Migrating SharePoint /MOSS 2007 database from one Farm / DB to another Farm /DB

In case you are performing any one of these activities then you are looking at right blog :
1) Migrating Portal from One Farm to another Farm
2)Migrating Portal from Development/Test Server to Production Server

I would like to put this process in order to make other's life simpler.If you are performing these migration /move and facing these errors then you have to follow this blog :

ERROR 1 :
An unexpected error occurred while refreshing the shared object manager cache.
Reason: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Techinal Details:System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProviderStoreDependency.get_IsValid() at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedObjectManager.Refresh()

ERROR 2 :
"The search service is currently offline. Visit the Services on Server page in SharePoint Central Administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress. "

Process for Farm Migration

1)Back up Complete Farm using Central Administration (Central Administration > Operations > Perform a Backup )
2) Disconnect from existing Server farm using SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard
3) Create New Farm using "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard" in desired DB server and Web Server
4)Most important STEP , if you miss this you will end up with all kind of search errors in world
Start all services in that server

• Excel Calculation Services
• Office SharePoint Server Search
• Windows SharePoint Services Help Search

5)Restore farm back using Central Administration (Central Administration > Operations > Restore from Backup )


AFTER MIGRATION
Once you are done you might get this Error :
Following Web Part error in the page: “One of the properties of the Web Part has an incorrect format. Windows SharePoint Services cannot deserialize the Web Part. Check the format of the properties and try again.”

Suggestion: The AppPool may not have appropriate permissions
Do this ,

• GO TO Central Administration (Central Administration > Operations > Service Accounts)
• Select Web Application Pool option
• Select the Central Administration Web app from drop down
• Provide Account ID to be used by web application

One More Pit Fall After Migration :

Infopath Managed form stops working . If you have Infopath Managed form in your site upload the same to (Central Administration > Application Management > Manage Form Templates )

Well these steps might help to make migration much simpler .

Also refer this excellent blog post for process with image depiction:
http://lkar.blogspot.com/2008/05/moving-moss-project-server-2007.html