Windows Server 2022 is full of new file services!

Looks like option 2 matches my needs. Let me give you one scenario I worked on.

I could describe more similar scenarios but that would be converting your comment section into a KB 😛

Case 1 : Bob the fat file server.

Bob is ten-ish year old. Bob holds 6+ To of data, including application, user and office data. No one care for Bob, yet everyone knows if Bob fails, the company halts.

So I'm moving Bob's data over newly build file servers. I wish to separate user data, application data, office data (one file server being dedicated to one type of data only). I build and apply a brand new delegation model (including file directories and permissions) on those new file servers and their new shares. And I check with my customer what to move and where.

If I'm very lucky, I just need to copy the content of one of Bob's share to a newly created share. If I'm not (and most of the time, I'm not), I need to copy a part of a share (like a single or multiple, specific folders) to another share : by example, user data being mixed with application data, customer wishing to isolate sensitive data to a dedicated share, etc.

In both case I likely do not wish to copy ACL because the destination has already been pre-configured : I put my trust in my delegation model.

TL;DR : during most of my file migration scenario, it is not enough to work on volume/share level, I frequently need to work on a folder level to be able to reorganize data. Also, it is likely I do not want to retain ACL because I'm also implementing a new delegation model.

Robocopy is able to do that, not SMS (yet). Thus my question.

By the way, thanks a lot for taking some of your very precious time to gather feedback from us IT pros. This is very, very much appreciated.