banner art

Migration overview

The upgrade process migrates as much as possible of the existing Windows Media Services 4.1 configuration with few or no changes. In cases where conversions are necessary, the upgrade process changes only what is necessary and migrates as much of the existing content and configuration as possible.

The following table provides a general overview of how the migration process affects version 4.1 elements.

This version 4.1 element Migrates to
Publishing points Publishing points
Stations Broadcast publishing points
Programs Playlists
Streams media elements in playlists

The use of publishing points has not changed from version 4.1 to this version of Windows Media Services. A version 4.1 on-demand publishing point is still an on-demand publishing point in this version. However, the use of stations, programs, and streams for broadcasting has changed substantially from the previous version of Windows Media Services. In this version, all broadcasting is handled by using broadcast publishing points and playlists. If you want to broadcast by using multicast delivery, you enable a multicast data writer plug-in on a broadcast publishing point. During the upgrade process, stations are migrated to broadcast publishing points, and the programs and streams that provide the source content for the stations are migrated to server-side playlists that act as the sources of the broadcast publishing points. For example, if a publishing point in version 4.1 points to a station, two broadcast publishing points are created during the upgrade process: one that contains the station information and sources from a playlist, and a second one that sources from the first publishing point.

You may not need to know any more than these basic principles to update Windows Media Services. However, if your existing configuration is extensive, you should review this section, so you know the specifics of the migration process. The following list summarizes the primary principles of migrating from Windows Media Services version 4.1 to this version:

Windows Media Services creates a log that indicates how the version 4.1 configuration was migrated to the latest version. Wmsupgrade.log is located in %systemroot%\System32\Windows Media\Server. To view the log file, open the file in a basic text editor, such as Notepad.

Related topics


© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.