How to correctly migrate Sharepoint 2013 Mysites to 2016

Question

I have a SP 2013 Farm and a new SP 2016 Farm installed from scratch. I migrated a content database without any problem.

Now I need to migrate my sites, I have the .bak but not sure how to do the process.

Should I create the user profile service application first? without the parameter mysite host?

Or should I create first a new web application and mysite host? and then do a mount-sp content db and test-sp content db?

I havent find any documentation.

Thanks!

Answer 1

There're some considerations that should be aware when planning to My Site upgrade.

• Before upgrading the My Site Host and the personal site collections, you must upgrade the Managed Metadata service application, and then the User Profile Service application.
• you must upgrade the User Profile Service application on the services farm first before you upgrade the My Sites farm.
• Consider whether you have to upgrade from classic-mode to claims-based authentication in SharePoint Server 2013

Upgrade steps

• Copy the SharePoint Server 2013 to the SQL Server that supports your SharePoint Server 2016 farm.
  • My Site content database,
  • Social database,
  • Sync database (optional),
  • Profile database,
  • and Managed Metadata service database

Note: You will need db_owner permissions to perform this step

• Create the new service applications that you need for the SharePoint Server 2016 farm. Do not create the User Profile Service application and the Managed Metadata service application. You must upgrade these service applications, which is described in the next step. You must however start the User Profile Service and Managed Metadata service from Manage Services on Server.

• Upgrade the Managed Metadata service and User Profile service applications using the database attach method. For more information, see Upgrade service applications to SharePoint Server 2016. Ensure the My Site Host URL field on the User Profile Service application is left blank because this field will be updated during the upgrade process

• Create the web application for the My Sites using the default content database. To ensure the storage requirements of your users are met, you should review the site quota on the My Sites web application.

• Set the compatibility range settings for site creation on the My Sites web application. Use MinCompatibilityLevel = 15 and MaxCompatibilityLevel= 15 for your compatibility range settings.

• Install customizations.

• Run the Test-SPContentDatabase cmdlet to make sure that all customizations and language packs are installed on the server before upgrading the My Site content databases. This cmdlet must be run against all My Sites content databases. After running this cmdlet, you'll get a report on your environment. Ensure you review all items in this report as some reported items may prevent you from moving onto the next step.

• Run the Mount-SPContentDatabase cmdlet. Note: this does not upgrade any of the personal site collections at this point. After this step is complete, the My Sites will still be displayed as SharePoint Server 2013 My Sites.

• Check the configuration of the self-service site creation and managed paths settings on the My Sites web application to ensure the correct configuration settings are applied to the web application

• Verify that the My Site Host URL field on the User Profile Service application has the correct URL users should use to access the My Sites web application.

• Upgrade the My Site Host from a SharePoint Server 2013 My Site host to a SharePoint Server 2016 My Site Host

• Upgrade the personal site collections

All details have been mentioned at this reference Upgrade My Sites to SharePoint Server 2016

Answer 2

It was certainly easier than this, but of course the customer doesnt use many features like social conversations, they only use onedrive.

1. backup old database
2. restored old database into new DB server
3. created new web application, and attached the restored DB to the new web application.
4. Created the user profile service application pointing to the restored mysitehost.
5. Then I opened the my site host and it worked, however the personal sites were partially working, the one drive page was BLANK.
6. So I installed Feature Pack 1 (dependend language fixes), and after that, then the one drive page started working again.

Thanks