Migrating from SAMBA to Google Shared Drive

Owned by Marc Miller
Last updated: Nov 14, 2023 by Marc Miller
3 min read

Contents

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Purpose

This article is to outline what needs to be considered and how to migrate from SAMBA to Google Shared Drive

Process

Determine quota/space usage

Google Shared Drives have a default quota of 50 GB, samba shares can be multiple orders of magnitude bigger than that.

If you have more than 50 GB and it cannot be broken into multiple shares, you may be better off not migrating.

Determine if what you want to store is permitted to be stored in Google

Per UCSB ITS and Google Shared Drive Limitations

Use Google Storage may be used for:

  • Email
  • Native Google Docs (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms)
  • Work documents (PDFs, Word, Excel)
  • Active & Ad Hoc Collaboration documents (shared with others)

Use Google Storage may not be used for:

  • Anything classified, export controlled, ITAR, etc...
  • Anything related to finances, medical records or other non approved PI 3 and above data
  • Backups of data 
  • Archival location for files that are not regularly accessed
  • Bulk storage of video or audio files
  • Personal data

Outline what should be allowed within the Shared Drive

Take a moment to review the Shared Drive Settings for how you wish to allow Members to be able to do things within the Shared Drive.

By Default, Shared Drive will have the following settings:

  • Members (Contributor or better) can share anything within the Shared Drive to anyone outside of UCSB
  • Members (Contributor or better) can share anything within the Shared Drive who are not Members of the Shared Share
  • Commenters and Viewers can Download, Copy or Print anything within the Shared Share

Consider Data Privacy Compliance as stipulated in Google Shared Drive. 

Such as Medical information, Personal records, and Other Restricted data may not be shared via Shared Drive 

Outline your permissions

Take a moment to look at the Shared Drive Permissions and who will need access to the various data that is in your SAMBA share.

If there are some folders within your SAMBA share that require specific or special permissions, you should consider that you will need to make a separate Shared Drive for that specific folder based on those permissions.

It is recommended to consider having one Departmental Functional Account be given Manager permissions along with the person who will manage the Shared Drive as a 'just in case' situation, such as emergencies or managers leaving and possibly forgetting to pass control over to the next person.

Note with regard to Departmental Functional Account

We recommend that for the Functional Account, it should be named <Department> Fileshare.

(IE: If the Department was CSI, it should be named CSI Fileshare)

This user account should be in the Department's Admin Records or available for the Connect Departmental Admin to reset the password in case there is a need to manage other Departmental Shared Shares.

Outline Shared Drive Structure

As mentioned earlier, with Migrating from SAMBA to Google Shared Drive#Outline your permissions, when you are copying your data from SAMBA to the Shared Drive, you have to take into consideration what folders have special access requirements.

If you have folders that should be accessed a different way, as mentioned above, you will have to consider making that a separate Shared Drive and not include that folder structure within the Shared Drive you are working on.

Also, keep in mind that the Shared Drive does have limitations, as noted here, Google Shared Drive Limitations.

Create Shared Drive

Follow the process to create the Shared Drive here - Creating a Shared Drive

Keep in mind to use the Settings and Permissions you outlined earlier when you create the Shared Drive.

We also recommend, for ease of Identification, to name the Shared Drive <Department> <Function>.

IE: If the department was CSI and the function of the Shared Drive as General, calling it CSI General would help, especially if you are a cross department user, easier to identify which Department the Shared Drive belongs to.

Copy Files/Folders to Shared Drive

You can now copy folders into the Shared Drive, but please make sure to follow your Migrating from SAMBA to Google Shared Drive#Outline Shared Drive Structure as noted above, only copying the Folders that should be in the Shared Drive with the permissions allowable.

Optional Transfer

ECI can work on transferring the SAMBA share information to Google Shared Drive, however, the process can take up to a couple of weeks depending on the amount of data is in the SAMBA share.