How to migrate the Project Web App 2010 site collection and BI center from farm A to farm B

Question

We have 2 farms, both have Project server service application installed. I want to migrate all the project data as well as the BI center (with reports) from one farm to another.

I have moved the 4 databases (Draft, Published, Archive, Reporting) to destination farm using backup/restore method. Then I goto Sharepoint CA -> manage service application -> Project server service application -> create a new Project web app site (http://sharepoint/pwa/), in the database fields I filled in the 4 databases I moved over. (according to msdn article) After then, all projects are working as expected.

However we have some list, library under BI center site. The URL is like http://sharepoint/pwa/ProjectBICenter/. So I run backup-spsite and restore-spsite for "http://sharepoint/pwa/". I found all items under /ProjectBICenter/ are recovered. But my project web app ( "http://sharepoint/pwa/" ) is now throwing error everywhere!

Sharepoint ULS log said:

System.ServiceModel.FaultException: The server was unable to process the request due to an internal error. For more information about the error, either turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the configuration behavior) on the server in order to send the exception information back to the client, or turn on tracing as per the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 SDK documentation and inspect the server trace logs.
Server stack trace:
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.ThrowIfFaultUnderstood(Message reply, MessageFault fault, String action, MessageVersion version, FaultConverter faultConverter) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.HandleReply(ProxyOperationRuntime operation, ProxyRpc& rpc) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message) Exception rethrown at [0]:
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg) at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type) at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Interfaces.IAuthentication.GetUserByName(String username) at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.AuthenticationHelper.AuthenticateUserByName(String userName, Guid siteId)

I can delete the office web app and do it all over again. But what should be the correct procedure? (The source farm's /PWA/ is stored in a very hugh content database. This DB contains several site collection but I only want to copy /PWA/ not entire database)

Answer 1

Unfortheuntally , the above mentioned MSDN link describes only how to move the Microsoft Project Server 2010 databases to a new instance of SQL Server while keeping the same PWA site. it's not describe how to migrate project server to another server / farm.

So it's normal behavior to don't find http://sharepoint/pwa/ProjectBICenter/

Because the ProjectBICenter site is stored in a content database that you didn't move it during the migration process.

So, You should be aware of migrating Project Server 2010 will require migrating five databases not only four,

• Web Application Content Database
• Draft,
• Published,
• Archive,
• Reporting

Another thing you do it is running backup-spsite rather than using database-attach upgrade method to move this content database. a backup-spsite will Performs a backup of a site collection. but with project server, it's not working as expected.

I also noticed at the end of your question , you don't need to migrate the content database because it has a huge size ,

So in this case , because of ProjectBICenter is a subsite from PWA site collection, so you can migrate it by using Export-SPWeb from the old site collection then Import-SPWeb it to the new site collection.

**For Example, **

export-spweb "http://sharepoint/pwa/ProjectBICenter" -path "D:\Temp\migration\backupfile.cmp" 

Import subsite to new site collection using this command:

Import-SPWeb "http://sharepoint/pwa/ProjectBICenter" -path "D:\Temp\migration\backupfile.cmp"  –UpdateVersions Overwrite