Bill Baer /bɛːr/

In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 host header-based Site Collections can coexist with path-based site collections within a Web Application or optionally reside on multiple Web Applications.  Gradual, in-place, and database migration upgrade approaches can be applied to Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 server farms in scalable hosting mode.  This differs from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 where a server farm was configured to run in scalable hosting mode preventing the introduction of path-based Site Collections to the server farm.

**Step 1
**Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.  See the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technical Library article Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and run the SharePoint Products and Technologies configuration wizard at http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/b9490b1a-45de-45fd-9f4c-754dab1383e61033.mspx?mfr=true for detailed installation and deployement instructions.

NOTE If introducting the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 scalable hosting mode content databases to an existing server farm, proceed to Step 3.

Step 2
Create a Web Application to host Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 content.

Step 3
Set the host header property on the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 server farm by running:

STSADM -o setproperty -pn v2usedhostheadermode -pv true

Errors in the upgrade log such as the example below are indicative of the property not being set on the upgrade server farm.

[RemoveFullUrlFromSitesTable] [3.0.38.0] [DEBUG] [3/30/2007 4:52:46 PM]: The v2 host header mode property could not be found.  This suggests that a v2 backup is being added to a newly-created v3 farm.  Since we cannot conclusively tell if this is from a v2 host header configuration, we assume that it was not.If this assumption is incorrect, run "stsadm -o setproperty -pn V2UsedHostHeaderMode -pv true", detach this database, and reattach the v2 backup. 

**Step 4
**Add the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 content database to the Web Application using the addcontentdb operation.  See the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technical Library chapter Deploy a new farm, the migrate database (Windows SharePoint Services) at http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/b9490b1a-45de-45fd-9f4c-754dab1383e61033.mspx?mfr=true for detailed instructions.

STSADM -o addcontentdb -url [http://webapplication/](http://webapplication/) -databaseserver databaseserver -databasename databasename

**Step 5
**Reset the host header property on the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 server farm.

STSADM -o setproperty -pn v2usedhostheadermode -pv false

Host header mode in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides administrators a number of options when working with existing Site Collections on a Web Application, to backup, restore, and/or create a site collection as a host header-based site collection use the STSADM samples below:

Backup a path-based Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site collection using the command-line

STSADM –o backup –url [http://server/sites/sitecollection](http://server/sites/sitecollection) -filename E:backupfile.bak

Backup a host header-based Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site collection using the command-line

STSADM –o backup –url [http://hostheadersitecollection/](http://hostheadersitecollection/) -filename E:backupfile.bak

Restore a path-based site collection as host header-based site collection using the command-line

STSADM -o restore -url [http://hostheadersitecollection/](http://hostheadersitecollection/) -filename E:backupfile.bak - hostheaderwebapplicationurl [http://webapplication/](http://webapplication/) –overwrite

Create a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 host header-based site collection using the command-line

STSADM -o createsite -url [http://hostheadersitecollection/](http://hostheadersitecollection/) -ownerlogin <domain><username> - owneremail <email address> -hhurl [http://webapplication/](http://webapplication/)