How it works

SMART Migration for Teams

The concept is centered around 1 Team

This team is the central point of collaboration that connects all people that are part of the migration project.

To the SharePoint site associated with the Team are added a number of Lists and Libraries that in combination with SMART Migration enables the MS Teams based SMART Migration process.

The migration process

The library “Model” contains the content-type “SMART Migration Job” (inherited from Folder). This special folder is where Discovery, PreMigration, Migration and Validation actions are defined.

Key concept within the Model document Library: The files to migrate are created inside the Model document library in a “SMART Migration Job” folder as empty FileProxy document library items (Discovery). The FileProxy is a representation for the real file. It is an empty file that stores the real file’s properties and location. It is decoupled from the real file and you may copy/move to other folder, rename and set metadata and content-type as you please. When the migration happens the FileProxy’s properties (name, content-type etc.) is combined with the real file’s binary content and a complete document library item is created in the destination.

So essentially you create a “SMART Migration Job” (basically a folder) and specify the action you want.

When you have only 1 «content owner» (group of people owning/managing all the documents) this site is the center for the migration modeling and deployment process.

When you have multiple «content owners» (groups of people owning/managing subsets of documents) that may not see each others content (filenames, metadata and folder structure) then you create a private or shared Channel in the Team and add the people who has the content ownership of a particular set of files. Each channel’s associated site collection serves as the center for the migration modeling and deployment process for that group of people («content owner») and that particular set of files.
Note that the list and library enrichment needed to support Migration Modeling is automatically applied to the new channel site the first time it is being referenced from SMART Migration. Also, when you make changes to the main channel site then you have the option to apply those changes to any private/shared channel.

Key characteristics to know
  • The setup is hosted in Teams in the M365 migration destination tenant. A separate version may become availably for SharePoint SE destination support. Contact sales for status.
  • The content SOURCE can be FileShare and any version of SharePoint: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016,2019, SE, SharePoint Online (M365)
  • The files to migrate are created inside the Model document library in a “SMART Migration Job” folder as empty FileProxy document library items (Discovery).
  • You may define as many Job folders as you like to build new structures based on the FileProxy files.
  • SMART Migration Jobs may contain FileProxy’s from multiple different locations. Eg. FileProxies from multiple FileShares combined with FileProxies form multiple different SharePoint libraries even across multiple M365 tenants and SharePoint on-prem servers.
  • You may copy/move FileProxy files around within the Model library to redesign the structure of the migration end result visually.
  • You may create and delete folders. Also, you may create folders outside of the job scopes where you can store FileProxies or copies for later review
  • You may rename files and set metadata like content-type etc.
  • When you want to remove a file that should not be part of the migration it is recommended to move it to a designated “home made recycle bin folder” outside of the job. You may also delete the file but when you run the discovery again to detect new files the delete file will be recreated a s FileProxy
  • Incremental job: when you rerun the Discovery, any file from the source that do not exist globally within the Model library is created as FileProxy in the original folder structure under det Job item
  • Metadata columns from the Model library are automatically mapped to the destination library. So, having a column named [MyColumn] in the Model library as well at in the destination the the value will be automatically transferred. This is also true during Discovery from a SharePoint location
  • Using [Metadata Mapping] and [Source Metadata Mapping] You can map one column to the other [MyDestinationCol]=[MyMolelCol].This is also true during Discovery.
  • In [Metadata Mapping] and [Source Metadata Mapping] you may specify constant values. This is also true during Discovery.
    [MyCol]=123
  • When migrating FROM SharePoint you need a SharePoint connection. You can have as many connections you like for different tenants/sites or on-prem server/sites. The source/destination url does NOT have to match any connection 100%. The connection is chosen based on best match of the beginning of the URL. So if you have a connection URL like this https://abc.sharepoint.com/sites/xyz then any source or destination URL matching the beginning of this URL will use this connection and it’s authentication information..
    In the MS Teams module you find the “Default SharePoint source files” connection that is just a pre-created connection you can use.
  • You do NOT need tenant wide admin permission consent to any connection*. Only what is at a bare minimum for your required access.
Last modified: 14 December 2023