How to Upgrade SharePoint 2010 (beta) sites to SharePoint 2010 (RTM)

(Note: Before using this process in production please test solution. Every environment is different so this solution might not work in every situation. I have only tested this solution on SharePoint 2010 (beta) for internet sites to SharePoint 2010 (RTM) for internet sites. However, the same process should work from SharePoint 2010 (Beta) enterprise to SharePoint 2010 (RTM) enterprise)

Problem:

I have been building solutions for clients using SharePoint 2010 (beta) for internet sites and I need to upgrade to SharePoint 2010 for internet sites RTM release while still maintaining the security, site collection configuration, and content.

What didn’t work:

• To my knowledge there is no in-place upgrade support for SharePoint 2010 (Beta) to SharePoint 2010 (RTM). 
• Stsadmin export of SharePoint 2010 Beta site collection and import beta site collection into SharePoint 2010 RTM. Received random errors during import process to SharePoint 2010 (RTM). 
• SharePoint Central Administration backup (Failed during backup operation in SharePoint 2010 (Beta)). 
• Content database detach and migration.

What did work:

• Stsadmin backup and restore 
• Manually re-configuring SharePoint 2010 Environment

Current Environment:

• SharePoint 2010 Server (Dedicated)
• SQL 2008 Server (Dedicated)
• Two Domain Controllers (Dedicated)
• Exchange 2010 Server (Dedicated)
• Office Communication Server 2007 (Dedicated)
• Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0 (Dedicated)
• Server Infrastructure Amazon Web Services Cloud

Requirements:

• SharePoint 2010 RTM software
• Service account that has access to both administrative Access to the SharePoint 2010 Server and the Content Database.
• WSP files of any custom solutions
• Knowledge of SharePoint Stsadm command lines

Steps:

1. Logon to your SharePoint 2010 (beta) server with the SharePoint farm account
2. Run command line on every Site collection you want upgraded to SharePoint 2010 (RTM). Make sure you run command line as Administrator or you will get access denied errors:  Stsadm –o backup –url [your site collection] -filename [where you will save your backup]





3. Uninstall SharePoint 2010 (beta) and reboot 
4. Update:  If you have a dedicated SQL Server, you must logon to SQL Server and manually delete all the SharePoint 2010 Beta databases
5. Logon to the SharePoint Server with the SharePoint farm account and Install SharePoint 2010 (RTM)  
6. Re-configure SharePoint 2010 central administration (Turn on SharePoint services, configure search, configure email settings, etc…)
7. Create SharePoint 2010 Web application and target site collection
8. Deploy all custom code to web applications and update web config (This step is only necessary if you have custom solutions) 
9. Run command line on every Site collection you want upgraded to SharePoint 2010 (RTM). Make sure you run command line as Administrator or you will get access denied errors: Stsadm –o restore –url [target site collection] -filename [your backup file location] -overwrite
10. Access restored site collection and insure site restored properly
11. Repeat steps 7 – 10 for every site collection you need to restores