Vyapin Blogs

March 6, 2010

SharePoint migration of file shares and folders using external metadata

One of the most common scenarios in SharePoint migration is the migration of File shares and folders from various sources – file servers, desktops and other storage devices. While the need for migrating files and folders is quite common, the task of getting this accomplished becomes very complex if there are a large number of files and folders to migrate. You will need an automated solution that will take care of some of these complexities. A large migration typically involves migrating and tagging tens of thousands of files (documents) from legacy file shares and folders into a new SharePoint repository while retaining the existing taxonomy or moving to a completely new taxonomy.
Most file system users will not be familiar with the concept of document metadata. They are more familiar with the term file properties. The concept of document metadata originates from Document Management Systems (DMS), where documents are stored and made searchable on a wider set of keywords and phrases. Document libraries in SharePoint are akin to Document Management Systems in the way they store documents and properties for search and retrieval. However, these properties need to be presented to SharePoint during migration in a certain manner that makes the search and retrieval more powerful and elegant. You may migrate / propagate metadata fields from the document properties stored within the file or using an external metadata file / database. Mapping and tagging existing file properties and adding additional properties to documents in SharePoint, especially for a well structured taxonomy can be a laborious process. Thus, migrating files and folders along with metadata needs an appropriate solution that will break down the migration into several different tasks (automated batch processes), with several different rules to process the files and folders.
Our SharePoint migration tool for File shares and folders, DocKIT, allows users to move folders and files along with metadata (using an external metadata file and file properties) from file system to SharePoint libraries based on the folders/files added by the user using the DocKIT user interface. Some of the supported metadata elements that typically define the source content are:

• Custom properties defined in the external metadata file
• Summary file system properties - Title, Subject, Author, Category, Keywords and Comments
• File properties such as Manager, Company, DateLastPrinted, DateLastSaved, RevisionNumber, Version, WordCount etc. in the case of MS-Office documents
• Original Created Date & Last Modified Date of source documents
• Author (Created By) and Editor (Modified By) of source documents
• Content Approval Status & Approval Comments

Please click the following link to know more about Vyapin’s DocKIT: http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/dockit/sharepoint-2007-file-migration.htm

NTFS Permissions Reporting

NTFS Permissions reports on Files, Folders and Shares using Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise.

There are several powerful features available in Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise to generate reports on NTFS permissions on files and folders residing in servers and workstations across multiple domains in the network. All reports may be scheduled and generated for multiple computers, users, and groups for multiple domains as a batch job.

The Permissions Reports section under the built-in reports feature (out-of-the-box reports) includes specific reports that report exclusively on reporting the access permissions assigned to users and groups on files, folders and shares. Our NTFS permissions reporting tool has several flavors of reports designed specifically for the administrator’s convenience. The following questions can be easily answered using these multi-dimensional reports:
1. Given a selected set of Users and Groups, which files and folders do they have access to across computers in a domain?
2. Given a selected set of files, folders and shares across computers, which users and groups have access to these?
3. Which users have inherited access permissions by virtue of their group membership (even though they may not have been granted explicit permissions)?
4. What permissions have been assigned to users both explicit and inherited through nested groups? One single report showing both.
5. What are the net effective permissions for users and groups on a set of folders?
6. How are nested groups affecting NTFS permissions on files and folders?

Here is a walkthrough of how to generate NTFS Permissions Reports using Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise (ARKWE):

Click on the Permissions Reports menu item under the Built-in Reports button in the toolbar.

The following NTFS Permissions Reports are available:

List of permissions for specific users and groups on folders
Reports the folder permissions assigned to specific users and/or groups on a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for folders
Reports the permissions associated with a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for specific users and groups on files
Reports the files permissions assigned to specific users and/or groups under a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for files
Reports the permissions associated with files under a selected set of folders.

List of all permissions for folders (Inherit & Explicit)
Reports the permissions for users assigned in the folders directly and inherited by means of nested groups.

List of effective permissions for users and groups on folders
Reports the effective permissions for users and groups for a set of folders.

List of effective permissions for users and groups on files
Reports the effective permissions for users and groups for files available in a set of folders.

Apart from the above out-of-the-box NTFS Permissions Reports, several standard customizable reports on various share and folder resources are available. These may be customized and scheduled as batch jobs for multiple computers and domains.

Please click on the following to download and evaluate the above features in Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise.
http://www.vyapin.com/products/windows-audit/windows-reports.htm

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