Introduction
Hi guys, today I present to you the most FAQs asked in my experience while doing some kind of SharePoint Migrations using ShareGate as a tool. The below QnAs will help make you familiar with and make the best choices while you are performing ShareGate Migration operations.
Can we migrate calculated columns?
Yes, they are supported but they cannot contain volatile functions, such as 'Today' and 'Me'. More details
here. You can migrate site columns following the steps outlined
here.
What about Custom Content types?
Sharegate supports the migration of any content types that are SharePoint default content types. We can't guarantee that the content types will work at the destination if there are any third-party add-ons.
What about SPD Workflows?
They are supported but the workflow status, history, and tasks are not supported. More details
here
What about Customized InfoPath forms?
If the forms were built in SharePoint Designer, we should support this. If the forms have been edited after, there is a chance this is not supported. By default, we don't support any forms with customized scripts.
What about Lists with threshold limitations?
We have the same limitation as SharePoint. If you are migrating list items to a list with 5000+ items, you will likely get a warning about this. You have to make sure that the destination list respects the list view threshold.
More details here.
Should we List or Lookup columns?
If you are wondering if we support the migration of look-up columns, the answer is yes. In order for it to migrate correctly, it must refer to a list column that exists. More details
here.
What about custom solutions?
Custom solutions are unlikely supported by our tool, but you can try to migrate them and deploy them at the destination. Sharegate does not give any warranty or support for custom solutions
How do I show the features available in 2010, but not in 2013?
Deprecated features are not supported. While doing a migration or a pre-check migration, you will have an
error to warn you that this feature is not available at the destination
What is the throughput time limit? How much Gb/time per-user access?
There are many factors for the migration speed. It depends on the size of your migration, the type of files (larger files and more versions would slow up the migration), your environment, etc. In order to speed up the migration, we have developed Insane Mode, available for on-premises and Office 365 migration. More details
here for on-premises migration and
here for Office 365.
Is Delta migration possible?
Delta migration is what we call here at Sharegate, Incremental Copy. This is supported for Site Objects or specific content that can be filtered by date. More details here
Will the Web parts be jumbled after migration? If so, how do I handle this?
Web parts will be migrated by selecting the Web parts as the elements to be copied using Copy Site Objects. However, custom web parts with third parties (if any) are unlikely to work, since they will show as-is at the destination, and will need to be jumbled.
Can I have the complete migration user manual sent to my email or available to download?
We don't have a user manual per se, but we have complete documentation, blogs and video tutorial on the website under Resources on our
main page
Finally, we offer a 15 days trial, so you can see if Sharegate will fit your requirements. If you want to detect possible copy problems and adopt some of the best practices to ensure that your copy run as smooth as possible, you can run a pre-check migration. See more details
here.
Should we handle any post-migration activities such as UI development, customized developed activities, recreation, etc.?
Yes. For anything related to the look & feel and customized development, Sharegate is limited in what we can migrate, so the general idea is to test them out first and see what breaks after the migration. You will then get an idea of what migrates correctly or not. You can learn more about the limitations here:
http://help.share-gate.com/category/600-category
Will there be challenges or problems with site definition?
When copying an entire site, Sharegate does not automatically copy master pages and page layouts. The reason for this is that master pages and page layouts will not work as-is if they are migrated from one version of SharePoint to another. Unfortunately, Sharegate does not support updating them so that they work in the new version of SharePoint.
Additionally, any customization to .XML files is not supported. Again, they should be tested before being migrated.
If the solutions are customized, .aspx pages are not being migrated. How should we handle this?
Could you compare your Sharegate tool with other migration tools like Metalogix, Quest, etc. and let me know what are the best features to pick this as the final one?
This is hard to answer without more context on your project. The best thing would be to schedule a call with one of my colleagues to get a better idea of the benefits of using Sharegate for your specific case.
