P Drive Migration

Over the course of 2021, ITS will assist departments as they move their content from the P Drive to Google Shared drives. Google Shared drives are shared spaces where groups of people can easily store, search, and access files and are the preferred files storage solution for team file storage on campus.

When will i lose access to my P drive?

  • Over the course of 2021, ITS will reach out to departments in phased groups to guide them through the process of moving P Drive content to Google Shared drives. As part of this process, P Drive shares will be set to read-only at the direction of the department and eventually access for the department will be removed. See the Google Drive Migration Workflow web page for more information about the process and steps related to the move from the P Drive to Google Shared drives.
  • By the end of 2021, all P Drive shares should be migrated and made inaccessible.

Migration Questions

Who will copy my content to Shared drives?

This depends on the volume and size of the files that needs to be migrated. Departments and programs are expected to copy files on their own, but if the volume of content is too great, ITS will offer assistance. After a recent announcement by Google, Google Drive no longer offers unlimited storage, which means it’s important for departments and programs to be determine which files are necessary to be copied to Google Shared drives.

When does my department/program need to copy files to Shared drives?

All departments and programs identified as having files stored on Samba P drive(s) will be contacted sometime during 2021 with some beginning in mid-March. When contacted, each department and program will need to identify a Steward who will work with a Migration Guide from ITS to coordinate the migration process. The goal will be to complete the migration process in six weeks or less. Departments will be contacted about four weeks prior to when they will be expected to copy their content to Shared drives. Below is a schedule of these six-week blocks.

Group Date to be contacted Start date (always Monday) End date (always Friday)
Group 1 March 15 April 12 May 21
Group 2 April 26 May 24 July 2
Group 3 June 7 July 5 August 13
Group 4 July 19 August 16 September 24
Group 5 August 30 September 27 November 5
Group 6 October 11 November 8 December 17

Will ITS provide assistance during the process of copying files to Shared drives?

Yes, ITS will assign a Migration Guide to each department and program to coordinate the process. If a department or program needs assistance copying a large volume of files, ITS will assist.

What if my department/program already moved to Shared drives?

Self-migration can happen, but ITS will reach out to ALL departments regardless if they move entirely on their own or if they work with ITS in their migration.

How will I access Banner and OnBase?

ITS has already migrated both the “banner_users” and “onbase_users” Samba shares to a Google Shared Drive entitled, “Banner & Enterprise Applications.” Here you will find the shortcuts and documentation you are accustomed to accessing from the aforementioned Samba shares.

On March 15th, access to “banner_users” and “onbase_users” will be removed.

To access the “Banner & Enterprise Applications” Shared Drive, you will need to be signed in to the Drive for desktop app (formerly Google Drive FileStream). If you have questions about Drive for Desktop, please see https://help.lafayette.edu/getting-started-with-file-stream/

What if I don't want to wait for ITS to contact my department/program?

If you’d like to start migrating your Samba P drive files to Google Shared drives, you’re absolutely welcome to begin. You can follow the instructions found on the Migration from P Drive to Google Shared drives web page. Once you’ve completed your migration, you can contact the Help Desk at help@lafayette.edu. A Migration Guide will follow up with you to place your Samba P drive(s) into a read-only state before removing access to your Samba P drive(s).

What if I have more questions?

Please message the Help Desk at help@lafayette.edu if you have more questions.