Forum Discussion
Mapping File Share On Premise to SharePoint
I have a file server on On Premise (not published internet), currently the file server is mapped on the user's laptop file explorer so that users can access data when inside the office network. Users need to use VPN to access data on the file server when outside the office network.
My question is, can the file server data be mapped into SharePoint?
Please advice, thank you.
Hi IrvanR
no it's not possible, M365 is a cloud technology, on-premises is only in your network, SharePoint Online can't map to your, not published, environment...
When users need access to on-premises data, you need a VPN configuration, or solutions with SharePoint Online:
- Migrate your data to SharePoint Online
- Copy data periodic from on-premises to M365 (with tools or PowerShell)
- Add on-premises data to M365 search (only search)
Best, Dave
2 Replies
This is possible as I guess you are referring to SharePoint Server, since you have not written SharePoint Online.
Options you’ll have is to add an external data source in SharePoint Server and configure access to file share.
If you need those files to be accessible in SharePoint Online, then the right path is to migrate files to e.g. Teams using SharePoint Online storage and make sure to outline a suitable migration path.
I have done several migrations for customers and this involves investigation (sizes, last access, unsupported paths etc.), data responsible resources and more before files can be migrated. Not forgetting user adoption to OneDrive for Business/Teams/SPO.
Based on my work, I have developed a framework we’re using and shared with our project teams.
Best of all using SPO is that you can drop VPN and files are actually more secure compared to a file share on-premise.
Hi IrvanR
no it's not possible, M365 is a cloud technology, on-premises is only in your network, SharePoint Online can't map to your, not published, environment...
When users need access to on-premises data, you need a VPN configuration, or solutions with SharePoint Online:
- Migrate your data to SharePoint Online
- Copy data periodic from on-premises to M365 (with tools or PowerShell)
- Add on-premises data to M365 search (only search)
Best, Dave
