Sharepoint 2010 site export and import not working properly

Question

I am using Sharepoint 2010. I am having the problem when I export and import the site from one web application to another.

I have created a new web application and a new site collection in it. Then I am using the powershell export and import command to move the sites from old web application to this new web application. But after importing when I checked, I am getting lots of issues.

1. Some subsites within imported site are not imported.

2. Custom forms (eg, NewForm, EditForm, DispForm) of lists, which were designed in Sharepoint Designer, are also not imported. Thus when I click on add new item in a list, it is giving me the error, because the custom forms were not present in the imported site.

3.I am facing data loss from some list and libraries.

4. In some libraries, pages were not present in the imported site.

Can anyone please suggest me something regarding this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Shailesh,

I am not exactly sure how are u exporting your sites. The best way to this (which i always use is) through site back-up and restore. Take the backup of your site collection from first web application and than restore it on the other application.

Here is the powershell script to take back 

$mySite="enter site colection address" 		
$backupLocation="D:\Backup"


Backup-SPSite -Identity $mySite -Path $backupLocation\backup.bak -force -ea Stop     

To restore use this

$mySite="enter site collection of 2nd web application" 

$backupLocation="D:\backup" 


Restore-SPSite -Identity $mySite -Path $backupLocation\backup.bak -DatabaseServer ServerName -DatabaseName Content-Database Name 

Hopefully this will solve your issue.

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_________ Fahad Ahmed Khan .NET Articles, Web Development, SharePoint and Project Server Custom Solution Provider

Answer 2

Hi shailesh,

The best approach for this issue,go ahead with "Content Database" backup and restoring this with new web application.

As for as within same server this will be good .

Moving contents like document libraries,Lists between different environment then SPExport/Import method will be the best not the whole site.

http://intelliview.blogspot.in/2010/10/sharepoint-2007-migration-to-sharepoint.html

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428327.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748604.aspx

If Permission not allowed to backup,still you can manage via sharepoint designer

find your list's modified pages under_catalogs or All Files folder download or copy them into local and place it on your new webapplication or site.

For data loss you can save them as template and create them as new in your new site.

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Murugesa Pandian.,MCTS|App.Devleopment|Configure

Answer 3

Hi fodi30,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I have to move only the sites, and not the site collection. For this purpose I am using the following stsadm command to move the sites under the site collection.

To Export:

stsadm.exe -o export -url "http://sitecollection/sitename" -filename "D:\Backup\site1" -includeusersecurity -overwrite

To Import:

stsadm.exe -o import -url "http://sitecollection/sitename" -filename "D:\Backup\site1.cmp" -includeusersecurity

Here, after importing the site into the new site collection on different web application, I am facing the issues.

Can you please suggest something?

Answer 4

Hi Murugesa,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I have to move the sites from one farm to another. I have to move only the sites, and not the site collection. For this purpose I am using the following stsadm command to move the sites under the site collection.

To Export:

stsadm.exe -o export -url "http://sitecollection/sitename" -filename "D:\Backup\site1" -includeusersecurity -overwrite

To Import:

stsadm.exe -o import -url "http://sitecollection/sitename" -filename "D:\Backup\site1.cmp" -includeusersecurity

 

Here, after importing the site into the new site collection on different web application, I am facing the issues.

Whether I am following the right approach? Can you please suggest something?

Answer 5

Shailesh,

If your current farm and new farm are the identical one(including Windows/SQL Server/Farm update,hotfix and patch update,CU updateS)

then Content Database Upgrade will be best option as you concerned the data.

Or find out all your custom applications(webpart,event receiver and custom workflows) in your current site backup them individually and deploy on your target server.After you can choose the save the site as template or content db migration.

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Murugesa Pandian.,MCTS|App.Devleopment|Configure

Answer 6

Hi Murugesa,

Yes my current farm and new farm are the identical one.

The thing is that I am having some problem in the Site Collection, so I don't want to move the whole site collection, just the sites I want to move from one farm to another. So if I will move the Content DB from one farm to another, then again I will get the same problem of Site Collection there also.

So what should I do in this case, please suggest.

Answer 7

Shailesh,

Save your current site collection as "Template".

Upload this template on your target server's root site [http://yourserver/_layouts/settings.aspx].

Now create the new site under this root site [ Site Action->New Site->] Here you will see the recently uploaded template choose it and check the status of the site.

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Murugesa Pandian.,MCTS|App.Devleopment|Configure

Answer 8

Hi Murugesa,

As I have already told that I can't move my Site collection because it is having some problem, so that is why I am going to move only the sites under this site collection (and not the whole site collection).

So please suggest me regarding this.

Answer 9

Hi Murugesa,

As I have already told that I can't move my Site collection because it is having some problem, so that is why I am going to move only the sites under this site collection (and not the whole site collection).

So please suggest me regarding this.

Shailesh,

Can you let us those problem by placing the "Log entries" here.Is your site collection is a "Publishing Site"  ?

If it is publishing site then your root site must have "Publishing Infrastructure enabled" then only your site collection shows the correct view.

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Murugesa Pandian.,MCTS|App.Devleopment|Configure

Answer 10

Hi Murugesa,

Here is the following link that I am still facing on the original Site Collection.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/66498f7c-94d7-4dcb-976f-74d4de5ed210

Answer 11

Hi Shailesh,

I found some of the features must be enabled on your root site for imported site templates works as expected.Here I conclude after gone through your Logs on the above thread.

1,External List - Gannt Task List [Possible issue on this Gannt - check if this problem persist on your site]

John Ross MVP (Expert):
Q: The indexer complains about Gantt items.

'The SharePoint item being crawled returned an error when attempting to download the item.'

How can I fix this?
A: When you say GANNT -- do you mean that there are issues indexing a tasks list? It should work just fine. I'd need to know if there was anything custom about the list. Or does the list have more than 2000 items in it? You could always try excluding the list with a crawl rule and see if that resolves the issue. If it does then you can isolate the issue to that list. If there's more than 2000 items you might need to split the list up. Otherwise I'd need to get some additional information.

2,Your site template based on https,Can you cross verify do you have done configuration settings on your root site to enable the same.

Its quite clear there were features missing on your root site but your site template[imported via Power Shell] had those features when trying to activate them in site collection level,it throws error.

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Murugesa Pandian.,MCTS|App.Devleopment|Configure