Question

I have a list on my source that uses a custom list template (ex. a "Fab 40" list) and I want to migrate that list to my new target SharePoint environment. However, I am unable to install that template on my target before migration. How will Metalogix Content Matrix deal with this?

Answer

If at all possible, it is recommended that users install any custom list templates on the target environment before migration. That would allow Metalogix Content Matrix to use those templates when migrating, and trying to reproduce the same results on the target. But there are some customizations within templates that Metalogix Content Matrix is unable to migrate content or metadata into, such as the "Fab 40" templates.

In some cases users are unable to install the custom templates in the target environment, such as when migrating to O365. In these cases Metalogix Content Matrix will attempt to find the base template of the source customized list. Then it will create a list on the target using that same base template, and migrate the content into that list.

To help with this two variables have been added to the list XML attributes. They are:

·BaseTemplate - This is the value for the custom list template.

·BaseType - This is the value for the default template that any custom template is based on. If the custom template does not exist on the target, this template will be used for the list creation instead. Please see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.client.basetype(v=office.14).aspx for more information on the SharePoint BaseType value.

These variables will help Metalogix Content Matrix determine which base template to use so that an "Issue Tracking" list won't be created in a case where it should be a "Custom List" template.

Let's look at an example where you have a custom list on the source, and that list has a BaseTemplate value of "1011", a BaseType of "0", and has not been installed on the target. In this case, Metalogix Content Matrix will look at the source list and find the BaseTemplate value of 1011. It will then look on the target to see if there is a template that has the same value. If it finds one, then Metalogix Content Matrix will create a list with that template and migrate the data over. But, if the BaseTemplate value is not found on the target, then Metalogix Content Matrix will look at the BaseType value instead, since this value should exist by default in the target SharePoint environment. In this example we also happen to know that a BaseType value of "0" is a "Custom List" or "Generic List" type. So Metalogix Content Matrix will create a list on the target, using the "Custom List" template, and will then migrate the source data into that custom list.

Question

I am migrating some content to SharePoint Online/Office 365 (SPO/O365). Are migrations to Office 365 throttled? And if so, how does Metalogix Content Matrix deal with this?

Answer

Before we can answer these questions, there is some information that we need to review first.

SharePoint Online (SPO) is on the open Internet, and is a multi-tenant environment in which multiple MS customers are hosted on a single SharePoint Server Farm. In light of that, Microsoft uses a number of mechanisms to protect SPO customers' environments, and the integrity of these Server Farms.

Based on internal performance benchmarking, there is an impact of between 33% and 40% on the performance of migrations to SPO because of some of these necessary protection mechanisms. Our discussions with the SPO product group, and our experience with numerous customers who have migrated large farms to SPO have shown that the following are among some of the known factors that impact this performance:

·User-based throttling - This ensures that any single user cannot perform so many simultaneous operations on their SPO environment, that these would cause performance issues for other users within the same or other tenants. Refer to the Microsoft article Avoid getting throttled or blocked in SharePoint Online. In the past, if a migration was performed using a single username/password combination, migrations were significantly slower than migrations that involve multiple username and password combinations. However, Microsoft is starting to reduce user-based throttling and increase tenant-based throttling. Given that the rollout of throttling changes occurs over a period of time rather than all farms at once, it is difficult to say if the farm you are migrating into has been impacted by these changes yet.

·Tenant-based throttling - This ensures that no one tenant on a multi-tenant farm can use so many resources, that other tenants' performance suffers significantly. Microsoft started using this to protect tenants on multi-tenant environments. We fully expect this to be the most significant throttling mechanism in use by Microsoft moving forward.

·Farm-based throttling - This ensures that if tenants on the farm are seeing low performance across the farm, no single tenant can create significant additional workload on the farm.

You can reduce throttling during migrations by connecting to SharePoint Online using Office 365 OAuth Authentication.

Question

I am running out of storage space in my Azure private storage account. How do I remove containers and queues created by Content Matrix to free up space for more migration actions?

Answer

While you can use the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer UI to delete items individually, you can use Azure PowerShell commands to simultaneously remove all containers or queues that were created on the same date.  A prerequisite to removing multiple containers and queues is that Azure PowerShell must be installed and configured. Refer to the Microsoft Azure PowerShell documentation for installation instructions and general information about Azure PowerShell Cmdlets.

Naming Conventions

Beginning in version 9.3, Content Matrix uses naming conventions that allow you to easily identify containers and queues created by Content Matrix during migration using the Import Pipeline.  

To remove items from your Azure blob storage account using Azure PowerShell:

1.Ensure there are no active migration actions running that use the Azure storage where the items are stored.

2.Open Azure PowerShell.

3.Connect to Azure using the New-AzStorageContext cmdlet. Your account name and account key are required parameters. Note that these are different from your Client ID and Application Secret.        $context = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName $accountName -StorageAccountKey $accountKey

4.Use the information in the following table to determine the appropriate command to use.

Question

I am migrating some content using the Import Pipeline.  After some time the batches seem to simply stop. Why am I facing this issue?

Answer

Migration duration and overall performance using the the Import Pipeline may vary due to factors outside the control of Metalogix Content Matrix. Migration processing resides within Microsoft's domain and is subject to Microsoft's internal processes, such as maintenance and upgrades.

You may experience a delay of several hours before batch completion if the machines that Microsoft uses undergo maintenance/upgrades or if there are O365 service issues/outages (as can be seen in the O365 Admin Center under Service Health).