Determine the patch level of audience members (RTM, SP1, Infrastructure Update, Cumulative Update) Determine how many people are 32 bit versus 64 bit Ask how many people plan to deploy an update within the next 90 days Talk about support ending for SharePoint RTM in January 2009
Check MON presentation
Not prescriptive guidance, general guidelines, based on latest information available right now Review farm architecture Ensure adequate disk space (new binaries, increased index space needs, and upgraded logging) Backups should include any OOB files you customized Review new backup best practices http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc706876.aspx For site collection size in GB 0-15 stsadm 15-100 SQL or DPM >100 DPM differential Always use sitelock!
Rename log file-you may want to make a batch file to do this across a farm
To speed up upgrade or if content DBs are greater than 25GB, preparetomove and then disconnect databases using batch file after documenting content database settings.
Process is fully described in KB 948780
Verify upgrade was successful using the upgrade log. Check the version number in CA. Specifics in deployment document
Process is fully described in KB 948780
If you detached databases, begin attaching again one by one, upgrade process will be done when they attach. There is a more advanced parallel upgrade process for very large farms available in deployment documents.
Reasons for slipstreaming -Consistency and reduced time when building new farms -Allows you to add new servers to your existing farm -Required to install on Windows 2008