NFS to SharePoint Migration Guide for IT Admins

1. Introduction

If migrating NFS to SharePoint is a part of your company’s initiatives to adopt cloud collaboration and digital transformation, your IT team must have actionable insights into streamlining every core aspect of the migration project.
With CloudFuze as the migration partner, your company can ensure a seamless and secure NFS to SharePoint migration while meeting all the business outcome goals.

In this guide, you can learn about the migration challenges companies of all sizes face and explore the strategies and steps to execute the project perfectly.

2. NFS vs SharePoint Online

NFS and SharePoint Online share basic levels of similarity, such as the ability for users to collaborate on the same files and applications in a local way. However, NFS does not have the advanced capabilities of SharePoint Online. Apart from being a shared drive, SharePoint Online also functions as an intranet to enjoy seamless integration of all Microsoft 365 apps, such as OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, and Calendar.

3. NFS to SharePoint Migration Challenges for Businesses

The primary challenge for businesses to transfer NFS to SharePoint is to overcome the limitations that Microsoft has set in SharePoint Online. Some of these limitations include:

• A specific set of unsupported special characters in file and folder names
• The length of the total decoded file path limited to 400 characters
• Unavailability of certain file and folder names

Learn more about these SharePoint Online limitations.

Some of the common secondary NFS to SharePoint migration challenges include:

• Migrating user accounts and data in a high volume
• Transferring sharing permissions accurately
• Migrating the incremental changes made on the source

With CloudFuze, businesses of all sizes and industries can overcome these challenges with built-in tool features that do not require manual intervention. Learn from our migration team how CloudFuze can work for your company’s NFS migration needs.

4. Benefits for Businesses to Migrate NFS to SharePoint With CloudFuze

CloudFuze makes it possible for businesses to have technical capabilities and insightful strategies to perform a comprehensive NFS to SharePoint migration. Unlike other migration service providers, we get proactively involved in every aspect of the migration to provide your company’s IT team with assistance in planning and executing the migration.
Here are some of the mission-critical advantages businesses get from CloudFuze:

• 100% replication of files and folders in the destination (SharePoint Online)
• Migration of root and inner folder permissions with complete accuracy
• Migration of the last modified timestamps of files and folders
• Migration of in-line file comments
• Suppressing e-mail notifications to avoid user distractions
• Comparing source and destination data post-migration with comparison delta
• Migration tool customization for specific migration needs
• RSA-2048 data encryption during the migration process
• Complete handholding of the migration project with the managed migration service

5. Steps to Migrate NFS to SharePoint

The process to copy NFS to SharePoint is first to deploy the migration tool agent to integrate it with the NFS environment and add map NFS to SharePoint Online. Further steps include mapping the user accounts and choosing the features to migrate.

Refer to the steps below for all the details:

Step 1: Log into the CloudFuze Webapp

The first step is to create a free trial account and log into the CloudFuze webapp.

Step 2: Deploy the CloudFuze Desktop Agent

The second step is to download the CloudFuze desktop agent.

Install the CloudFuze desktop agent to be able to add NFS as the source to the migration webapp.

CloudFuze desktop agent is not available publicly. Contact our team for a trial or a POC of the desktop agent and overall migration.

Step 3: Enter the Server Credentials

In this step, you need to enter the credentials of the NFS server.

Step 4: Skip the Directory Addition Part

We recommend skipping the process of adding the directory if you want to migrate NFS to SharePoint with sharing permissions and timestamps.

Step 5: Add NFS Domain and Admin Credentials

Enter the IP, domain, and login credentials, and click on the Fetch option to finalize the setup.

Step 6: Check the Fetched User List

Go through the fetched user list to ensure that the user accounts to be migrated are fetched properly, and NFS is added successfully.

Step 7: Confirm NFS Addition

Visit the CloudFuze webapp and click on the Manage Clouds section to check and ensure NFS is added properly.

Step 8: Add and Authorize SharePoint

After adding NFS, you must add SharePoint Online by choosing the cloud from the Business Clouds section of the webapp.

Ensure that you properly authenticate SharePoint Online in the webapp.

Step 9: Confirm SharePoint Addition

Revisit the Manage Clouds section and check if you have added SharePoint Online successfully. If you can see NFS and SharePoint Online, you have successfully added both clouds.

Step 10: Configure the Source and Destination Clouds

Visit the Team Migration section, choose NFS as the source, and SharePoint Online as the destination cloud.

Step 11: Map the User Accounts

In the Content Mapping stage, you need to map the source and destination user accounts. You get the option to choose between auto-mapping and CSV mapping with CloudFuze.

The example below is for CSV mapping:

Step 12: Review and Edit Permissions Mapping

The Permission Mapping stage gives you the option to review the mapped permissions and tweak them if required. If everything looks good, click on Next.

Step 13: Choose the Migration Options

Select all the options suitable for your company’s migration needs, such as shared content migration, file type filters, and adding people for migration report notifications.

Step 14: Preview and Finalize the Migration Parameters

Use the Preview stage to review all the migration parameters.

Step 15: Start the Migration

If everything looks good, click the Start Migration button to migrate content from NFS to SharePoint.

Step 16: Check the Migration Progress and Ensure Proper Completion

Visit the Reports console of the webapp and monitor the migration progress.

The status indicator will display the Completed message when the migration is completed.