Forum Discussion
What is the best practices to migrate SharePoint farm solution to SharePoint online?
What is the best practices to migrate SharePoint farm solution to SharePoint online?
As I have a SharePoint On prim which contains farm solution and we need to migrate it with data to SharePoint online.
6 Replies
Farm solutions aren't supported in SharePoint Online, and so any existing solutions will need to be rebuilt using supported tools. What that exact path is will be determined by what components are in the solution. For example, instead of server side web parts, we now have App Parts, SPFx, or PowerApps, Instead of timer jobs, we can now use Flow, PowerShell, or Azure Functions. Instead of event receivers, we now have webhooks, etc. The new tools are compelling, but the transition is not simple or trivial. As the others have noted, there's not enough info to provide specific guidance, so feel free to add details about what specifically the solution is doing. Or, check out the migration docs, as noted in another post, and check out the dev documention: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/SharePoint/
let's say that I have some artifacts like
Lists
Views
Workflow
Web Parts or Forms of Content query web Parts
Reports
Managed Metadata
Pages
Data Migration
and currently it exists on SharePoint 2013 and we want to migrate it to SharePoint online
- For documents, we can either migrate manually or use a tool. Manually means to use one of the available methods for simply copying the files up, such as dragging/dropping files into a library, or using the sync tools. For a few libraries, this is fine. For larger migrations, most prefer to use a tool. MS just released a new tool, the aptly named SharePoint Migration Tool. This is new, so while it supports basic scenarios, you'll need to test it to see if it meets your needs. It should handle the basics, such as moving lists, libraries, and pages. Otherwise, there are several, robust, 3rd party tools on the market.The CQWP should migrate fine as content of a page, as long as the fields it references and other supporting files it uses are there.Managed Metadata is more problematic, as if terms are simply copied manually the IDs will be different between the environments. This will need either PowerShell or a 3rd party tool.Workflows can also be tricky. If it's a small number of simple workflows, it's easiest to just recreate them in the cloud. For larger scenarios, the 3rd party tools are helpful.As noted before, server-side web parts will not migrate. If you need the functionality, they will need to be rebuilt using available tools.If by reports, you mean SQL Reporting Services, there is no Office 365 version of this tool. You'll need to either continue using SSRS on-prem, install it on an Azure VM, or move to a different tool for reporting, such as Power BI, and rebuild your reports.All that to say it's still difficult to give specific advice. If it's one small site, just move things manually, and recreate the things that can't be moved. (And some people see the new functionality available in the new Modern sites and decide that they don't want to migrate as-is anyway, and choose to do a manual migration of selected content to these new sites). Otherwise, check into a migration tool, such as ShareGate, which will handle the more difficult aspects such as metadata and workflows, in addition to content.
- If you mean a Full-Trust Solution (aka a WSP), there is no way to migrate Farm Solutions to SPO. You will have to rebuild all your staff so basically you will map every piece of functionality in your solution with the way of doing it in SPO
- That’s a huge question to answer in one go here! Suggest you breakdown the problem into manageable chunks. Is your org already on Office 365? Do you plan to be all in to the cloud or hybrid? What version of SharePoint are you using today? Microsoft provides some assistance with Fast Track but depending on complexity you may need a partner to support you. Not enough information here to really offer assistance more than this. Start by looking at the official Microsoft resources. Remember going to SharePoint Online involves Office 365! Good luck.
Hi Mohammad!
Short answer is "It depends". There are third party tools that you can use and the main key is analysis of current environment and a whole lot of planning in advance. I recommend you to start by reading this article "Migrate to SharePoint Online" and the proceed from there.
Best regards, Magnus
