IT Tips & Tricks
Published 29 August 2022
How to Start a SharePoint Migration That Preserves the Integrity of Linked Data
If you’re considering a migration from SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online and you have concerns about data loss due to broken file links, then LinkFixer Advanced™ is the tool you need to protect your links, thereby avoiding the inevitable data loss.
Below is a checklist for how to get started with a SharePoint migration using LinkFixer Advanced.
SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online Migration
- Ensure your system meets the LinkFixer Advanced system requirements.
Software Requirements:
- Windows 10 or newer operating system, or Windows Server 2012 SP4 or newer.
- Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP4 or higher is required for optimal performance.
- .NET 4.6.1 framework is required. This will be installed along with LinkFixer Advanced if not already present.
- Ports that must remain open are: (80 (HTTP, TCP), 443 (TCP, HTTPS, Amazon S3)
Minimum Hardware Requirements:
Important Note: The hardware requirements below are minimums. For optimum hardware requirements, please contact us to discuss your specific needs.
- 8 processors minimum. Using 16 processors is strongly recommended for faster processing.
- 16 gigabytes minimum. Using 32 gigabytes of RAM is strongly recommended for a greater (faster) experience.
- Recommended: 200 gigabytes of available hard disk space. System free space should be at least 100 GB after installing LinkFixer Advanced unless you have a separate partition for logging and Reports.
For more information: LinkFixer Advanced System Requirements.
- Add a SharePoint On-Premises and a SharePoint Online site in LinkFixer Advanced. Make sure to map the SharePoint Online root site as well as the SharePoint Online site collection URLs. This will allow LinkFixer Advanced to determine the root site from the site collection. The following articles provide in-depth detail:
- To force a link or not to force a link, sometimes that is the question, and it’s primarily germane to SharePoint migrations.
When to force links to absolute:
- If files have been migrated to a target environment that contains links to files still in the source environment, those links will no longer work, as the complete folder structure has not yet been migrated. Forcing those links to the absolute drive path will allow them to continue working.
- If your PoCs (Proof of Concept) have test files created either by the end-users or the LinkFixer Advanced operators, they will generally contain relative links which may require being forced to absolute.
When not to force links to absolute:
If the SharePoint root site is added to the Network Locations page of LinkFixer Advanced, the relative links in the parent files can be resolved without the need to force links to absolute.
If you do need to force links to absolute, here’s how easy it is in LinkFixer Advanced:
Would you rather spend your weekends fixing broken links after a data migration? We think not.
- Click on the Main menu on the top left.
- Click Settings.
- Click on the Inoculate category on the left.
- Put a check mark next to "Apply the following rules to links when Inoculating files:".
- Put a check mark next to "Force links to:".
- Click the radio button for "Absolute path".
It really is as simple as that.
- Follow our “Quick Start Guide” of step-by-step instructions on how to use the various tools contained in LinkFixer Advanced:
We have over 200 neatly categorized — and therefore easily accessible — frequently asked questions and how-to tips on our website. If you have any questions about migrations, SharePoint, or LinkFixer Advanced, feel free to call us at 727-442-1822. Alternatively, you can reach us online, or use the “Support Ticket” feature from within LinkFixer Advanced. (Link: How can I initiate a support ticket from within LinkFixer Advanced?)
No matter where you migrate, we protect your file links.
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