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  • How much content can be migrated using WMM?

    Website Migration Manager is a highly scalable product. The typical migration project for which WMM is used ranges from 5,000 to 100,000 web pages and documents to be migrated. There is clear ROI for migration projects that start at 500 pages in size and no reason not to use the product for much larger migration projects.

  • What advantages does WMM bring over competitive products?

    Website Migration Manager has several key advantages over competitive products:
    Interaction with SharePoint through supported APIs only
    All WMM interactions with SharePoint are done through supported APIs. This ensures that the target SharePoint deployment will remain in a Microsoft supportable state. This contrast with other migration products that write directly to the SharePoint database. Database writes cause a SharePoint deployment to become unsupportable by Microsoft and risks SharePoint data corruption.
    Remote SharePoint interaction
    All WMM interactions with SharePoint are completed over authenticated remote connections. As a result, migration work can be performed from one or more client machines. Other products require that the migration client be installed on the target SharePoint server.
    Ease of download and install
    The WMM download and install experience is easy and straightforward. The client application is a 6 MB download with an MSI installer and only one dependency: .Net 2.0. Other products have much larger downloads, cumbersome installation processes, lengthy configurations, and numerous dependencies on other software applications.
    Comprehensive logging
    All WMM migrations to SharePoint are comprehensively logged.
    Content transformation and analysis capabilities
    WMM comes with a suite of built-in capabilities that analyze and transform content prior to migration. This enables you to remediate content and identify what makes sense to migrate to SharePoint before actually moving any content. Other products take an all-or-nothing approach to content migration with no built-in analysis or transformation capabilities.

  • What advantages does WMM have over a custom-developed solution?
    Metalogix has specialized in content migration to SharePoint since its inception. You will be able leverage this expertise -- and Website Migration Manager’s proven migration capabilities -- for a fraction of the cost that would be required to develop a custom solution.
    WMM provides solutions for common, but complex, migration challenges that include post-migration link correction, automated SharePoint site-hierarchy creation, automated migration of documents and images associated with web content, migration of content to SharePoint web parts, and comprehensive user interfaces for content mapping.

  • What is the average transfer rate for migrating HTML content and metadata using WMM?
    WMM on an average migrates 1-4 GB of content per hour. The migration transfer rate depends on the hardware infrastructure. The limiting steps in transfer rates are two-fold: network bandwidth and SharePoint APIs. Website Migration Manager operates as fast as the network and SharePoint APIs will allow.

  • What is the best practice for migrating a high volume of data using WMM?
    Website Migration Manager uses a project and workspace paradigm to manage sets of content to be migrated. Each project contains multiple workspaces that, in turn, aggregate items that are imported from the source system and then migrated to SharePoint. Our recommendation is to structure each project to contain no more than 10,000 records to be migrated. For this reason, the best practice for handling large migrations is to have multiple projects. For example, to migrate 200,000 pages, use 20 projects of approximately 10,000 pages. This best practice is as much a human limitation as a technical one. In our experience, tasking one migration technician with more than 10,000 records to migrate at a time leads to a decrease in migration quality.

  • Do you have an importer for Vignette? Why is it not mentioned in the list of connectors?
    We currently do have an importer for migrating content from Vignette to SharePoint 2007. Every Vignette implementation is different, however, and some customization is required for the importer to accommodate your implementation of Vignette. The Metalogix Professional Services team has a well-defined process to analyze and scope the customizations required to handle your specific Vignette content and will be happy to assist you in migrating content from Vignette. Our Vignette-to-SharePoint migration solution is cost-effective because it leverages existing Metalogix intellectual property.

  • What is the architecture of WMM and how does  it handle various sources and data during migration?
    Website Migration Manager is a .NET 2.0 client application that communicates remotely with SharePoint through supported APIs. The product uses an intermediate JetDB content store, known as a metabase, that contains references to source web pages and documents along with the specific pieces of metadata and web content to be migrated. The solution supports a full range of content sources as well as the ability to customize content to specific content types in SharePoint. Any content that is accessible over HTTP or a file system can be imported or migrated. Metalogix has numerous API- and DB-level connectors for many source systems including: MCMS, eRoom, SiteScape, SQLServer, Vignette and Excel.

  • What steps are involved in a typical migration project?
    Step 1: Source: Existing Content Inventory
    Step 2: Source: Existing Content Analysis
    Step 3: SharePoint: Requirements Gathering
    Step 4: SharePoint: Site Development
    Step 5: Content Extraction from Source into WMM
    Step 6: Field Mapping to SharePoint using WMM
    Step 7: Content Migration to SharePoint using WMM
    Step 8: Link Correction in SharePoint using WMM
    Step 9: SharePoint: Site Functionality QA
    Step 10: SharePoint: Content QA

  • Can I create an importer for a system that is currently not supported by WMM?
    WMM is highly configurable and easily extensible. Custom importers to WMM can be created with some technical training from Metalogix. For details please visit: http://download.metalogix.net/downloads/metalogixsampleactions.zip

  • Do I have to install WMM on my SharePoint server or Source system server for migrating content?
    No. Website Migration Manager’s architecture can be deployed with great deal of flexibility. The typical deployment involves installing the client application on multiple client machines that have required access to source system and SharePoint. There are no restrictions on installing Website Migration Manager directly on the SharePoint or source system server if that configuration makes more sense in your environment.

