Google Drive to Google Drive Migrations - Best Practice and Concepts

CloudM Migrate is designed to ensure high integrity and fidelity during Google Drive migrations. Due to the flexible nature of Google Drive's file and folder organization, CloudM Migrate employs specific methods to preserve data accuracy in the destination Drive. This includes maintaining:

• All folder structures (including shared folder/shortcut structures).

• File locations.

• Item starring.

• Modified dates.
  

   

Important Note: Migration Strategy

This article outlines a specific migration strategy. It's crucial to integrate these steps with CloudM's recommended migration strategy. Thorough planning is paramount to minimize downtime. We strongly recommend reviewing this guide completely and planning all steps well in advance of your scheduled domain switch-over.

Complex Migration Scenarios

For intricate Drive migration scenarios, such as migrating only a subset of users within a domain or migrating users to different domains, CloudM Migrate offers flexible configuration options. This can be achieved using domain replacement and user renaming functionality.

Recommendation: If you encounter a complex scenario, please contact our support team for guidance on how to configure CloudM Migrate effectively.

Key Considerations for Google Drive Migrations

There are several important points to be aware of when performing a Google Drive migration:

1. Provision All Users and Groups Before Migration

It is essential to provision all your users and groups in the destination environment before performing a Drive migration. This ensures that:

• All sharing permissions are correctly preserved.

• Drive hierarchies are maintained accurately.

Note: Ensure that all your Drive users have Google Drive enabled in the destination Google Workspace.

2. Avoid Destination Drive Usage During Migration

Using the destination Drive during a migration is not recommended. Files and folders may not be fully moved into their correct locations for all users until the entire migration is complete. If items are moved or modified in the destination domain while a migration is in progress, it can lead to:

• Migration errors.

• Significantly increased migration times.

3. User and Group Renaming

• Renaming Users: If you are renaming users as part of the migration, ensure that all import and export names are accurate and updated to reflect the new Google Workspace.

• Renaming Groups: Groups should not be renamed during a migration. All group renaming must be completed before the migration begins. CloudM Migrate will issue a warning if group renaming is attempted during a Drive item migration.

Advanced Source Google Drive Migration Options

Google Workspace - Source Settings > Document

CloudM Migrate offers specific settings for granular control over Drive migrations:

1. Migrate Items Only From Listed Users

When this option is enabled (along with 'Migrate All Drive Items' set to true), CloudM Migrate will only migrate Drive files from the users explicitly listed on the 'Users' tab of your batch.

• Scenario: Use this option with care, and only when migrating a subset of your users.

• Full Migrations: If you are migrating all users, do not select this option.

• Prerequisite: Ensure your user list is entirely correct before starting the initial migration if this option is used.

• Excluding Users: If you want to migrate items from users not being migrated themselves, add them to the 'Users' tab but do not select them for migration.

2. Migrate Contents of Non-Owned Folders

This option allows you to migrate files located within folders that are not owned by the migrating user(s).

• Usage: Typically, this only needs to be enabled when some users are not being migrated, but their Drive items still need to be transferred.

• Behavior: Folders themselves will always be processed regardless of this setting.

• Warning: This option should not be used in conjunction with 'Migrate Items Only From Listed Users'.

Understanding Drive Item Migration Behavior

Files and Folders May be Migrated for Other Users

To preserve the complex sharing structure of Google Drive, files and folders shared with a migrating user may also be migrated for the owning users, even if those owners are not being actively migrated at that time.

• Recommendation: It is highly recommended to use this default behavior to preserve Drive integrity.

• Disabling: This action can be disabled by setting the option 'Migrate All Drive Items' to False, but this is generally not advised.

Files from Outside of the Domain

Only files owned by users within your source domain are migrated.

• Security Note: While technically possible to migrate files from outside the domain where the user has edit access, this involves making changes to external domains' files and raises significant security concerns. Therefore, this functionality is not enabled in CloudM Migrate.

Folder Hierarchies from Outside of the Domain

Users can add folders shared with them into their My Drive hierarchy as shortcuts even if those folders are owned by users outside your domain. See Migrating Drive Shortcuts for more information.

• Ownership Transfer: If an external folder is part of your migration, the first user to migrate that folder will become its new owner in the destination.

  • See Google Workspace - Destination Settings > Document > Allow Alternate Item Ownership for more information.

• Permissions: All external permissions will be removed from the folder during this process, but all domain-specific permissions will be preserved.

Other Features

• File Comments: Comments associated with files can be migrated, see Migrating Google Drive Comments for more information.

• Revision History: Revision history for files cannot be migrated. Refer to the relevant article for more details on comments migration.

Deleted Files and Folders

• User-Owned Deleted Files: Files and folders that a user has explicitly deleted and owns are not migrated.

• Invisible Shared Files: If a user has "deleted" a file that was shared with them (making it invisible in their account without actually deleting the source file or sharing rights), these files will become visible again in the 'Shared with me' folder following migration. CloudM Migrate does not specifically handle this edge case as its occurrence is rare and processing it would significantly increase migration times. The underlying sharing rights still exist, even if the file is invisible to the user.

Renaming Users and/or Groups

CloudM Migrate provides functionality for changing or mapping user or group email addresses during a migration using address replacements.

• Guidance: Refer to the dedicated article on address replacements to understand their proper usage.

• Prerequisite: Ensure you fully read and understand the address replacements article before proceeding with your migration.