Trouble-Free Migration from eroom to SharePoint OVERVIEW Basics 1 What Are the Considerations When Performing a Migration? 1 Migration According to the YADA Method 3 With YADA: Fast, Cost-Efficient, Trouble-Free Migration 6 Basics For most eroom users, there are few benefits in changing their collaboration platform. Nonetheless, there may be compelling reasons that make migration necessary. It goes without saying that the most important goals of a migration are to: Completely transfer the actual data Retain the context in which the data was processed to the greatest possible extent Ensure that the rooms continue to be accessible on the target system However, a one-to-one transfer of the rooms is not always possible since eroom includes functions that are not found in SharePoint. It is first necessary to understand the functional differences between the two platforms and to perform a thorough analysis of the erooms, the eroom functions used in them, and the included data in order to select the best strategy and procedure for transferring all important data and to carry out migration with minimum interruption to daily operations. It is especially important to do this when dealing with large quantities of data. You can ensure reliable, trouble-free migration by using YADA s tools and best practices, which are based on years of experience with eroom. What Are the Considerations When Performing a Migration? Differences between eroom and SharePoint Both platforms consist of digital rooms used for performing shared work or for discussing company topics. All required documents, comments, and suchlike can be stored in these rooms. Only registered and authorized users have access. Thus far, both platforms are identical. Therefore, entire rooms along with their content could theoretically be transferred to SharePoint from eroom, including the associated directories and the room-specific security settings and access authorizations. This applies to both the files contained in the erooms and elements such as notes and comments, links, calendars, project plans, and surveys. Handling eroom databases is more challenging. Simple two-dimensional lists can also be transferred as long as the cell content consists only of text or a file. However, the more complex eroom database functions pose problems. For example, each eroom database cell is a container into which all available eroom elements can in turn be placed, for example, even an entire file directory. Unfortunately, these legacy elements cannot be mapped in SharePoint. 2697 1
It is also not possible to combine multiple databases from various erooms (enterprise databases) in SharePoint. However, the container concept as described above exists not only in eroom databases, but also in other functions, such as the calendar. Of course, it is always possible to transfer files, but contextual information that is contained in such constructs must be represented differently in SharePoint. Thus, this information can be transferred manually only, and not automatically. There are other differences that require special treatment: room size restrictions, special characters, certain file formats, workflow databases, and eroom inboxes. In addition, migrating discussions is possible to a limited extent only. Therefore, the individual erooms must be analyzed accordingly in order to determine the extent to which an automatic transfer is possible and to identify where other actions must be taken. Migrate, Archive, or Delete? Experience has shown that many erooms are often opened temporarily for a specific purpose only and are no longer used afterwards. Similarly, they may contain data that is no longer needed. This can add up to a substantial volume of unneeded data after a few years and it should be deleted before performing a migration. For example, a large company in the communications industry initially had 12,600 rooms to be migrated. It was able to pare down that number to 2,000, which not only greatly expedited the actual migration, but this action also save six terabytes of disk space. Likewise, there are also rooms that are no longer needed for collaborative purposes, but they still contain data that must be retained for compliance-related reasons or for other reasons. These rooms do not have to be migrated to SharePoint, but they should be archived in the process. YADA has developed tools for archiving such rooms in XML format and viewing them again for consultation purposes in a manner similar to the usual eroom mapping. Thus, only operational rooms that are really used actually have to be migrated to SharePoint. Nothing else does. This saves disk space and licensing costs, and it also greatly reduces the workload when migrating data. However, an eroom should never be permanently deleted without the official approval of the responsible user. This also requires setting up good administrative procedures. User participation and responsibility eroom migration is not possible without the participation of the users and the persons responsible for the respective erooms. Ultimately, only they can decide which data should be migrated, archived, or deleted. Furthermore, erooms that cannot be automatically migrated may require manual intervention. Users must be informed and properly instructed about this. Communication must be correct. The overall process for all activities must be centrally coordinated and monitored, and it must be performed in a manner that can be logged and verified. Furthermore, erooms that cannot be automatically migrated may require manual intervention. The automatic room analysis provides support by creating an Excel spreadsheet listing all elements per room that could cause problems during an automatic migration. 2
