Monday, April 17, 2017

How to preserve certain values or features when migration sharepoint content using Sharegate

When document are migrated from one site to another through Sharegate, the timestamp and user (Modified, Modified By, Created, Created By) are not preserved for draft versions. To preserve these, Sharegate provide a Server extension to be installed. The Server Extension allows Sharegate to provide you with additional functionality that might be needed in order to preserve certain values or features as indicated in Sharegate support site.


Here is one simple testing result before and after install the Sharegate Server Extension when migrating the same document. Please note the “Modified By” value will be preserved ONLY after Sharegate server extension installed.

Here is the version history for the original document on source site document library.


Here is the version history for the document on destination site document library when Sharegate server extension not installed. Please note the “Modified By” is not preserved and becomes migration account.


During the migration, Sharegate will prompt the following message.


Here is the version history for the document on destination site document library when Sharegate server extension already installed.


The installation of the Sharegate server extension is simple and no server bounce required.
  1. Download the Extension installer from here.
  2. Copy the Extension installer on your SharePoint web front-end server. If you have more than one Web Front-End server, copy the installer on all of them. 
  3. Launch the Extension installer. It will not cause any downtime on your SharePoint server. It doesn't require a server reboot.

You can verify the installation from GAC as the following screenshot.

Here is the table of the feature that required Sharegate server extension.

Value to preserve Source SharePoint Destination SharePoint Must be installed on
Authors and timestamps Any 2007 Destination
Modified by on Draft Versions Any 2010, 2013, and 2016, or Office 365 (when using normal mode) Destination
Approval status (with authors and timestamps) Any 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 Destination
Business data (BDC) Any 2007 Destination
Content type OOB (Out-Of-the-Box) workflow configuration 2007 Any Source
Items declared as Records 2010, 2013, 2016, Office 365 2010, 2013, 2016 Destination
Items with a high version number on the first version Any 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 Destination
List OOB (Out-Of-the-Box) workflow 2007 Foundation (WSS 3.0) Any Source
Nintex workflow constants 2007, 2010, 2013 2010, 2013 Both
Nintex workflow history 2007, 2010, 2013 2007, 2010, 2013 Both
User alerts 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 Both
Records Enabled All versions of Office 365 or Sharepoint Office 365 (when using normal mode) Both
Features      
Insane Mode 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, Office 365 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 Both

You can check all the features that server extension Sharegate required for migration here. You might need to install the server extension on both source and destination SharePoint servers or O365 site.

You can remove the Sharegate server extension from add/remove features.

Now you can enjoy using Sharegate to migrate contents.