web site and it will be a copy of what you have in production.  To set up the other application server simply just go in to CA and assign what services you want the server to run: CA>System Setting>Manage Services on Server.  You can choose what server to set by using the drop down.

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Jennifer Knight (MCITP, MCPD)