Migration According to the YADA Method Available tools YADA eroom MigrationManager The MigrationManager software package provides an ideal way to manage and oversee the entire migration process, including the analysis of the rooms and databases, integration and communication with the users, approval of the actions to be performed, archiving of content, activation of the actual migration process, and the subsequent deletion of the successfully migrated rooms. The following tools are also included: UsageAnalyzer Analyzes and classifies all rooms on the eroom server according to the actual type of use and according to the functions and content that are used ArchiveServices Exports and archives rooms and complete content in the form of an offline (read-only) copy of the room MigrationAssistent Tool for manually migrating complex rooms LinkPreserver Ensures that links are correctly transferred and linked to the new memory address in the target system DocAve Migrator Being a part of the DocAve software platform by our partner AvePoint the DocAve Migrator is an efficient and proven tool for performing SharePoint migrations, provided that the rooms are prepared and cleaned up as described below. Under the supervision of the YADA MigrationManager, every approved room is then automatically transferred to SharePoint by means of a connector specially developed by YADA, which activates the migration of a room in a fully automated manner. Preparing for the migration Analyzing the rooms and data First of all, it is important to obtain an overview of the existing rooms. The UsageAnalyzer creates a list of all rooms located on the eroom server and determines up to 90 different values per room. These values include, for example, the time a member last logged in, the time of the last modification, the number of documents of a particular size, the number of databases, and the use of various eroom elements. This data is used to classify the rooms and provides the basis for the following steps. Procedure, compliance rules, and security considerations There are differences between eroom and SharePoint, as described above. The UsageAnalyzer provides data according to which rules can now be established in order to classify the existing rooms automatically: Active rooms that can be migrated in an automated manner and rooms that must be manually cleaned up and transferred (using drag & drop or the MigrationAssistant) 3
Inactive rooms that are no longer used and that must be archived, and rooms that can be deleted In addition, the following questions must be answered: How should the coordinators and access rights to the rooms, file ownership rights, and file access rights be handled? Should they also be transferred one-to-one to SharePoint, or should they perhaps be restricted in the event of archiving? How should sensitive management erooms be handled? Planning, deadlines, and responsibilities The size of typical eroom installations means that it is not possible simply to perform migrations over the weekend. They can take months, depending on their complexity. A time frame over which erooms are distributed and successively examined, archived, or migrated is specified in order to avoid interruptions to the normal business processes. A reasonable schedule must account for the effort required to carry out preparation and migration activities and manage them such that employees and systems are not overburdened or impeded. The analysis mentioned above also provides the required data for this. Responsibilities must be clarified for the SharePoint environment, project management, user liaison, and user responsibility for the rooms to be migrated. The affected users must be given advance warning, informed, and supported. You can use the MigrationManager to do this. It may happen that affected groups will work with two systems (eroom and SharePoint) until all data has been migrated for a short time. Instructing and training users Training should not be neglected. Users must be trained in the use of SharePoint. Likewise, they need to be included in the migration planning and procedures, too. It may be necessary to train them in the use of the migration software, depending on the level of involvement of YADA employees. Setting up the SharePoint environment The SharePoint target system should be set up and prepared with sufficient capacity with regard to access rights and according to the anticipated data volume, in order to ensure that the migration proceeds without problems. Carrying out the migration Archiving Decisions can be made as to how to handle the individual rooms once the rooms and the data have been analyzed. This process takes place step by step under the oversight of the YADA MigrationManager and only after the responsible users have given their explicit approval. The first step is to archive unused rooms containing data that must be retained. You can perform this using the ArchiveServices. All content (folders, files, databases, project schedules, and suchlike) are exported from eroom on a room-by-room basis, stored in the archive, and categorized. The content is stored in the file system in an open format (XML) and can therefore also be opened using an Internet browser. Users thus have offline read access to this eroom content at any time, subject to the most recent access authorizations. The display corresponds to the display in eroom, but is in read-only mode. If necessary, individual content can be migrated manually from the archive into Microsoft SharePoint and/or Documentum at a later date. Rooms can then be permanently deleted from the eroom server after having been successfully exported and stored in the archive. In addition to exporting all affected erooms and archiving them in XML format, a dynamic directory (including version management) of all archived erooms is maintained. Predefined categories are used when storing. Member administration is still possible and can be adapted to any company directories. 4
