FAQ: Getting started and setting up

Every group of questions: Nextcloud FAQ

Set up SMART Migration for the app
How SMART Migration and the app work together
Why the SMART Migration server runs in your network
Performance and load on the Nextcloud server
Digital Resilience Operation (DORA)
Security, privacy and data ownership
Scheduling, recurrence and priority
Set up the project team
Reports and run folders in Nextcloud Files
Troubleshooting

Set up SMART Migration for the app

These questions are explained in full in Set up SMART Migration for the app

What do I need before the first job can run?

A SMART Migration partner, the SMART Migration server installed on a Windows machine in your network, and a licence key — the free trial key to begin with. The app itself is free.

What is the difference between the free trial and a production licence?

The trial has every feature, for 7 days, with the first 250 files and folders per source. The production licence comes from your partner, lifts that limit, and is rented for a fixed period.

What do I need ready before I install the SMART Migration server?

A Windows machine or VM that reaches Nextcloud and the sources, an Entra ID app registration with a certificate (or NTLM credentials on-premises), a dedicated Nextcloud admin account with an app password, the Team folders app, and the installer and trial key from your partner.

What are the limits of the free trial?

7 days, and the first 250 files and folders per document library, OneDrive or file share. Every feature is included.

How do I check that the server is connected?

Look at Live or Offline at the top right of the app, the Dashboard, or Settings → Remote SMART Migration Server, which shows when it last called.

How SMART Migration and the app work together

These questions are explained in full in How SMART Migration and the app work together

How does the app work together with the SMART Migration server?

You define jobs in the app; the server, on a Windows machine in your network, asks the app for work about every 10 seconds while it has a free slot, runs the jobs set to Ready, and reports back. The app never contacts the server or Microsoft 365 itself.

What does the SMART Migration server do, and where does it run?

It does the actual work — reads the sources, writes into Nextcloud, writes the reports — on a Windows machine or VM inside your own network.

Why the SMART Migration server runs in your network

These questions are explained in full in Why the SMART Migration server runs in your network

Why does the SMART Migration server run in our own network?

There it reaches every source — file shares and SharePoint on-premises included — keeps the Microsoft 365 and NTLM credentials inside your network, and uses Microsoft's own interfaces. Files go from the source straight to your Nextcloud, through no third-party cloud.

What does the SMART Migration server need?

A Windows machine or VM with 16 GB of RAM as a baseline and .NET 8, a route to this Nextcloud and the sources, an Entra ID app registration with a certificate for Microsoft 365, NTLM credentials for SharePoint on-premises, read permission on the file shares, a Nextcloud administrator's app password and a licence key.

Does a firewall port have to be opened towards the SMART Migration server?

No. The server starts every connection itself — to this Nextcloud, to the sources and to the reporting database — and nothing has to reach it.

Why does the SMART Migration server not run inside Nextcloud?

Much of the communication with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 goes through Microsoft's own APIs, and most of them are only available on Windows, while Nextcloud runs on Linux. It also keeps Microsoft 365 credentials out of Nextcloud, frees a run of hours or days from a web server, and reads Windows sources with NTLM and a Windows account's permissions.

Performance and load on the Nextcloud server

These questions are explained in full in Performance and load on the Nextcloud server

Does the app slow down the Nextcloud server?

No: the heavy work runs on the SMART Migration server. Its calls are short and answered at once, an open app asks one small thing at a time, and every list is paged on the server.

How often does SMART Migration call the Nextcloud server?

About every 10 seconds for a job while it has a free slot, every 30 to 60 seconds for its heartbeat, and while a job runs for its progress, its log and its file issues — those in batches of up to 1,000.

How often does the open app ask the server for news?

Once every 5 seconds while a job runs or is about to start, every 30 seconds while nothing does, and not at all while its browser tab is hidden — one small request each time.

How much PHP memory and how many PHP workers does the app need?

No PHP workers of its own: no call is held open. Keep PHP's memory_limit at 512 MB — the largest view, Jobs with 25,000 jobs, needs about 140 MB for a moment, and a Run History view of 225,000 runs about 115 MB at most — and size PHP-FPM for the people using Nextcloud.

What happens as Run History grows during a long migration?

Its views read the runs a slice at a time and keep only what is on screen, so a view of 225,000 runs needs at most about 115 MB of PHP memory, against about 75 MB at 75,000. A job's Retention schedule deletes its older runs, if you want them gone.

How SMART Migration installs: the repository and the BI database

These questions are explained in full in How SMART Migration installs: the repository and the BI database

Which databases does SMART Migration install, and can I leave them out?

SQL Server 2025 Express for its repository — job definitions, connection information and logs — and PostgreSQL 18.3 or newer for the BI data, with Power BI Desktop to open the report. Each can be left out during the installation and replaced by a server of your own.

