Movebot Blog | Data Migration Tool

SharePoint to Egnyte Migrations | Movebot - Data Migration Tool

Written by Dallen Clark | 4/28/24 10:58 PM

Moving files out of SharePoint isn't straightforward with a lot of migration tools. Typically, you'd be stuck with major limitations, slow speeds, and difficulties just getting the data out.

Movebot changes all of that. 

With fast and simple setup and no infrastructure to worry about, Movebot simplifies migrations out of SharePoint. One common one we deal with is SharePoint to Egnyte migrations, where organizations need to move some or all of their files out of a SharePoint site. This is no problem with Movebot--move everything or isolate just the files you actually need and move them into your Egnyte account, with a number of features to make sure everything arrives as expected. 

 

Preparing to migrate from SharePoint to Egnyte

When moving files from SharePoint to Egnyte, Movebot will automatically handle many of the technical aspects for you, with features like automatic filename sanitization and deduplication. However, if you want to prepare the data beforehand, there are a few things to keep in mind so that your files will move successfully into Egnyte. 

 

Folder and file name Limitations

In SharePoint, there are hard limits on folder characteristics that are platform limitations that can't be circumvented. One of these is that Sharepoint has a maximum limit of 50,000 items for any shared folder or sub-folder. Egnyte also has a 50,000 file limit for immediate children. However, should you try to move more than the 50k limit into SharePoint, it simply won't work. In Movebot, you'll get a notification about approaching this limit, and you'll need to reorganize where some of the data is moved if you need those files moved across. 

Another potential issue is file names. Fortunately, SharePoint and Egnyte both have the same unsupported characters, so any file names in SharePoint shouldn't be an issue for Egnyte. However, there are some unique cases in Egnyte where a very specific name or format won't be allowed. For example, one of these is PDF temp files that start with aa and then another letter and 5 numbers, such as aai49013. While most of these are highly specific, there is still a possibility that these could be in the SharePoint site and would have an issue when trying to move them into Egnyte. 

 

Timestamps

Egnyte uses timestamps as a way of checking file suitability, and there are a few situations where this can be an issue. On the Egnyte Unsupported Characters and File Types Page, they directly mention how files with a future or ancient timestamp (giving the example of the year 1601) won't be able to be uploaded into Egnyte. While likely not an issue with a SharePoint to Egnyte migration, there are some cases where files end up with no timestamp, which can also result in a file migration issue. 

 

File Size Limits

Like many migration platforms, SharePoint has a maximum file size limit of 250GB. This is one place where there could be a potential problem due to Egnyte's platform limit. In Egnyte, the maximum file size for a single file is 100GB. Since SharePoint has a much larger limit, there's the possibility that you may have some of these larger files in your site. Since this is a platform limit there's no way around this on any of Egnyte's standard platform plans. 

 

SharePoint to Egnyte Migrations with Movebot

Looking for an easy way to migrate from SharePoint to Egnyte? Movebot takes care of most issues for you automatically, with several checkpoints to make sure that all your files move over successfully. 

 

Connect your accounts

The first step in the migration is to connect your accounts. For SharePoint, start by creating a new connection in Movebot. Choose Sharepoint/Onedrive as your connection, and follow the structure and prompts in Movebot. We recommend choosing the delegated access option for a faster connection, but you also have the choice to connect by application by providing the Tenant Domain and Application Client ID & Client Secret. Make sure to have Movebot test that the connection is successful before using it for a migration. 

You'll follow a similar process for Engyte. Setup a new connection and choose Egnyte as your storage type. Name your connection and put in your domain, (the bolded part of https://yourdomain.egnyte.com) and link your account to Movebot. Test the connection and then you can start using it for migrations. 

 

Create a project

With your connections set up, you can start setting up your migration. Create a new project and choose the connections you made above. 

Part of the project setup is the option to move permissions and modify content. Movebot supports permission preservation between SharePoint and Egnyte, although we recommend remaking permissions in Egnyte if possible, as a migration is a good opportunity to review existing permissions and make sure they are all valid. 

In the content options section, you'll have several options that you can use to help transform your files while they are being moved into Egnyte. This is one of the major advantages of Movebot. You have the option to use filename sanitization, doctype conversion, preserve modtimes, and more. While we think these options are extremely helpful, they also aren't forced on you; you can turn on and off specific content options depending on the requirements of your specific project. 

After setting the content options, the final part of the initial project setup lets you choose some final settings like requiring scan review and picking a geographic region. You can also enable email notifications and choose a specific email address to receive important migration updates. Update these settings to fit your needs and then you can move on to setting up transfers. 

 

Setting up transfers

In Movebot, a project connects a specific source and destination, while a transfer is a specific move from that source to the destination, a transfer from Engyte to SharePoint in this instance. 

Transfers are one of the major benefits of Movebot that set it apart from other migration tools. Typically, migration tools take all the files at the source and move them all to the destination in one go. While Movebot supports this kind of full org migration, you aren't restricted to moving everything at once, or even at all. 

Transfers can be set all the way down to the folder level, meaning you can choose one specific folder anywhere on your SharePoint site and move that into Egnyte if you want to. This kind of granularity gives several benefits. For one, you can start by moving specific folders first, such as the most important or most used folders, into Egnyte. This can help with adopting the new storage platform, as you can get the current and in-use files moved first while other files transfer in the background. 

And because of the way that Movebot handles delta migrations, users don't even have to stop working in SharePoint while the migration is active. They can continue business as usual while Movebot handles the migration behind the scenes, using delta migrations that only move new and updated files into the destination so any modifications and file updates can get moved over until everything in Egnyte is up to date. 

Another advantage of being able to set transfers down to the folder level is that you don't have to move all the files. Have old, outdated, or unused files that you know you don't need? Then leave them behind. Movebot's filter options let you include or exclude specific files based on attributes like filename, type, and creation date so you can move only what you need. You can also split moves between different platforms. For instance, in one project you can move important files from SharePoint to Egnyte, while in another you can move files you don't actively use but still need from SharePoint into an archival storage platform. 

Move only the files you need and move them fast with Movebot. 

 

Discovery Scan

Another benefit of Movebot is the Discovery Scan capability. This step is optional but we highly recommend doing it so that you can check for any potential issues between your SharePoint and Egnyte setup before you move any files. The scan will address anything that could be a problem and provides you with a report so you can decide how to handle them. Many of these issues Movebot can handle automatically, and in these cases the scan will simply notify you of what will happen so you can go into the project without surprises. 

 

Running the migration

With everything set up, you can start moving files. For the migration, SharePoint rate limiting will likely be the main speed limiter. You'll typically see speeds of about 1TB per day per service account, but this can vary depending on the size and number of files, with the number being the main blocker. This means that few large files will move much faster than a lot of smaller files. 

When the migration is finished, you'll get a post-migration report highlighting how long the migration took and other information like any files that couldn't transfer and the reason why. From there you can run delta migrations as many times as you need to until all the files are in Egnyte and up to date. 

 

Simplify your SharePoint to Egnyte migrations and try Movebot

Movebot makes SharePoint to Egnyte migrations easy, taking the complications out of the move. With high speeds, options to move only what you need, and content transformation features, you have full control of what data you move, while Movebot handles the rest. 

If you want to see how simple this migration is for yourself, sign up for Movebot and give it a try. Each new account gets 250GB of free data to move, so you can test moving files and even do entire small migrations at no cost. There's no credit card or onboarding required either; simply sign up, make your connections, and start moving. Register for your account now to get started.