Understanding Sanitization Options in Migration App

Audience

Any user of the Migration App.

Context

Sanitizing is the function of renaming files and folders to map to Egnyte naming conventions. After every scan of the source, the migration details page will provide details on any unsupported or conflicting file names. During sanitizing, all unsupported characters are replaced with an underscore, which will allow them to be migrated. If you opt not to sanitize these files, they cannot be migrated to Egnyte. 

Options Dialog Box

When you select Migrate Data or True-Up Data, an options modal will appear:

1. If you select Yes, sanitize on the source, any unsupported characters in filenames will be changed on the source to an underscore before migrating.
2. If you select Yes, sanitize on the fly, unsupported characters in filenames will be changed during migration and nothing will be changed on the source.
3. If you select No, do not sanitize, this metacommand will skip sanitizing altogether. Any unsupported files will not be migrated.

Note that regardless of whether sanitize is selected, if there are no unsupported characters in files on the source, the metacommand will skip the step altogether.

Once you have made your selections in the modal, click Migrate Data or True-Up Data and your migration job will proceed.

Sanitize Settings in Advanced Options

Alternatively, you can set your preferences for a given migration job  by using Advanced Options.

1. Navigate to Advanced Options in the left column of the Migration Details page.
2. Click on Sanitize to view the dialog box for this feature.
   
   
3. Choosing Always - On the Source means that any unsupported characters in filenames will be changed on the Source to an underscore before migrating.
4. Choosing to Always - On-the-Fly means that unsupported characters in filenames will be changed during migration and nothing will be changed on the source.
5. Choosing Never will skip sanitizing altogether.
6. If you elect to keep the default setting of Ad Hoc, the UI will prompt you to make a choice every time you run a command.
7. Once you have made your selections in the modal, click Save.

Considerations

• If there is nothing on the source that needs to be sanitized, Migration App will skip the step, regardless of what you have selected.
• If the original datasource is on Mac/Linux and uploaded using Windows CMM Agent, the special characters (\ , : , . , / , " , < , > , | , * , ?) will not be visible in Windows. This is a limitation in Windows OS and cannot be fixed. The end result is that the file will be visible and can be migrated, but on Egnyte it will appear with the unsupported character replaced with a random character.
• The Unicode character ('\u007F') cannot be recognized. As a result, a file with this character in the name will not be migrated and will not show up in the Migration Report because it is not recognized by Windows. We will continue to seek a root cause for this.
• If two files have identical names except the Unicode characters, then sanitizing will replace the Unicode with '_' which means both files will end up with the same name.
  • Example: on source 2 files with name:
    
    X3vKPFq␋avU2ygQT2h5UMpr
    X3vKPFq⇥avU2ygQT2h5UMpr
    
    Both then become:
    
    X3vKPFq_avU2ygQT2h5UMpr
    
    
  • If you choose Sanitize on source, the second file will overwrite the first file, and only one file will be left to migrate.
  • But if you choose Sanitize on-the-Fly, this results in one file with two versions of the file on the destination.

Unsupported Characters

By default, after sanitizing in Migration App, the following unsupported characters in filenames are replaced by an underscore ("_") on the Source:

Note: Space means an actual space (" ")

 

 

These limitations are not imposed by Migration App independently, but rather reflect Egnyte's overall character support and file type limitations. To find out more, see this Helpdesk Article: Unsupported Characters, and File Types.

Questions? Feature Requests? Other Feedback?

If you have feature requests or suggestions, feel free to submit them on our Product Board, and be sure to mention Migration App in the text.

For more complex requests that would benefit from providing screenshots or other attachments, you may submit them to support@egnyte.com. Be sure to include Migration App in the email title. Our Support team will push your comments to the Product team for consideration.