Is the free SQL Server Express enough for my migration?

Up to about 1 million files: SQL Server 2025 Express holds 50 GB. Every run reports how much of it is left and warns when it is time to purge data. For more, use a licensed SQL Server 2022 or newer, which has no limit.

Can I use my own SQL Server for the SMART Migration repository?

Yes: any SQL Server 2022 or newer — Standard, Enterprise or another edition — on another machine or a cluster if you like. In the SMART Migration IDE, double-click the SQL Server connection on the Account/Repository tab and point it to your server; SQL Server Express can then be removed.

How do I set up the repository without SQL Server Express?

Create a database on your SQL Server, restore the template standard.bak from the installation program folder on top of it, and give the Windows account that runs SMART Migration — and the job server's service account — permissions on it. SMART Migration asks for the server and database at its first start.

Can the BI data be kept in SQL Server instead of PostgreSQL?

Not with the Nextcloud app or the Microsoft Teams app and their Power BI report: they use PostgreSQL only — free, with no storage limit, and about twice as fast for BI queries. In setups of your own, the Business Intelligence database connection can point to a SQL Server. The BI server can be separate from the repository server.

Digital Resilience Operation (DORA)

These questions are explained in full in Digital Resilience Operation (DORA)

Can the app keep a recurring copy for digital resilience?

Yes. A job with a recurrence keeps a regularly refreshed copy of a library or share in Nextcloud, documented run by run.

Security, privacy and data ownership

These questions are explained in full in Security, privacy and data ownership

Does the app ever contact Microsoft 365?

No. The app holds no Microsoft 365 credentials and makes no call to it; only the SMART Migration server in your network does.

What does AI Help send out of Nextcloud?

Only your question, the recent turns of the same conversation and pages of this manual, with the app's own labels in your language — never jobs, Run History, file names, file contents or the licence key.

Which account should the SMART Migration server sign in with?

A dedicated Nextcloud administrator account, with an app password created under Settings → Security — never a person's own login.

Which Nextcloud account does the app run as?

None of its own. A page runs as the person using it, an API call as the account the SMART Migration server signs in with, and the hourly retention schedule as no user at all.

Why does the SMART Migration server need an administrator account?

The app lends it no rights, so the server writes the migrated files, the folders and the reports with its own account's rights alone — into Team Folders an ordinary account cannot reach.

Are SharePoint permissions migrated?

No. Who may open the migrated content is set in Nextcloud, through the members of each Team Folder.

How do I cut the server off from Nextcloud at once?

Revoke its app password under Settings → Security → Devices & sessions. Nothing in the app is changed or deleted.

The destination user's app password

These questions are explained in full in The destination user's app password

Why does the app make an app password for the destination user?

A Nextcloud administrator cannot write into another user's files, so a migration into a user's files is written as that user, with an app password made for that one run.

How is the destination user's app password protected?

It is encrypted with the SMART Migration server's RSA public key (RSA-OAEP) before it leaves Nextcloud, so only that server can read it. Without a key no password is made, and neither the app nor Nextcloud keeps it in clear text.

When is the destination user's app password revoked?

When the run ends or is cancelled, at once; a run deleted or left behind is caught by a background job within five minutes. The user, or an administrator with occ, can also revoke it by hand.

What can the destination user's app password reach?

What the user can reach in Nextcloud, while the run lasts — not external storage signed in with the user's own credentials, nor files encrypted with the user's own keys.

Scheduling, recurrence and priority

These questions are explained in full in Scheduling, recurrence and priority

How many jobs can run at the same time?

Four per SMART Migration server. Further Ready jobs wait, highest priority first, then earliest scheduled date.

Set up the project team

These questions are explained in full in Set up the project team

How do I set up a team of administrators and non-administrators?

Give everyone their own Nextcloud account. Put the people who are not administrators in a project group, choose that group under Who can use the app on the Settings tab, and add them to SMART Migration Reports too. Administrators need nothing more.

Does a consultant need to be a Nextcloud administrator?

No. A member of a group chosen under Who can use the app gets the whole app without administrator rights elsewhere in Nextcloud. Only choosing the groups and switching AI Help on or off are kept for administrators.

Reports and run folders in Nextcloud Files

These questions are explained in full in Reports and run folders in Nextcloud Files

Where are the migrated files and the reports kept?

Migrated files go into the job's Team Folder or user's files; each run's report and log go into its own folder under the Team Folder SMART Migration Reports.

Troubleshooting

These questions are explained in full in Troubleshooting

What happens when the server's version does not match the app?

Jobs do not run until the two match. Only the first two parts of the version count; update the server or install the matching app version.