Once you’ve set your users up with Office 365, and made it easy and seamless for them to log in to it, you’ll want to start making files and documents accessible to them from anywhere.
A quick and easy way to do this is by migrating documents to SharePoint Online using the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT). The SPMT will automatically upgrade documents from on-prem SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint Online. With the right settings, existing file permissions and structures will be maintained, making a smooth transition from your existing file server to SharePoint Online.
Install and Configure SharePoint Migration Tool
Download the SPMT from Microsoft and install it on a domain-joined computer. Then, you can run the tool and enter your Office 365 credentials when prompted.
Next, you’ll be asked to enter the location of the file share that will be the source for the files to be uploaded to Office 365, as well as the URL for the SharePoint Online site where your files are headed. Then, select a document library to house the documents once they’re uploaded, and click Add to create the migration job.
You can repeat these steps as many times as you’d like in order to create multiple upload jobs. Once you’re done creating jobs and are ready to upload, hit the Migrate button.
Users and Permissions
If you have your domain users synced to Office 365, then by default, user file permissions are migrated to SharePoint Online automatically. However, SharePoint permissions aren’t quite as complex as Windows ACLs, so the migration tool will only be able to migrate some permissions from file shares to SPO.
The migration tool will map Write permissions to a file in the file share to Contributor permissions in SharePoint, and Read permissions to Read permissions. Anything more complicated than that, like explicit Deny permissions, will not be migrated and would need to be set up in a different way once the files are migrated.
Monitoring, Clean-up and Next Steps
After an upload job, you’ll want to make sure that all of the documents that you uploaded actually made it. Things like invalid characters, too-long file names, and permissions issues may cause some files to be skipped. You can use Detailed Task Reports to see if there were any problems with your upload.
On the migration job screen, click the down arrow underneath any migration job, and select “View Task Report”. A folder with several CSV files will open. These will show you a detailed status report for each migration job.
After you submit a migration task, you will be asked if you would like to save the task for future incremental runs. It’s a good idea to click Yes here, since you can then re-run the job later on. This will migrate any changes that were made to the folder after the initial upload. For example, a user may forget to use SharePoint instead of the folder share to edit a document. You’ll be able to migrate the changed document (and remind your users to go to the right place).
With Office 365 SharePoint Online, your users will be able to see and edit their documents from anywhere. And the SharePoint Migration Tool will help you to be able to move all of your important documents to the cloud simply and easily.
If you need help with your cloud migration, contact E-N Computers today. E-N Computers is a leading provider of cloud-based business solutions in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Our Office 365 experts can help you to migrate to SharePoint Online, giving your business the flexibility it needs.
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