Setting up a SharePoint development site based on production

Question

Can anyone suggest a best practice way of setting up a decent and suitable development site in SharePoint from a pre-existing production site?

I have a number of lists and document libraries that have been in production for some time, with some lookup field dependencies between them - whats the best way to replicate this within a non-production environment and ensure that any features are compatible between both environments when deployed?

I do not have access to the underlying infrastructure (and it may be irrelivent anyhow, I do not need the same AD users et al), and as I may be doing development for many clients, having an easily adaptable setup is preferred.

Answer 1

Hi there.

A couple of ways spring to mind. First, you could make a backup of the production site, using stsadm.exe -o backup. You can then restore that backup onto your dev PC. The only thing is that you must ensure that both the production server and your dev server are running the exact same version number of SharePoint (the 12.x.x.x. number which appears in the 'Servers on farm' option in Central Admin).

Alternatively, you could try content deployment. If the production server can see your dev server, then you could create a blank website on your dev PC, and content deploy from the production server. If that won't work, have a look at this, it's a SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard.

Cheers. Jas.

Answer 2

You may also find Restoring Production MOSS 2007 Publishing Sites Into Development by Andrew Connell helpful. It's specifically targeted to sites using the MOSS publishing feature but is thorough regardless and should be useful.