Using SharePoint for Shared Drives

[SteveSaywell]

We are looking to migrate from our on-prem file server to SharePoint with Cloud Drive Mapper.

 

Before agreeing our SLT would like to know how those schools using this setup already have found it? And more specifically, how have staff found it?

[TechMonkey]

We are doing it, with CDM as well. Not been told of any major issues, though we would probably be the last to know!! We have given a year to get files transferred, with the old shared area being set to read only, in the meantime.

 

You do need to do a lot of hand holding. Make sure they realise that there are now 2 ways to get to the files, online and through File Explorer. I try and tell them to use Explorer in school and online off-site. Also show them how to refresh Explorer (F5), and to do that if anything looks odd or files aren't there that they are expecting. The biggest wall butting issue will probably be when staff start using Word or Excel Online and then complain when something doesn't work, ignoring the big EDIT IN WORD button.

[thimon]

We also use CDM, the latest version of the client seems to map drives much faster. 90% of all our shares are now hosted on SharePoint Online. I would advise to migrate just one file share first, and roll that out to the relevant staff. That’s what we did, collected feedback about how it went then rolled out the rest of the shares over summer. We found out Excel files do not like to be opened by multiple people when using the original migrated document, we created new documents when this arose for users using Excel Online, advise users to ONLY use Excel Online if they wish to have a multi user spreadsheet. We also setup a dedicated Media Share on our File Server for photos, videos and our Marketing department. The transfer speed of SharePoint/ CDM is just not fast enough for media files. I created a shortcut on all users start menu that when clicked closes CDM then restarts it (which refreshes the drive mappings), as sometime when users take their 1:1 laptops offsite the drives don’t load properly when back onsite. On the whole staff have been okay with migration. Some of them got confused with SharePoint and OneDrive, and some dreaded it as they thought they would have to retrain in IT to get their heads around it. I created a basic two page help guide that got sent out with all staff emails detailing what has changed and how to access files. Any more questions please feel free to ask. Edited December 11, 2019 by thimon

[SteveSaywell]

We also setup a dedicated Media Share on our File Server for photos, videos and our Marketing department. The transfer speed of SharePoint/ CDM is just not fast enough for media files.

That's a good suggestion about the photos/videos and creating a local share.

 

Thank

[TechMonkey]

That's a good suggestion about the photos/videos and creating a local share.

 

Thank

 

YEs we do the same. Big ole Synology box for pictures and videos.

[chaplic]

Why use a third party product? You can sync teamsite documents to PCs via policy. You get a new icon in explorer. MS issue guidance about scaling of this which doesnt impact me, but so far it's been without incident.

 

[Michael]

If you're considering the likes of SharePoint and OneDriveMapper, this is where Google File Stream comes into its own, as this maps as G:\ by default, but more crucially for Education it's free.

[TechMonkey]

Why use a third party product? You can sync teamsite documents to PCs via policy. You get a new icon in explorer. MS issue guidance about scaling of this which doesnt impact me, but so far it's been without incident.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56035[/ATTACH]

 

 

Because we found that our drives were getting full of synced documents and that pupils were losing documents as they were not being synched quick enough between them closing an application and logging off. Once again, it works great for 1:1 devices or staff who use the same PC day in, day out. But for Pupils who as usual are a unique use case that MS didn't think about it just wasn't up to scratch. CDM writes direct to the cloud so there is less hassle attached.

[Rob_D]

We use https://www.dmsystem.co.uk/user-group-management/onedrive-connect to map our student drives to sharepoint and most of the time there's no difference to end users to when it was on-prem.

 

The only major gotcha we've come across is that you can't play videos direct from the mapped drive. (Only works in browser), but Thimon's idea of a local Media Share gets around that (and is probably something we'll do as we move the staff area up).

[titch]

Why use a third party product? You can sync teamsite documents to PCs via policy. You get a new icon in explorer. MS issue guidance about scaling of this which doesnt impact me, but so far it's been without incident.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56035[/ATTACH]

 

Know how to do this manually but cant find any info on how to do this via policy? Any info greatly appreciated.