Why Pre-Migration Analysis is Crucial while Migrating Data from File Servers to SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online is a great option for those enterprises that do not want to keep a difficult-to-manage SharePoint Server infrastructure on their premises. This subscription based service eliminates the requirement for heavy capital investment required for on-premises deployment. SharePoint Online, empowered by Microsoft administration and support, has turned out to be a reliable choice for collaborative working, enterprise content management and document management

Considerations before migrating from File Shares to SharePoint Online

When the volume of data that is to be migrated from File Servers to SharePoint Online is small, one can try manual methods for migration. But if the data is large in volume, professional migration tools are highly recommended. Also, there should be a comprehensive pre-migration analysis as SharePoint has many limits and restrictions to its features and facilities. Depending on the subscription plan purchased by the organization, there can be some storage limitations as well.

Pre-migration analysis – why?

Before migrating data to the SharePoint Online, you should have an idea about what your subscription plans offers you. Readers can refer Microsoft sites to know about various subscription plans (plans are different for standalone subscriptions and Office 365 subscriptions). It is essential to choose a plan according to your requirements. Also, SharePoint has set some limits and boundaries on various parameters like number of users supported, storage allocation, file-size limits etc. We will go through some of the important limits and boundaries that are to be considered while migrating File Server Data to SharePoint Online. These limits and restrictions are related to:

• Total size of (shared) data on File Servers

• Capacity per site collection

• Number of files

• Number of items limit in the Document Library

• File size

• URL length

• File names with invalid characters

• File names with invalid end strings

• Blocked file extensions

SharePoint Limits and Boundaries

Here, we will discuss the limits and boundaries in SharePoint. However, refer to Microsoft sites for the exact values of these limits and boundaries.

• Storage base per tenant

SharePoint Online storage capability varies according to the subscription plan and type of subscription (stand-alone or as part of Office 365 suite). You can find the total available storage by calculating the ‘Storage base per tenant.’ If you have to move more data than that is available on your plan, you essentially have to purchase additional storage. Generally, there is no limit to the additional storage you can purchase. So you can purchase it according to the requirement. To save space, it is recommended to move only the shared data from File Servers to SharePoint.

Note: It is a not wise to move unused content to SharePoint. You can purge them or store them to separate storage device before the migration. It will be reduce the total size of data to be migrated.

• Site collection storage limit

This is the storage capacity per site collection. Its value is limited in SharePoint online (usually 100 GB). To overcome this limitation, you can save the content on multiple site collections. Also, you can think of moving some content to personal user site if the contest is meant for personal use only.

• List view threshold limit

In SharePoint, there is a limit to the number of items per folder, view, or query. Its value (usually 5000) is dependent on SQL Server (as SharePoint is dependent on SQL Server). When this limit is crossed, most of the list and library operations are blocked. The number of items that you can sync in site libraries (including files, and folders) is also limited. So you need to be careful when you perform migration. If you have more than 5000 items for migration, it is suggested to create subfolders, or to create multiple views.

• Number of items in the Document Library

Value of this limit is pretty much higher (usually 5 million items possible in Document Library). So SharePoint users need not be worried much about the number of items they are migrating to the Document Library.

• File size limit

There is a limit to the maximum size possible for SharePoint files. If the size of your file is greater than this limit, you cannot migrate it to the SharePoint - you have to use some storage devices to store it.

• URL length

Lengthy URLs are not supported by SharePoint (longer than 260 characters). So keep site URLs shorter and keep the document names short to avoid issues during the File Server to SharePoint migration.

• File names with invalid characters

Some characters are invalid in SharePoint for file names. Invalid characters are ~, #, %, &, *, {, }, \, :, <, >, ?, /, +, |, ”, /t and ,. Before migration, one needs to ensure that names of files with invalid characters are changed.

• File names with invalid end strings

Some file name end strings are invalid in SharePoint. They are .files, _files, _dateien, _fichiers, _bestanden, _file, _archivos, -filer, _tiedostot, _pliki, _soubory, _elemei, _ficherios, _arquivos, _dosyalar, _datoteke, _fitxers, _failid, _fails, _bylos, _fajlovi, and _fitxategiak. Before migration, make sure that file names with illegal endings are changed.

• Blocked file extensions

SharePoint Online is very particular about file types. It is best to store MS office and PDF files. There are may file extensions that are not supported by SharePoint. Also, you cannot store developer codes in SharePoint Online. You need to think of alternative storages for these file extensions and developer codes. File extensions blocked by SharePoint Online are ade, adp, app, asa, ashx, asmx, asp, bas, bat, cdx, cer, chm, class, cmd, cnt, com, config, cpl, crt, csh, der, dll, exe, fxp, gadget, grp, hlp, hpj, hta, htr, htw, ida, idc, idq, ins, isp, its, jse, ksh, lnk, mad, maf, mag, mam, maq, mar, mas, mat, mau, mav, maw, mcf, mda, mdb, mde, mdt, mdw, mdz, msc, msh, msh1, msh1xml, msh2, msh2xml, mshxml, msi, msp, mst, ops, pcd, pif, pl, prf, prg, printer, ps1, ps1xml, ps2, ps2xml, psc1, psc2, pst, reg, rem, scf, scr, sct, shb, shs, shtm, shtml, soap, stm, svc, url, vb, vbe, vbs, ws, wsc, wsf, and wsh.

Pre-migration analysis using File Server to SharePoint migration tools

Many professional tools for File Server to SharePoint migration provide facilities for pre-migration analysis. These tools usually allows to check for possible issues by various criteria like presence of invalid characters in name, names ending with strings, file name length, file path length, file size limitation, blocked file extensions etc. After the analysis, they provide detailed reports as well. Such a pre-migration analysis helps users to be aware of imminent troubles in advance.

Blog Summary

A pre-migration analysis is essential to foresee the possible issues in a File Server to SharePoint migration. This analysis can be skipped while migrating small volumes of data. However, with large volumes of data, pre-migration analysis using professional File Server to SharePoint migration tool is very essential as they automate the analysis and provide comprehensive analysis reports.

by Satyendra Tiwari via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community