Migration to SharePoint 2016 completed
Last weekend (16th-17th February), after long planning and several test phases, we have successfully migrated more than 270 Site Collections with over 1TB content, from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016. And we made it all in one go!
In the previous SharePoint migrations of 2007 and 2010, we migrated the site collections almost individually in a lengthy process. Meanwhile, we standardized the sites and operate them similarly to Microsoft in the cloud (Host Named Site Collections with Wildcard Certificates), so we made it clear right from the beginning that we want to carry out this migration as a Big Bang.
This brings many advantages, but at the same time, the “Big Bang approach” greatly increases the risk, which is why risk management was an important part of the project. Due to the sheer number of customers it was not feasible to test all Site Collections with the users individually. We created a list of sites with specific features or functionalities and tested them with their owners in advance, in an isolated environment.
Another issue was the limited timeframe a weekend provides for migrating the service applications, content databases and rebuilding the search index. Therefore, the migration was simulated and timed in several dry runs and consequently tasks were executed in parallel where possible. The whole process started on Friday evening and lasted until Sunday evening, with our team working round the clock.
We spent a great part of Sunday testing the final migration, and so far we found only a few minor problems, most of which are already solved. But of course it is impossible to test everything, and we greatly rely on the feedback from you, our customers. Should you experience issues with SharePoint, or notice errors, please do not hesitate to contact us at sharepoint@id.ethz.ch.
More
Contact
- Daniel Manser (ITS BD), Andreas Müller (ITS BD), Kinga Kazala (ITS SWS)
- IT Services
erstellt am
in News
