SharePoint 2016 has come with many enhancements, encouraging organizations to migrate to this latest version. This post will take you through a step by step process on how you can upgrade your SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016.
Note that you can upgrade your SharePoint instance from one server to another without any downtime. As this is a live migration, I would suggest you to take complete backup of the server and the database before continuing.
If you are running SharePoint 2010 and want to migrate, there is no method to migrate it directly to SharePoint 2016.

Here are the steps that you need to follow:

• Create SharePoint 2013 farm
• Attach SharePoint 2010 database to SharePoint 2013 farm
• Upgrade site collections to full SharePoint 2013 mode
• Create a new SharePoint 2016 farm  
• Attach SharePoint 2013 database to SharePoint 2016 database server  

Here I am assuming that you have done all the prerequisites before starting this migration process. That means you’ve already installed SharePoint 2016 server, but if you are finding difficulty to do so, you can follow my previous post here.

Also, before starting the process go to your old SharePoint 2013 database Server, copy the WSS_Content content database of your site collection (which you want to migrate to SharePoint 2016) to the new SharePoint 2016 database server.

1. Login to your old SQL Server Management Studio, select WSS_content ,go to task, and select copy database.



2. You will get a database copy wizard. Click on Next.



3. Verify source server properties.


4. Select the destination Server where you want to copy this WSS_contect DB.


5. In select the transfer method wizard, use SQL Management Object method if you want to do the migration without down time.


6. Select a database to copy. Select WSS_Content. Click on Next.


7. Configure the properties of a destination database.


8. Select Logins here.


9. Configure the package created.


10. Select Run immediately option. If you need to schedule them, select Schedule option.


11. Review the summary and click on Finish.


12. It will take a while to perform the operation.


13. Once the database is restored, go back to your SharePoint 2016 Central Administration and setup your SharePoint Web Application to use the copied WSS_Content database. Go to Application Management -> Manage Web Applications.


14. Create a new web application.


15. Set new web application properties.


16. Once the new application is created, open the SharePoint powershell as the administrator and run below commmands:

1. Test your content database using command
Test-SPContentDatabase -Name <database name> -Web Application <Web application name>



2. Dismount the new database which is created by detault when the site collection is created.
Dismount-SPContentDatabase "<Db Name>"



3. Run the cmdlet to attach SharePoint 2013 content database to new SharePoint 2016 site collection.
Mount-SPContentDatabase "WSS_Content_Home" -DatabaseServer “IN-SRV05” – WebApplication http://aspl-collab04/


4. The upgrade will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and sometimes even an hour. Once it is completed, you will get a message like below:


5. If your SharePoint site has a customized web solution, then run cmdlet to add SP solution
Add-SPSolution C:\Service.wsp ( Path of wsp solution)



6. After adding SP solution, we need to install this solution to our newly created web application use cmdlet:

Install-SPSolution –Identity Service.wsp –WebApplication   http://aspl-collab04/   –GACDeployment

And there you are! Now open your updated SharePoint site. Like you can see Advaiya’s updated SharePoint site as below: