Office365 / SharePoint: A File Migration

FrameworkVictoria Office 365 Users Group

January 2016

Gerry Brimacombe, Lightlever Systems Inc.

Servers (M: K: etc)

DropBox and other sources

Personal Shares

Copy / move

Copy / move

Copy / move

What are we trying to accomplish?

People work here Instead

So What’s the BIG DEAL?• EASY: Move or copy files to SharePoint!• Is it that EASY?• Files from where? Servers, local drives, DropBox, legacy

intranet, email, websites?....• All files or just some?• Just files, or other content?• Are file names compatible? Or desirable (e.g. spaces and other

conventions)?• Are folders too deep? Are we even using folders? [insert two

hour discussion on metadata vs. folders here]• What about changing people’s behaviour?

File Migration – NON TECHNICAL ISSUES• Sheer dumb Volume!• Messy / deep folder structures.• People are busy• Resistance to Change• Network speeds• Setting Metadata

File Migration – TECHNICAL ISSUES• Invalid characters in filenames• Undesirable Spaces in files names• Path or Filename too long• Blocked file types (*.json, *.soap, etc)• Limitations of OneDrive for Business (5k

files per library, 20k total)• File size (SP2013 default 250MB; max

2GB)• Modified dates not migrated

Max Folder Length

250

Max Filename Length

256(128 for SharePoint 2013)

Max Folder+File Length

250

Undesirable Characters

#&*/

{|?\

}~+<

>%`.....

Migration Plan

Approve Plan

Capture File

Listings

Select Subset of

Files

Copy to Staging

Clean Up in

Staging

Move to Share-Point

Set Servers Read-only

Add Metadat

a

File Migration Tips• This will take time!• Must involve the users or becomes GIGO• Create Staging area to allow users to “clean-up”

without impacting day-to-day• Note the date you copied to staging• Delete old versions• Create newer, better, flatter folder structure• Standardize names• Move files in from a number of locations

• Create document libraries, with permissions!• You can often “net use” to map a drive to SharePoint document library, then

xcopy or robocopy work well• Lock down servers, but don’t delete so historical data is there (comfy feeling).

Setting Metadata• Expectations Management: this will be onerous, but

important!• Do not set any metadata as MANDATORY prior to file load.• If using folders with Metadata, can you set defaults by

folder? (Column Default Value Settings)• After loading files, use Quick Edit (datasheet view) to set lots

of data.• Change Metadata to Mandatory as required/desired

Servers (M: K: etc)

DropBox and other sources

Personal Shares

Copy / move

Copy / move

Copy / move

Remember This?

People work here Instead

Servers (M: K: etc)

DropBox and other sources

Staging(temporary)

Personal Shares

Direct copy and updates (if necessary)

copy

move

Clean-up

copy

copy

Here’s one Way

Check/Set Metadata

Migration Tools (Not an exhaustive list, by any means) Tool Pros Cons

EasyFix Tool to rename files SimpleFree

Fairly limited

Drag and Drop in Browser Super EasyFree

Can’t drop foldersLose modified dates

Drag and Drop using Windows Explorer

EasyFree

Lose modified datesHard to capture errors (recopy)100 files at a time

Lightlever Excel-based tool Pretty easyFreeCan capture LogCan rename files

Lose modified datesCan be confusingChallenges with WebDAV connections

ShareGate Lots of power and functionalityQuite User FriendlyRetains modification dates

Annual license (US$4k/year/user)

AvePoint, Metalogix, Metavis, etc.

Super powerfulMany featuresIncremental migrationsetc.

Very ExpensiveCan be complex to set upFeatures we don’t need (migration workflows, etc)

www.lightlever.cagerry@lightlever.ca

BUSINESS ANALYSIS Requirements gathering Business case for cloud IT Improve business processes Evaluate technology

SHAREPOINT SOLUTIONS Corporate portals Document management Custom lists and libraries Electronic forms SharePoint Training

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Develop project plans Run projects efficiently Build project management office Project Management Coaching

Other Content Migration Examples• Contact List• Copy from AD• Copy/Paste in SharePoint• Or Drag and Drop in Outlook

• Policy Manual or Employee Handbook •Word to Wiki in 1 hour• See how to blog post

Demo of Migration Tool• Command prompt file dump• Set variables and transformations• Filter and Sort• Select files / folders to keep• Produce and run command files

File Migration Using Excel Tool• Command Line Directory Listing: Paste into

Excel file migration tool• Tool strips out invalided characters (including

spaces if you want)• Changes to CamelCase, where spaces present.• Shows file and path length• Can filter records by date, size, type,

folder, etc.• Generate Commands • Put commands in Batch file, and run

References• https://

support.office.com/en-ca/article/invalid-characters-in-file-or-folder-names-or-invalid-file-types-in-onedrive-for-business-64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa• https://

support.office.com/en-ca/article/Types-of-files-that-cannot-be-added-to-a-list-or-library-30be234d-e551-4c2a-8de8-f8546ffbf5b3• http://

sharepoint-community.net/profiles/blogs/sharepoint-comparison-matrix-for-3rd-party-migration-tools• http://lightlever.ca/convert-document-to-sharepoint-wiki/