Getting Ready for KN Technical Refresh

For those of you whom already have access to SharePoint 2007 Beta 2 on the Microsoft Betaplace site (and therefore also have access to KN) here are some deployment considerations for the upcoming KN TR:

As you get ready to deploy the Knowledge Network Beta Technical Refresh (KN TR), which should be available from Microsoft Betaplace around the middle of next week, it is important to keep in mind that there is NO straight upgrade path from Knowledge Network (KN) Beta to Knowledge Network Beta Technical Refresh (KN TR). Therefore, we strongly encourage our customers to perform a clean installation of MOSS Beta 2 Technical Refresh (MOSS B2TR) and then install Knowledge Network Beta Technical Refresh on top.

However, if you choose to upgrade your MOSS Beta 2 to MOSS B2TR, then it is important to uninstall KN server components from MOSS Beta environment before upgrading to MOSS B2TR. You can then follow the recommended steps below as a best practice to achieve a smooth transition from KN Beta to KN Beta TR. In addition, the following points should be kept in mind as you work through upgrade process:

· Your users’ Beta profile data will not be retained in the process of upgrading KN. The key motivation for not providing a workaround to retain the Beta profile data is due to the investments we made in the profile generation algorithms in the TR version and therefore we would like all users to generate new profiles using the new KN TR client and upload those instead of using the Beta profiles as a baseline.

· As you ramp up your MOSS/KN upgrade planning and schedule, it is important to keep in mind that MOSS B2TR is not backward compatible with KN Beta server. This means that once you migrate your MOSS Beta environment to MOSS B2TR, the KN Beta server will not run in that environment and hence your KN users will not have to access to a working KN version until KN TR is deployed. Conversely, the KN TR requires MOSS B2TR and hence will not run on MOSS Beta.

With the above points/caveats in mind, here is the step-wise process for deploying KN TR in an upgraded MOSS B2TR scenario. The steps below refer to sections of the KN Deployment Guide which is currently on Betaplace. An updated KN Deployment Guide will be packaged with the KN TR on Betaplace.

1. Back up your exclusion lists by copying them manually from the KN admin UI page. This step is optional.

2. Uninstall KN server components using the steps described in the Uninstall Knowledge Network section (of the KN Deployment Guide)

3. Upgrade your MOSS environment to MOSS B2TR and verify it is working properly.

4. Install KN Server Beta TR by following the steps outlined in the Knowledge Network installation section

5. Activate the following features (for specific details, see the Advanced Configuration section of this document).

a. Knowledge Network Administration Feature

b. Knowledge Network SQM Feature

c. Knowledge Network Search Center Feature

d. Knowledge Network Profile Center Feature.

6. Run the following SQL statement on the SSP database: “Update MIPSCheduledJob set NextDueTime = getutcdate()where [Assembly] like 'Microsoft.Office.Server.SocialNetwork%'

7. Go to the SharePoint Services Administration Home Page for the Shared Service Provider and click the Data Management link in the Knowledge Network section. Rename the Knowledge Network database to a new name other than the defaulted name and click OK. This will create a new database with a schema that is compatible with the KN Beta TR. Be sure that the database is successfully created by periodically refreshing the page and checking the status. If the status remains locked in the “Initializing Database Creation then you will need to reset the MOSS timer service by running “net stop sptimerv3” followed by “net start sptimerv3”

8. Go to the Timer Jobs page on the Knowledge Network admin page. Click on each job and change its schedule type to Full.

9. Copy the exclusion lists manually into KN via a simple copy/paste in the KN admin UI page for exclusions lists (or using the newly available “stsadm –o ImportExclusionList” command). Again this step is optional.

10. Uninstall KN Beta client

11. Install KN Beta TR client by following the steps outlined in the Knowledge Network Client Deployment Guide

For the sake of completeness, here are the steps that will allow you to uninstall Knowledge Network from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which restores Microsoft Office Server back to the state it was in prior to the Knowledge Network installation.

12. Deactivate the following features (for specific details, see the Advanced Configuration section of this document).

a. Knowledge Network SQM Feature

b. Knowledge Network Administration Feature

c. Knowledge Network Search Center Feature on every Search Center where it’s currently activated

d. Knowledge Network Profile Center Feature on every Personal Site provider where it’s currently activated.

13. Go to the Services Server page in Central Administration and stop all the Knowledge Network services on the server including Knowledge Network Application Service as well as the Knowledge Network Search Service if this Server is the intended as an application Server

14. Run the following SQL statement against your SSP database: “update MIPSCheduledJob set NextDueTime = DateAdd(year,100,getutcdate()) where [Assembly] like 'Microsoft.Office.Server.SocialNetwork% ' You will need to do this step only once per SSP if you have installed Knowledge Network on more than one SSP.

15. Click the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard shortcut.

a. Click Next.

b. Select Disconnect from this server farm.

c. Click Next, and then complete the steps of the wizard.

· In Windows Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs, and then uninstall Knowledge Network Server.

· Click the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard shortcut

a. Click Next.

b. Select Join an existing farm.

c. Connect to the existing farm and specify the appropriate parameters.

d. When you get to the Central Administration creation screen, be sure to use the same port number as the one you used prior to uninstalling.

· In the Central Administration Services page on this computer, start the Windows SharePoint Web Application Service.

· Start Office SharePoint Server Search Service.

· Perform steps 2 through 6 on every machine in the farm.