SharePoint 2007 -> 2010 upgrade content database size currently over 100GB

Question

I've got a site which has a 2007 content database around 165GB at present they're running out of space on the SQL server so I'm just going to advise we move them all to a new SQL Server 2008 R2 database server with ample space.

After which the customer is considering migrating to SharePoint 2010, I'm a little aprehensive about kicking off the migration on such a large content DB, but I suspect it would probably go through but just take a fairly long time.

The other option is we work on getting the size of the primary content DB down to around 100GB and attempt it then. I'll get the WFE on Server 2008 R2 and kick off an inplace upgrade and cross my fingers I think. (with backups in place obviously)

Has anyone attempted or know of any MS literature that advises against doing the upgrade on with such a large content DB?

Answer 1

If anyone is interested this migration went through without any real issues, the upgrade really didn't take any longer if truth be told, probably 3 hours and the 125GB content DB was upgrade successfully.

Answer 2

165 Gb is indeed, quite some db. There are no problems migrating such a database, its only against the advise of microsoft. It's not that it is not supported

I would do the following:

1. bring down your GB size to some smaller proportions. Some options are:

   • delete old site collections/sites (ask the owners to do it themselves)
   • delete old versions of files. You could determine to delete every version older then a year, and max 3 or 5 versions per file (again: discuss with the owners, and tell why it's important)

2. detach/attach your data to the SQL Server 2008r2. I wouldn't advise an inplace upgrade of SP2007. ONLY do that when you don't have ANY customizations! Experience teaches us that it will go (badly) wrong when you do that.