Overview

Simulation mode allows you to create a job with all desired configuration options and execute it as a dry run. In this mode, no data will transfer, no permissions will be set, and no changes will be made to the source or the destination. This can be useful in answering several questions about your content before running any jobs against your content. You will gain granular insight into your entire content landscape, including its structure, how old it is, what type of files it contains, what metadata it contains, and more, no matter where the files are located (local storage, remote offices, user desktops, etc.). DryvIQ gathers a wide array of file statistics and visualizes the data into easy-to-read dashboards. Sort and analyze content by type, age, last modified date, permissions, most shared, external sharing metrics, and more. All configured reports display as graphs and charts and can be exported as a CSV file. 

Questions Simulation Helps Answer

How much content do I have?

An important first step in any migration is determining how much content you actually have. This can help determine how long the migration will take.

What kinds of content do I have?

Another critical step in any migration is to determine what kinds of content you have. Many organizations have accumulated a lot of content, some of which may not be useful on the desired destination platform. The results of a simulation mode job can help you determine if you should introduce any filter rules to narrow the scope of the job. An example would be excluding executable files (.exe or .bat files) or excluding files older than three years old.

What kinds of issues should I expect to run into?

During a migration, there are many things to consider, and unknown issues that can arise, many of which will only present themselves once you start doing something with the source and destination. Running a job in simulation mode can help you identify some of those issues before you begin transferring content. Examples can include:

• Are my user mappings configured correctly?
• Does the job scope capture everything I expected it to capture?
• Do I have files that are too large for the destination platform?
• Do I have permissions that are incompatible with the destination platform (i.e., ACL vs waterfall)?
• Do I have files or folders that are too long or contain invalid characters that the destination platform will not accept?

Creating Simulation Jobs

Enabling simulation mode is an option available as part of the last step when creating the job. A simulation job can be run and scheduled like any other job, but no data will be transferred.

Transition a Simulation Job to Transfer Content

All reports available for transfer jobs are available for simulation jobs. This ensures you can review the results as if content were being transferred. After review, a simulation job can be transitioned to a live migration job, which will begin to transfer your content to the destination platform.