  • Can I use WMM to migrate content to various environments? E.g., Development, QA, Production, etc.
    All WMM configurations are stored in a local database within a WMM data file. As long as the source and target systems have the same configuration on all environments, updating the URL for the source and the target sites will maintain all other configurations across environments. In this way, re-configuring a migration to point to Dev, QA or Production is accomplished by running a built-in action to re-target the migration configuration by simply changing the base SharePoint server URL.

    List of supported Source Systems
    Source content can be imported from any or all of the following:
    Vignette
    MCMS 2002
    NTFS Directories
    Documentum eRoom
    SiteScape
    Any http accessible content (such as static html pages, linked files, images etc.)
    CSV files.

    Custom connectors for any ECM API or DB can be added by Metalogix Professional Services Team, Partners or Clients.

    List of supported Target Systems
    All versions of WSS and SharePoint are supported as a migration target with the obvious limitation that web content can only be migrated to MOSS as this is the only SharePoint product with that feature. 

    List of supported Operating Systems
    Windows Server 2003
    Windows Server 2008
    Windows XP
    Windows Vista

  • Do we need to freeze our Source System when doing the migration using WMM?
    No. This may make sense for business process reasons but WMM does not require a content freeze.

  • Describe how content migration is done within WMM?

    Extraction / Importing
    Website Migration Manager imports web pages and/or file content directly from the Source System. A record is created in Website Migration Manager for each content item with a distinct column for each metadata and content field.
    Mapping
    Migration settings are then set on WMM content items using built-in SharePoint migration configuration dialogs. When migrating to SharePoint web pages, settings are specified for the target SharePoint site, dynamic site and folder creation logic (optional), target content type, column mappings from WMM fields to SharePoint content item fields, SharePoint workflow, and associated content migration settings. These settings can be set for one or many items at a time and settings can be copied and pasted between items at any time.
    Migration
    After import and migration settings are configured, any content can be migrated to SharePoint with the click of a button. The migration process is as follows:

    • Determine target SharePoint list or library for the content item being migrated, dynamically creating sites, libraries and folders as necessary
    • Create a new SharePoint content item corresponding to the selected WMM content item
    • Populate the SharePoint content item with any mapped metadata and content
    • Migrate any associated static files for the content item as required
    • Add the content item to the SharePoint list or library

  • Do you produce a detailed migration log?
    All steps in the migration process are stored in a detailed migration log. Success status is indicated upon completion in a dialog box, the log file, and content item fields that indicate success and the URL of the associated migrated SharePoint item.

  • Can I copy/paste my settings between various items that I need to migrate?
    All migration settings, including target SharePoint site, content type, column mappings and resource migration settings are configured at the item level. Once created, settings can be easily edited and re-used. Settings can also be easily copied and pasted between items. This model enables content to be migrated multiple times without requiring any re-configuration.

  • How does WMM discover the associated content for the webpages?
    Content associations are discovered by analyzing the hyperlinks that exist within web content, assessing them and then determining whether they are links to other internal web pages, external web pages or content resources (ex. documents and images).

  • How does WMM handle migration of content associated with web pages? Can I migrate the associated content / static files independently? What are the recommendations around migrating associated content / static files?
    Associated content and static files can either be discovered automatically within web content or crawled independently from any file repository. Post-import, static files can either be migrated automatically along with their corresponding web content or migrated separately from web content and then automatically re-associated with their corresponding web content using Website Migration Manager’s link correction feature set. The first approach is simpler because it requires no explicit management of static files. The second approach is more powerful as it gives you more granular control over where and how static files will be migrated to SharePoint. Please contact us if you would like assistance determining the best approach for your specific case.

  • Can WMM migration task be scheduled?
    Yes, once it has been configured, any migration project can be executed from the command line. Command-line execution can be scripted and scheduled using several built-in Windows tools.

  • What reporting options are available within WMM?
    Website Migration Manager’s built-in analysis engine provides powerful ad-hoc querying and reporting capabilities. Any report can be exported to Excel for further tailoring and analysis. Examples of powerful reports enabled by Website Migration Manager include:

    • Content Authoring Histories
    • Amount of Content by Author/Editor
    • Amount of Content by Content Type
    • Amount of Content by Site

  • Is there any training available for WMM?
    Depending on your specific training needs, Metalogix Professional Services team offers:

    Onsite Training: The five-day onsite training package includes three days of instructor-led classroom session with hands-on exercises and two days of onsite migration consulting.
    Webinars: A wide range of pre-recorded webinars is available for specific functional areas of the product.
    Custom Remote Training: Custom remote training via Live Meeting is available and can be customized to suit client needs.

  • How does Metalogix provide technical support for WMM?
    Metalogix is well-known for its excellent support. The North American-based support team has a deep level of SharePoint and product expertise and is exclusively dedicated to customer support.
     There are two types of support packages available:
    Basic Support: 24-hour email support, included in standard support and maintenance package. Issues will be escalated to phone and LiveMeeting support if necessary.
    Premiere Support: 24-hour phone support, with pay-per-incident or incident-package support.

  • Can you participate in a POC?
    Yes. The Metalogix Professional Services team and Metalogix partners have a great deal of experience participating in large migration project POCs. Please contact us directly for pricing and/or partner contacts.