A SharePoint on-premises to SharePoint Online migration job involves transferring all of your SharePoint components. You migrate sites, subsites, lists, libraries, documents, web parts, workflows, and more. This is not the same as moving data within the same environment. In this type of migration, we do an on-premises-to-cloud SharePoint migration.
For this migration, experts recommend using the Microsoft in-house SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT). It is a native Microsoft tool that helps administrators migrate data directly from an on-premises SharePoint server to Microsoft 365.
Note: The latest SPMT version only supports SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. Furthermore, if your Office 365 is operated by 21Vianet in China, you cannot use the SPMT.
Why migrate from SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online?
In addition to faster collaboration, a new user interface, and more customization capability, the transition from an on-premises environment to the cloud gives you:
- Fast, easy, and automatic SharePoint updates.
- More advanced and multi-layered security from external and internal threats.
- Robust data loss recovery mechanism.
- Direct integration of Microsoft 365 applications.
- Better accessibility of SharePoint sites on mobile devices.
- Allows the use of advanced features, like AI, Microsoft Spaces, and more.
However, the migration is not as simple as a copy/paste job. Only someone familiar with the SharePoint environment can easily set up the migration. Therefore, to minimize the chances of errors during data transfer, follow the below migration prerequisite checklist.
What to do before starting the SharePoint to Microsoft 365 migration?
I have done this migration multiple times and to reduce the failure risk, I recommend you take care of the following points.
- Make sure you have stable internet connection with high bandwidth. Since data will be migrated through the internet, any disturbance in it will lead to missing or corrupt data.
- Set up the target Microsoft 365 account with every user having the appropriate license.
- Audit the source server for sites, documents, and libraries. Remove any obsolete data. Deleting data that you do not require will help to reduce the total time of migration.
- Verify if you have all the required permissions and roles assigned on both the source and destination servers.
- Microsoft has a single file size limit of 250 GB. Files larger than this will fail to migrate. To transfer the large files (250+ GB), you must manually compress them before migration.
Note: Use the SPMT tool on a computer that has a minimum of 8 GB RAM, 150 GB free disk space, and is running either Windows Server 2016 (or above) or Windows 10 (or above) operating system.
Steps to migrate SharePoint to Microsoft 365
As discussed above, we will use the Microsoft’s native SPMT tool to carry out the migration. Follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Download and install SPMT tool on your system. Open the tool.
Step 2: Scan your SharePoint Site
- Click on the Add new scan button and choose a scanning option.
- Enter the URL of the site to scan and click the Start
- View the scanning report; it will list total file size, items, subsites, lists, and workflows. Moreover, the scan result will also highlight potential migration risks.
Step 3: Add new migration
- Click the Add new migration
- Select migration method (single or bulk).
- Choose migration type.
- Enter the URL of the source SharePoint Server site and click Next.
- Select the This site and all subsites option, and for the destination, choose
- Enter the target SharePoint site and choose a site structure.
- Review the migration settings and start the process.
In the above steps, we migrated only SharePoint sites. You can follow the same procedure to migrate lists, documents, and workflows.
If possible, choose a time when most of the users are inactive, like weekends or holidays. This will help speed up migration. However, you have to manually set up and run the migration on the holiday because the SPMT tool does not have a scheduling feature.
This is the only drawback I feel about this native free tool. In case you want to configure a SharePoint migration job to run automatically, you can use a third-party SharePoint Migration Tool. In comparison to the MS tool, it offers a simpler UI, advanced data filtering, and the ability to run a migration on any day at any time.
What do you need to do after migration?
Your work is not done yet. After a successful migration, you must:
- Validate the data transfer. Compare users, sites, item counts, etc., between the source and the destination server.
- Verify permissions and sharing rules. If missing, recreate them.
- Gradually convert your key pages to a modern SharePoint Online mobile-friendly layout.
- Check if all source SharePoint workflows are working fine. Sometimes they break after a tenant migration due to version incompatibility.
- Train your users about the new SharePoint environment and ask them to make appropriate changes to avoid issues later.
Author’s Verdict
When you start migrating SharePoint to Microsoft 365, make sure no user is making live changes to the source server. Furthermore, after migration, keep the source server alive for a few weeks and only decommission it after you are 100% sure that all the SharePoint components are accessible in the target SharePoint Online server.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the SharePoint Migration Tool migrate between SharePoint Online servers?
No. The SPMT can only migrate data from file servers and legacy SharePoint servers. To migrate from one SharePoint Online tenant to another SharePoint Online tenant, you must use the SharePoint Online PowerShell or an advanced SharePoint migration tool.
How long will it take to migrate from SharePoint on-premises to SharePoint Online?
Total migration time depends on the type of data you are migrating. Migrating 10 TB of data with most files greater than 10 GB will take significantly less time than migrating the same volume of data with most files having a size less than 100 MB.
What will happen to my data on the source SharePoint on-premises server after migration?
The SPMT tool does not modify the source server data. All your sites, subsites, lists, libraries, documents, and workflows remain as they were before migration.
