Restore backup from another version of SharePoint Server

Question

I created a backup of Site Collection in one server. I want to restore this backup to my development server. I'm using stsadm:

stsadm -o restore -url http://myserver:9999/sites/001 -filename backup.bak -overwrite

Unfortunately I get error message:

Your backup is from a different version of Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and cannot be restored to a server running the current version. The backup file should be restored to a server with version '14.0.0.6109' or later.

I looked into Central Administration > Manage Patch Status to determine, which version I'm running. Obviously I have either 14.0.6029.1000 or 14.0.6106.5000.

How can I restore backup to my development server? Or is there another way, to do that (other than stsadm)?

Answer 1

It seems that you need to update your Development server with at least MSS 2010/Foundation Service Pack 1, and then you can restore the backup. See the blog for more internal version numbers: http://blogs.kma-llc.net/microknowledge/2011/07/june-2011-sharepoint-2010-service-pack-1-cumulative-updates-and-internal-version-numbers.html

It will be a three steps process:

• Run the SharePoint Foundation SP1 first on your development machine: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460058. After that run the SharePoint configuration and technologies wizard.

• Run the SharePoint Server SP1 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460045. After the run the SharePoint configuration and technologies wizard.

• Try restoring the backup again.

Answer 2

You can either go with the following two approaches :-

Content Database Attach
You can restore the content database of the web application where the site collection is located to a new web application on the development server. In case there are multiple site collections restore the content database to a new web application and delete the ones that are not needed.

This approach works most of the time when there are version conflicts in SharePoint site backups.

Service Pack Upgrade
Check the version of the current server and the development server. You need to maintain the same patch level of SharePoint on the both the servers. Try to upgrade the service pack of the current server as there is a good chance that it might be running on a older SharePoint version than your development server. Once upgraded, take a backup once again and try restoring this backup to the development server and it will work.