Migrating Legacy Content into SharePoint 2013

In my most recent client engagement I was tasked with architecting, designing and implementing a SharePoint 2013 build, but the only caveat was that my client wanted to migrate their old legacy file server.

I should feel like my name should be “Migration Dude” as I have been tasked with nothing but SharePoint –related migration work. I am referring to the task of migrating millions of documents from legacy systems into SharePoint 2010/2013. These documents can exist in Wiki’s (which have been hard-coded) to file servers that exist as Linux based to Windows Server 2000/2003/2008. You get the idea.

These days, I am finding that organizations are realizing that there is significant cost savings in leveraging SharePoint as their content management solution as well as ensuring that it is Cloud-based.

I’d like to share some of the Migration Best Practices steps that I have taken over the last couple of years that have helped me along the path to MIGRATION SUCCESS!

End User Impact – SharePoint Migration Servers

Having dedicated hardware that the migration software can exist/live on will help significantly if you have a 24/7/365 customer.  Migration software uses lots of server memory

SQL Server Impact
Heavy performance impacts are noticeable especially when VERBOSE logging is turned on turning a migration. I mean you do want to know what fails and why it failed, right? Ensure that your SQL servers are beefy enough to handle the full amount of throttle you are giving it. Time is money, and migrations are expensive

Resource Metrics - Keep an eye on Performance
Setup counters such as RAM, available disk space, Queue Length ( for the location in which the content databases will reside in). Slowness here is also called Bottle-Necking, which can ultimately affect search and your end-users’ happiness.

Happy Migrating!!!

Gary Arrington is the Cloud Consultant & SharePoint SME for JHC Technology.  He can be reached at garrington(at)jhctechnology.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.