SharePoint User Group UK

I have a requirement to restore a sharepoint site onto two different sites on a test server (ie. I want two different portal sites on the same server with the same content and user information so that we can modify them separately). Everything works fine if I restore a portal site from database backup.

I try to restore a new portal site using a different copy of the same database and get the error (in the log on portal site creation: 'Portal creation failed System.ApplicationException: A portal site already exists with the same ID as the one contained in the database being used for portal recovery. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Admin.c.a() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Admin.c.f()'

Does anyone know how I can change the site id in the databases so that I can restore the content / user information into a seperate site?

Many thanks in advance.

G

Hi there

Rather than doing database backups, I would recommend you use the cmd line tool STSADM. You will first need to first perform a backup of the current site (stsadm -o backup –url http://server:port –filename c:\backup.bak). Next create a new webapp/site collection on a different port (with separate content DB(therefore different Id ;)) and then restore the site backup, stsadm -o restore –url http://newwebapp:port –filename c:\backup.bak -overwrite,  using the –overwrite cause the restore to overwrite the new site and you will have a second copy of your site to work on.

Good luck. Let me know if you have any problems.

Riccardo Gozzi

 

Sorry, just noticed it’s a 2003 portal issue. Process should be about the same nevertheless. Just check the commands.

Thanks for the info... Those commands are right for SPS2003.

I will not have a chance to do this (the business has changed its mind about what it wants), but that sounds exactly what I needed.

Genius.

Thanks so muck for the quick reply and answer.

I too am getting this error.

We are attempting to make a copy of our production server to test upgrading from Sharepoint 2003 to 2007.

Our DBA copied the data to a different location on the DB server, I used an IIS migration tool to move all configuration data from the production server to the test server.

When I connect the dbs, I get the above error.  Is there somthing I can configure or do I need to do this from scratch?

Thanks.

The thing to keep in mind is that SharePoint defines a unique ID within the configuration database for every Site Collection in the SharePoint instance. 

When you attach a Content Database that contains Site Collections, SharePoint updates the configuration database with information about these Site Collections: reattach it and SharePoint already has the ID in it's configuration database, hence the message.

OK, but can I change the ID?

I had my DBA move the DBs to another server which, if I understand your response, won't make a difference.

I can link the configuration DB to the new DB server and point to the copy of the configuration DB name, but when I attempt to restore the portal and connect to the content DBs, I still get the same ID error.

Maybe I need to step back to the original intent: we want to make an exact copy of our production server so that we can test the 2003 to 2007 migration tool.  I found an article on how to do that,

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/holliday/archive/2007/06/19/restore-production-sharepoint-2003-databases-to-test-servers.aspx

but recieved a very cryptic error that other's also had without any answer. 

'SvrAdminPortalCreate_SecurityConfigurationSection_Text' etc - it goes on for a while.

I used an IIS copy tool (Adsonline's IIS Export Utility) that successfully copied the necessary files, but now get the ID error.

Can you direct me to another site that gives step-by-step instructions for the conversion?   Thanks for any input!