Migrate ConfigMgr 2007 to ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 in just a few steps

This month things started again, doing a ConfigMgr migration already! A migration in ConfigMgr is nothing more then installing a new Site Server and starting migration jobs, but still you must know what to do! Things must be done in the right order for doing it okay. I will mention the steps to follow and issues experienced for you.
Install and configure a new Site Server first and make sure you have permissions enough to access both the old and new Site Server. Then start with the migration. It can be done in a few steps (days).

1. Specify Source Hierarchy
The account used must have the required permissions to access the SMS Provider in ConfigMgr 2007. I can be both a computer or user account. I used both before, as long as you can access the Site Server. The other account mentioned here must have access to the ConfigMgr database. After that the migration can be started.

2. Share Distribution Points
Select all the Distribution points (DP's) which are needed for migration. In this situation they can be used both for ConfigMgr 2007 and 2012 migration. It can be both Branch, Protected or Standard DP's.
 
3. Create Migration Jobs
You can create one or multiple jobs to migrate collections and objects. In my experience they are all running fine, but there's no option to change source locations. When source files are located on the old Site Server they must be migrated to a new location. There are multiple scripts to find on the web for doing that. HERE and HERE.
When migrating taks sequences as well all content located in the task sequence is migrated as well. This means all driver packages, drivers, software packages, boot images, OS images will migrated also. Because there's no option to unselect content (all is needed for the task sequence) it will be a time consuming job.
You cannot choose to export task sequences in ConfigMgr 2007 and import them in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 again because it's a new file format (zip instead of xml). Bad luck!

4. Upgrade ConfigMgr Clients
When content is migrated to the new Site Server it's time to upgrade the ConfigMgr clients. This can be done from ConfigMgr 2012 when system discovery is done. Just make sure DotNet Framework 4 is installed on the clients, because it's needed to install the client.
When Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2010 is installed, it will be removed automatically and when Client policy is changed, System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (SCEP) 2012 will be installed. No need to do anything when things are configured the right way.

5. Upgrade Distribution Points
This step can be done during or before upgrade ConfigMgr clients as well. You need a new ConfigMgr client to access a upgraded DP, so both are needed. Migrating DP's can take many hours because they will be converted to the new Content Library share. Ensure that the location that you selected on the Drive Settings page of this wizard contains sufficient free disk space for this content to convert.
If the content will remain on the same drive, conversion requires free space on that drive that is equal to slightly more than twice the estimated volume of the migrated packages. If the content will move to a new drive, conversion requires free space on that drive that is equal to the estimated volume of the migrated packages.
Before you upgrade a Branch DP, uninstall the ConfigMgr 2007 client software. When you upgrade a Branch DP that has the ConfigMgr 2007 client software installed, the content that was previously deployed to the computer is removed from the computer, and the upgrade of the DP fails! Without the client it goes fine all the way!

6. Stop Gathering Data
When you are satisfied about migrated collections, objects and DPs it's time to stop the connection to ConfigMgr 2007. You can choose to delete existing migration jobs also. After that (or after a while to make sure things are okay) you can uninstall ConfigMgr 2007 sites and servers. The migration is completed now!

Hope above steps are clear and help you to migrate ConfigMgr sites. In a next blogpost I will mention some issues which were seen during the migration. Nice to be back again!

Using the Migration jobs in ConfigMgr 2012

When migrating ConfigMgr 2007 to 2012 (Side-by-Side) it's possible to use Migration Jobs to copy collections and objects. Microsoft has build-in Migration Jobs for doing this, and it's doing a great job! Today I used the Object migration for copying software packages, drivers, driver packages, images and task sequences. All content will be imported into the new ConfigMgr 2012 database. The wizard will looks like this:

Just select everything needed, and save a lot of time!

The following will be mentioned during "Review migration job information".

In a few steps the source location is mentioned. Before or after migration the source location may be updated when pointing to the old ConfigMgr 2007 server. For software packages the following tool can be used: Coretech Package Source Changer.

For driver packages and Windows images I haven't find a good solution yet. Maybe someone can share a script for doing this?