Automatic migration of active erooms to SharePoint All rooms that have no functions differing from SharePoint can be passed directly to DocAve after the responsible users have been notified and have given their authorization. DocAve ensures optimized mapping of eroom elements to the associated Microsoft SharePoint artifacts, including users, security settings, and authorizations, and also provides for reliable synchronization, allowing business users to continue to access their content without problems or interruption. The DocAve Pre-Migration Scanner identifies and reports invalid characters, user authorizations, user names, user domains, and all other elements that must be mapped in order to ensure a successful migration to SharePoint. It is possible to perform a complete rollback if errors occur while migrating a room. Manual migration of complex rooms or an alternative to automatic migration The MigrationAssistant is integrated into the eroom user interface. The user selects folders, files, or databases with a function button and then clicks Migration Assistant, which requests the metadata to be assigned in SharePoint. The migration target can be selected via a list of all available SharePoint sites. In this white paper, we generally assume that the actual transfer of the active rooms to Share- Point will be performed using DocAve with the highest level of automation possible. However, some customers prefer having the users carry out this task themselves, which is definitely possible using the MigrationAssistant. This means that the basic project approach as described here remains the same, with the exception of the transfer to SharePoint, where the MigrationAssistant is used instead of DocAve. Cleanup tasks After the rooms have been successfully migrated to SharePoint, the YADA LinkPreserver helps to ensure that the new link addresses are mapped correctly. The MigrationManager additionally handles the deletion of erooms that have been successfully migrated, archived, or are no longer required. Security and verifiability Access rights The access rights defined in eroom are retained in all cases. During migration, they are automatically passed to SharePoint via LDAP, where they can be maintained further. This applies as well to the archived rooms that can be read by authorized persons only. The rights can also be adjusted subsequently by authorized persons. The migration audit trail All migration activities are logged. The UsageAnalyzer always accesses the real-time data, thus ensuring that all rooms are always displayed as they were last processed by the user. Our ArchiveServices create a validation file when archiving, and DocAve also makes log entries relating to the completeness of the migrated data. 5
With YADA: Fast, Cost-Efficient, Trouble-Free Migration The methods and tools developed by YADA are based on extensive experience with relevant customer projects and have proven themselves around the world. These procedures have demonstrated a number of benefits. Performing the recommended cleanup of the eroom portfolio can save a great deal of disk space and thus help to reduce infrastructure and operating costs. In addition, using the cleanup to decrease the quantity of data significantly reduces the migration effort and the licensing costs for the migration software that is used. Performing a supervised migration using the MigrationManager not only saves a great deal of staff effort and migration time, it also ensures that no data is lost due to improper handling, that company compliance guidelines are adhered to, and that the migration process proceeds in an orderly way, without interrupting daily operations. Our best practices provide excellent planning, meticulous preparation, and monitored implementation to ensure a smooth, trouble-free migration of all active rooms and the secure archiving of all documents that continue to be required for compliance reasons. And all of this is accomplished with minimal impact on the affected users. Our range of services Customers are able to determine the level of support that they would like for us to provide for migration projects. End-to-end, worry-free migration management Under this option, YADA takes complete control of the project, from the initial analysis and planning through to implementation, including project management and SharePoint configuration consultation. The customer provides the required operating resources and access to the system environment, and ensures the cooperation of the users responsible for the erooms. We provide software tools and consultation Under this option, the customer opts to carry out the project independently. We provide the software tools, including training, and are available for consulting support to the customer. Software tools and training only The customer can also just purchase the tools. Under this option, training is recommended to ensure proper use. YADA GmbH & Co. KG Blücherstrasse 32 75177 Pforzheim Germany www.yada.eu Kontakt: Sales t +49 (0) 7231.154 40-18 f +49 (0) 7231.154 40-27 sales@yada.eu 6