File Server Migration to SharePoint Online

Copper Contributor

 We aim to migrate our file server to SharePoint Online and we have the following concerns:

1. which SharePoint site is recommended as a destination of the migration process "communication site" or "Teams site"

2. we have duplicated files on the file server and we enabled windows de-duplication to shrink the total size, now if we start the migration process to SharePoint Online, does the SharePoint online understand the de-duplication or it will extract the duplicated files and thus, the total size will increase?

3. can we migrate only the folders hierarchy without the files?

4. the total size available for the SharePoint Online is 3.75 TB, what will happen if this space is fully consumed. will it automatically expand to 25TB?

5. what is the recommended scenario to be chosen, create SharePoint Site for each department or have one SharePoint Site for all departments and assign each department a separate document library?

2 Replies

Hi @Jehad_Abu_Sultan ,

 

1. I always split file server files into the business teams which then use a Team site template. Communication site template is more for your Intranets or portals  so less relevant for file share migrations but there may be requirements for it.  So the answer is it depends on how you will be using the sites. 

 

2. Depends what you copy in, SharePoint Online doesn't know about anything on your file server. If you use a migration tool whatever the tool copies across will exist in SharePoint. 

 

3. Potentially something you could do with a Migration tool but not attempted it my self.

 

 

4. If you only have 3.75 TB of space available then you will not be able to make any edits to files or additions to folders when you hit that limit.  You will need to delete content or buy more space. 

 

5. I always split the content into published content(Intranet) and Team content(business team). You then have an information architecture to get from your Intranet to the Team sites. Each business Team would normally have a Team site in SharePoint. Departments can be either Intranet or Team site or both dependant on how users in departments work together. 

 

@Jehad_Abu_Sultan  - edited to include answers. 

 

@Andrew Hodges 

thanks for your reply. what about the the last two questions (4 & 5)