Basic questions on the use by a business organisation

[TomSz]

Hello everyone

First post here. I am a Business Analyst for a large organisation. 

My project team is migrating windows shared folders to a new server. I am hearing our previous experiences with Robocopy were unsatisfactory, although I could not get to any relevant lessons or comments. 

Given that our technical team is 'under the snow', I was asked by our PM to look around for alternatives and found power automate, which looks promising. 

I appear to have a licence for Office 365 E3, with Power Automate for Office 365, which implies that so do our technical colleagues. 

Before I mention PowerAutomate during our team meeting, I would like to validate my findings. I would appreciate feedback.

1. Is power Automate a proper tool for a) automating migration of complete folder structures   b) creating a new folder structure 

2. Do large batches require any other licence than the one mentioned above?

3. Is it good for handling large batches amounting to a couple of Terabytes (not in one go, though)?

4. Are there any known difficulties with PA used for these purposes in terms of ease of use, reliability, learning curve? 

Thank you. 

Best regards

Tom

[Rhiassuring]

Hi there, 

It sounds like you're looking for a migration tool like ShareGate, not for a business process automation tool like Power Automate. Could you use it for that purpose? I guess. I wouldn't. 

For automating the creation of projects, folder structures (hopefully not many of those! This is SharePoint - metadata is the emperor here!)

Power Automate is easy to pick-up for very basic things since there are a ton of templates. It can cause huge headaches if you don't consider proper governance up front, and that includes the governance of the applications you will be automating - such as SharePoint, Teams, Planner, etc. 

Happy to answer any more questions you have but I wouldn't recommend looking at Power Automate for Migration! 

Rhia

[ekarim2020]

I haven't used Robocopy for a number of years but I found it very useful and reliable for moving huge amounts of files from one Windows file share to another Windows server.

robocopy | Microsoft Docs

Robocopy was designed to copy files from one location to another. And depending on the parameter options used, it can continue copying from the last point of failure, copy file and folder permissions, update permissions, exclude files, copy system and hidden files and log activity etc. Power Automate just isn't suited for this type of task and I wouldn't consider it as an option.

What issues did your team experience with Robocopy?

Another option is to perform a file and folder restore to your new destination using your organisation's backup software. 

Hope this helps.

Ellis

[TomSz]

Hi Ellis

Thank you so much for your reply. To quote our Project Manager,

"Robocopy is what we use at the moment but it does need a script for each folder to move, doesn’t have a nice graphical interface nor robust retry on failure."

I am aware this becomes an OT for this forum, so will keep searching elsewhere but should anyone recall a reasonable Robocopy replacement I would appreciate advice.

Many thanks

Tom

[ekarim2020 · Accepted solution]

Robocopy would just need the source folder (usually the root of a Windows share) and a destination folders, and everything under the source folder is copied across.  It does sounds as if the IT techs aren't confortable with using command line these days!

An alternative to Robocopy: Free Utility: RichCopy, an Advanced Alternative to RoboCopy | Microsoft Docs

And GUIs for Robocopy: 7 Best Robocopy GUI for Windows (codeitbro.com)

Look for backup, or server sync software for Windows Servers, example only:

How to Synchronize Files between Windows Servers Easily (2 Ways) (ubackup.com)

Hope this helps.

Ellis

[TomSz]

The operation will eventually be more complex than this as the folders will have to be reallocated to match the new business model; otherwise, this would, indeed, be a simple task regardless of how long the line of code was supposed to be. 

Thank you for the link to the AOMEI page. I will be in touch with their sales. 

A gui for rc sounds great but I would have data security concerns. 

Best regards

Tom

[Johny0]

Although I respect Robocopy if you have the right script to do the mentioned requirements and I respect the mentioned tools in the links but I prefer the straightforward GUI tools that have the ability to apply these requirements easily like Goodsync, Gs Richcopy 360, and Sharegate. it is back to the user whatever he prefer CLI or GUI way