I have heard that Sharepoint could be the answer to a loosely managed, fast growing file share. I was asked to try and find a solution for a file share which currently houses millions of files, and terabytes of data using Sharepoint. I see a number of huge challenges with this exercise if we use Sharepoint, and causing many questions.
Should we import the documents into the database, should we use RBS, should the files stay on the file share and just import metadata or references? How would that happen? What type of storage, how would you set up the content databases? Would you use multiple drives? How will this effect backups? Also what is the best way to migrate 10s of millions of files?
We would probably want to eliminate duplicates, keep versions, and store meta-data for easy searching.
Does anyone have any experience, ideas or suggestions regarding this type of process being managed in Sharepoint? Are there any third party applications that make sense? Has anyone actually done something like this before.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Vikki McCormick
Hi Phil,
Thank you for your response. I don’t think this is a lone situation when it comes to managing archive files that need to be kept around for reference, and what can be done with them. I would think of these files like a library or a history.
I guess we are looking at number 3. I really don’t want to migrate all those documents into Sharepoint at all. I know if we went through an exercise like this and wanted to spend time and money on it, it would have to be an improvement over what we have which is more of a manual search.
So what I don’t get is how Sharepoint would improve this process. I’m missing something.
Does it search a file share faster? Do you get to add some extra or customized metadata to assist your search and to help categorize the information? I only see a couple of ways of doing this.
A custom web-part or third party web-part/app that connects a fileshare to Sharepoint. Importing the documents (For me not an option). Crawling the FileShare.
What would offer the greatest benefit in managing files like this? Is there a benefit to doing this in Sharepoint? I just feel like I am missing something.
Thanks again.
