I have seen some great information on the steps necessary to complete an upgrade from Beta 2 Technical Refresh to the release version of MOSS. The most complete is Joel Oleson's blog on the topic. Follow the directions carefully and you will be successful, unless something “odd” happens. In my case I followed the directions to the letter and still failed to upgrade my server. Here is a rundown of the scenario and how I solved it.
Topology (2 machines): Single (complete) web front end, single SQL 2005 server
Following the directions closely the Configuration Wizard failed on step 8 (of 9). The wizard directed my to the PSC log:
PSCDiagnostics_12_7_2006...log
12/07/2006 12:33:36 8 ERR Task upgrade has failed with an unknown exception
12/07/2006 12:33:36 8 ERR Exception: Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeException: Upgrade completed with errors. Review the upgrade.log file located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Logs\Upgrade.log. The number of errors and warnings is listed at the end of the upgrade log file.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPManager.RunUpgradeSession(IUpgradable root, Boolean bRecursive)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.UpgradeTask.Run()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()
Following the log I opened Upgrade.log
[WebApplicationSequence] [ERROR] [12/7/2006 10:30:14 AM]: Action 12.0.3.0 of Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Upgrade.WebApplicationSequence failed.
[WebApplicationSequence] [ERROR] [12/7/2006 10:30:14 AM]: The specified user or domain group was not found.
[WebApplicationSequence] [ERROR] [12/7/2006 10:30:14 AM]: at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.ResolveUser(String userName, String& displayName, Byte[]& sidBytes)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPolicy..ctor(String userName, String displayName, SPPolicyCollection parent)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPolicyCollection.Add(String userName, String displayName)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchAdminUtils.EnsureFullReadAccess(SPWebApplication webApplication, String username)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.BasicSearchFeatureReceiver.FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.DoActivationCallout(Boolean fActivate, Boolean fForce)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.Activate(SPSite siteParent, SPWeb webParent, SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, Boolean fForce)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAdminFeatureCollection.Add(Guid featid, SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, Boolean fForce)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(Guid featureId, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.Add(Guid featureId, Boolean force)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Upgrade.ActivateSearchWebAppFeatures.EnsureFeatureActivated(Guid featureId)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Upgrade.ActivateSearchWebAppFeatures.Upgrade()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPActionSequence.Upgrade()
The log does not indicate which user was not found. After several blind attempts to determine the cause, I returned to the logs directory and looked at other logs created near the same time and found the SharePoint server log (server name is MIDLAND).
MIDLAND-20061207-####.log
12/07/2006 10:30:14.42 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0AC8) 0x03E4 Search Server Common Search Featurization 8wpn High Found OSS Search service account 'doghouse\moss_search_service'.
12/07/2006 10:30:14.44 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0AC8) 0x03E4 Search Server Common MS Search Administration 0 High Adding policy for indexing account 'doghouse\moss_search_service' on web application 'http://midland:1024/'.
12/07/2006 10:30:14.44 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0AC8) 0x03E4 Windows SharePoint Services Feature Infrastructure 88jm High Feature receiver assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Server.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c', class 'Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.BasicSearchFeatureReceiver', method 'FeatureActivated' for feature 'bc29e863-ae07-4674-bd83-2c6d0aa5623f' threw an exception: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: The specified user or domain group was not found. at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.ResolveUser(String userName, String& displayName, Byte[]& sidBytes) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPolicy..ctor(String userName, String displayName, SPPolicyCollection parent) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPolicyCollection.Add(String userName, String displayName) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchAdminUtils.EnsureF...
Somewhere along the line the search account was deleted from the domain. Once I recreated the account everything proceeded as detailed in Joel's instructions. This is not a normal situation, but can be used as a case for reviewing the logs to help find the root cause of your upgrade errors.