“The database schema is too old…” error restoring SharePoint database

Part of the process of moving TFS team site data from WSS to MOSS, or moving \ restoring WSS data is to restore the WSS content database. It may happen that the SharePoint install you are restoring into may be older than that of your content database however, in which case you may see an error like this when you try to restore:

“The database schema is too old to perform this operation in this SharePoint cluster. Please upgrade the database and try again.”

For instance, Microsoft recently released the WSS 3.0\MOSS 2007 SP2: support.microsoft.com/kb/953338. When removing and restoring Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (or as a part of TFS move) you may receive the error above because this service pack was installed on the server when SharePoint Team Services was removed, and made modifications to the database. Installing the SP2 allows SharePoint to recognize the new database format.

To resolve this issue, install the WSS 3.0\MOSS 2007 SP2 update for Windows SharePoint Services and try the restore operation again.

Thanks to Lakhminder Singh for his contributions to this post.

Technorati Tags: Team Foundation Server,WSS,Move