Note: This article discusses a scenario that may be addressed by Microsoft Advisory Services.

Microsoft Advisory Services is an hourly fee-based, consultative support option that provides proactive support beyond your break-fix product maintenance needs. This is a remote, phone-based support option that includes working with the same technician for assistance with issues like product migration, code review, or new program development. This service is typically used for shorter engagements, and is designed for developers and IT professionals who do not require the traditional onsite consulting or sustained account management services that are available from other Microsoft support options. This article also provides some self-help resources for this scenario.

For additional information on Microsoft Advisory Services, including on how to engage, refer to this Microsoft web page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=AdvisoryService (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=advisoryservice)

This service offering helps you with migration of SharePoint SQL databases. You regularly need to upgrade portions of your farm to newer software or hardware. This includes upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit, migrating database to database, or other physical migrations. When you upgrade operating systems or move to a new backend SQL environment, you may first need to test it in a lab environment, and then schedule the deployment at an after-hour time. This migration usually can be drilled down to three phases of analysis: Planning, Practice and Refinement, and Final Implementation. In case any issues arise unexpectedly during testing or deployment, we may involve our operating system engineers, SQL engineers, or other technical professionals. This may delay the results.

Each Advisory Services engagement will begin with some questions designed to scope the project and determine your exact needs. For this scenario, the scoping questions include:

1. How many servers are you planning to migrate?
2. Are you engaging Microsoft for interactive assistance with a support engineer or are you explicitly looking for Microsoft to provide general documentation on best practices?

Below is a list of self-help resources or this scenario. These resources may also be used by Microsoft Support Engineers during an Advisory Services engagement.

Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007

To avoid common pitfalls and keep your Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment available and performing well, follow these best practices based on real-world experience from Microsoft Consulting Services and the product team.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb736746.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb736746.aspx)

Moving all Databases to a different database server or a server with the same name

Two procedures describing how to move databases to a different server or a server with the same name
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=65686896-C171-46A8-A95F-54F43AD79952&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=65686896-C171-46A8-A95F-54F43AD79952&displaylang=en&displaylang=en)

Migrate an existing server farm to a 64-bit environment (Office SharePoint Server 2007)

This document provides information on how to successfully migrate to a 64-bit envrionment. Pay particular attention to Phase 1 – Migrating the back end Databases from 32-bit to 64-bit.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd622865.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd622865.aspx)

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