Data Migration tool in Zoom

From Zoom 7.2 onwards, users can migrate a large volume of data to their Zoom repository using our Data Migration tool in the Asset Browser. The migration process is totally hands-free, without downtime, and can run seamlessly in the background. At any time, the user can check the progress and pause or stop the migration. When resumed, the migration starts from where it left off.

This migration needs VideoLX enabled and set up so that the migrated assets are ingested through VideoLX’s Ingest Server.

The Data Migration tool usage requires Data Migration service to be subscribed. It is illegal to use the tool without a valid subscription to our data migration service.

Enable Data Migration

Once you have subscribed to the Data Migration service via a statement of work (SoW), our migration team can enable data migration tool.

By default, the data migration feature is disabled. To enable it on a Zoom Client machine, access the client’s zoom.properties file. This file is located inside the .zm folder in the user directory.

For the user John on Windows, the path would typically be C:\Users\john\.zm
For the user John on Mac, the path would typically be [YourMac]/Users/john/.zm

To enable data migration:

  1. Open zoom.properties file for editing. Add the property, ALLOW_DATA_MIGRATION and set it to true.
  2. Save and close the file.
  3. Restart the ClientProxy.
    Check here for Zoom 7.3 onwards and here for Zoom versions before 7.3 so you can set this property on the Zoom Server. The properties on the Zoom Server are automatically propagated to Zoom Clients as per their sync up schedule. Zoom Clients can also pull these settings from the Zoom Server on-demand using Sync Now in the Z-Settings.

Starting migration of data

Follow these steps to start migrating a large volume of data to Zoom:

  1. Open Asset Browser. On the Browse or Search tab, click Start Migration from the Action menu.

  2. The Data Migration dialog is shown.
    Data Migration window
  3. Select the following for Location:

    Source Location – Either enter the path or browse and select the folder from where the files are picked up for migration into Zoom.Server FolderBrowse and select the folder in your Zoom repository where the migrated files will be saved.

  4. If your Zoom setup has mandatory metadata enabled, then Metadata options will also be displayed. Provide values for metadata fields. Values for all mandatory metadata fields should be provided before the Check-In button is enabled.
    Mandatory metadata fields are marked in red and have a trailing asterisk (*); for example, City*.

    You could also select one pre-saved metadata preset to automatically fill in the metadata values. Or, do other standard metadata actions that are available in Check-in dialogs, like filter metadata fields, save or delete metadata presets.

    Click here to know more about Metadata Presets.

    Optionally, enter a revision comment to be saved with the ingest.

  5. If VideoLX is enabled and configured on your Zoom setup, then you could also choose to In-Place Ingest the migrated assets using the VideoLX flow. You could choose this when the source assets already reside on the third-party mount location and need not be moved.
  6. Click Check-In to begin the process of ingesting the files in the Source Location. The Data Migration dialog disappears and the migration continues in the background. The Migration Status window is displayed, which shows the status of the migration job. The migration job continues in batches.

Checking migration status

You can check the status of a migration job while it is running and also the status of all previous migration jobs at any time. Follow these steps:

  1. In a Browse or Search tab, click Migration Status from the Action menu.

  2. The Data Migration Status window is displayed showing the latest migration job in detail along with a list of previous jobs.
    If you click Start Migration while a migration job is running, then also Migration Status window is shown. You cannot start or schedule a migration job while one is already running.
    The Data Migration Status window shows the status of all migration jobs, like Running, Completed, or Failed. Buttons like Refresh, Delete, Restart Migration, and Show Skipped Files are shown for the current and previous migration jobs.On the top, the status of the current migration job is shown. While a job is running, the button Stop is displayed. Click Stop to manually stop the migration job. Once the job is stopped, you could start the migration job again by clicking Start. The job resumes from where it was stopped.
  3. Click  to view the list of skipped files in the Skipped Files Status window. Click on Save List to TXT File to copy the list of skipped files to a text file that is saved in the .zm folder inside the current user’s directory (for example, Windows:C:\Users\john\.zm and Mac: [YourMac]/Users/john/.zm).
  4. Click  to refresh the data on the Migration Status window,  to delete details about the migration job. 
  5. Click  to restart a failed migration job. As the migration job works in batches, it starts from the batch which failed. After the restart, it only ingests those files that were not ingested in Zoom before.

Getting email notification about the migration job

The Zoom user that starts the migration process may optionally also choose to receive notifications about the status of migration jobs. Follow the steps below to enable this:

  1. In the Web Management Console assign a valid email id to the user’s account that will start the migration process.
  2. Define SMTP settings for your Zoom Server in Web Management Console. Check here for details.
  3. Pull the settings on the Zoom Client machine where the migration will take place. Check here to know how to sync from your Zoom Server.
  4. Once the sync up is complete, go to $HOME/.zm and confirm that smtpspec.properties file is present. Email notifications are now set.

Recommendations for better performance

  • The speed of migrating data to Zoom will depend on the configuration of the machine running the migration job. To have a faster migration, employ a machine with a better configuration.
  • Do not restart the Zoom ClientProxy when a migration job is running. If needed, first stop the migration, then restart Zoom ClientProxy.
  • Do not edit any data in the source folder on the disk or target folder on the Zoom repository while the migration is running.
  • Once the migration is completed, you could delete its entry in the Migration Status window.
  • If you want to increase the memory assigned to the Zoom ClientProxy process, update zm.vmoptions file in the Zoom Client’s conf folder (Windows: [ZoomInstallDir]\conf and Mac: [YourMac]/Applications/Evolphin/zoom/conf). Update -Xmx512m to -Xmx3000m. This will change the memory limit from 512mb to 3000mb.
  • As the migration process runs in batches, you can update the size of the batch from zoom.properties. The default batch size is 1000 files. To change, add the property MIGRATION_BATCH_SIZE in zoom.properties in the .zm folder inside the user’s home directory (Windows: C:\Users\john\.zm  and Mac: [YourMac]/Users/john/.zm). For example, MIGRATION_BATCH_SIZE=5000.
  • You can change the sync-up cycles between the Zoom migration process and the Zoom database using zoom.properties. Sync cycle is the number of batches after which Zoom will write the status of the migration process to the disk. By default, it does this sync up after every 25 batches. To change the sync up cycle time, add the property DEFAULT_SYNC_CYCLE in the .zm folder inside the user’s home directory (Windows: C:\Users\john\.zm  and Mac: [YourMac]/Users/john/.zm). For example, DEFAULT_SYNC_CYCLE=50.