With that being said, compared to other solutions, Sharegate has unlimited data migration, is a lot more simpler to manage/set up and comes with unlimited support & updates. All this at a much more affordable cost than any other solutions :-)
What’s the cost of each license? Can it be used by multiple users, mostly 3 – 4 members on my team in total.
Again, this is a bit hard to answer without a deeper understanding of your project. Sharegate comes in a few versions which address different needs. I'll have one of my colleagues reach out to discuss your needs and figure out the cost.
Can we migrate custom workflows, Nintex workflows, SP Designer workflows, VS workflows, etc. using this tool or not?
Out-of-the-box Sharepoint workflows, SP Designer workflows and Nintex workflows (we are the only recommended solution to migrate Nintex forms and workflows) can be migrated with Sharegate. 3rd party workflows should be tested first since they are not supported with Sharegate.
What about Event receivers, event handlers, timer jobs, etc.?
User alerts can be migrated. Please note that because of certain limitations in Sharepoint, user alerts migration from or to a SharePoint 2003 server or Office 365 is not supported. Timer jobs reside in the central administration and Sharegate doesn't migrate data from the central administration.
I hope this is clear, if not, let me know! In the meanwhile, one of my colleague will reach out to discuss questions 4 and 5. By better understanding your goals, they will be able to answer them.
What is the through put allowed? Volume of content – How many GB of data can it handle to migrate from 2010 to 2013 AND 2010 to O365?
Sharegate can migrate any amount of volume for migration. The only question is going to be the time that it's going to take for everything to migrate. There isn't a cap within Sharegate on how much you can copy.
Is the same license sufficient for 2010 to 2013 migration and 2010 to O365 migration? If different please provide me the details in detail.
Yes, Sharegate's tool will allow you to migrate from SP 2010 to any other version, no matter what type of license you hold :)!
Can we migrate the whole structure as it is from Web app, Site collection, Site elements, and content databases. Please provide me with the order of migration.
My suggestion is to create your empty Web App at the destination manually. Sharegate can't create the entire web app itself. Once it's created, you can use Copy Site Object and move the entire Site Collection in one migration. We will migrate all the subsites under it and bring all the data from lists/libraries in the environment. Sharegate doesn't touch any databases though, but as we migrate an item that stores information within the Content Database, we will tell Sharegate to update the current Content Database at the destination with the information from the file. So, if you want to migrate an entire Web App, here are the steps:
- Use Copy Site Objects to connect to your Web App level at your source and the Web App you want to populate at destination.
- Use the "Select All" button to select all your Site Collections from your Web App and press Copy, changing any settings that you might require, but otherwise you can leave the default settings and start the migration.
And that's it, we'll migrate everything :)!
- How many web apps are allowed to get migrated in a day?
Same as with volume, Sharegate doesn't limit the amount of web apps you can migrate. You could migrate the data from 200 different web apps if you wish, the application will not limit you in any way.
- Any limitation of migrations?
AND
Can we also migrate customized solutions as mentioned below along with the content migration,
-OOTB
-JS/CSS
-Tool based customizations(Infopath/SPD/Nintex)
-Custom Solutions(Farm solutions/Admin related templates)
Can we identify them if they're unable to be migrated?
There are a few things that Sharegate can't migrate, like .aspx pages that would be stored at the root and any custom scripts, explaining why I merged those 2 questions together. Sharegate doesn't modify the content of items being migrated, so custom scripts might not function at the destination afterward. OOTB items will be migrated, but we can't make sure that the script will be still safe, while completely customized solutions will not be migrated at all. Any third-party or personalized solutions will have to created or available at destination prior to migration, in order for Sharegate to be able to grab the features during migration.
What’s the difference between Content DB migrations from SP2010 to 2013 compared to Sharegate migration from 2010 to 2013?
The difference is that the Content Database migration will bring your metadata over and some of the file data, but Sharegate migrates your data in its totality as well as the structure of your environment, not just the data.
Have a Great ShareGate Migration Everybody :)