Migration from SPS 2001 Difficult

Because of radical changes in the underlying architecture of SharePoint Portal Server (SPS), existing SPS 2001 customers will face more difficulties than might be expected in the course of a normal upgrade.

Old Web Store Still Supported

Although Microsoft intends for SPS 2003 to use SQL Server as a repository for portal documents and other content, SPS 2003 still includes the Web Storage System technology offered in SPS 2001—even though the Web Store will become a deprecated technology once the new product ships. Microsoft included Web Store (now called the “backward-compatible document library”) primarily to make migration of SPS 2001 servers easier and more gradual.

Existing documents, document profiles, categories, and other metadata remain intact after upgrading, and SPS 2003 includes Web Parts that allow users to access these Web Store–based documents from the portal. SPS 2003 also includes a migration tool that enables SPS 2001 customers to move documents from the Web Store into the new WSS-based document libraries. However, as of Beta 2, no details were available on how the process will work and what metadata (if any) will be lost in the process.