#Import SharePoint Site Collections

You can either manually import existing SharePoint site collections or set up profiles to automatically discover and import them using the following instructions:

#Manually Import SharePoint Site Collections

AvePoint Cloud Governance does not support creating Project Online site collections, which are site collections with the Project Web App, but you can import Project Online site collections so that you can use AvePoint Cloud Governance to manage them.

To import existing site collections, complete the following steps in the Cloud Governance admin center in order:

#1. Export Site Collection Information to a Template File

Complete the following steps to export a template file that contains site collection information:

1. In the Cloud Governance admin center, navigate to Profiles & templates > Manual import, and then click Export a template on the ribbon.

2. Configure the following settings in the Export a template panel:

   1. Export job name ‒ Enter a name for the export job.

   2. Description ‒ Enter an optional description for future reference.

   3. Object type ‒ Select Site collection.

   4. Scope ‒ Define the scope for the site collections you want to export. Click Add to open the Add containers panel. Then, select one or more containers that were configured in AvePoint Online Services and click Add. Site collections within the containers that are not currently managed by AvePoint Cloud Governance will be exported to the template file.

      NOTE

      Make sure site collections have already been discovered and added into the appropriate AvePoint Online Services containers.

   5. Metadata – Add metadata that will be added to the exported template file. You can then review and edit the metadata values of the site collections. Click Add. In the Add Metadata window, select metadata and click Add to list.

3. Click Export to export the template file. After the export job completes, navigate to Job monitor. Select the export job and click Download on the ribbon to export the template file.

#2. Configure the Template File to Provide Governance Details

To configure an exported site collection template file, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to the location where the exported template file is saved.

2. Open the template file to view and configure the following information for each site collection.

   NOTE

   The template file contains column headings in the first row and these headings are required. The information you enter must be exact, including spaces and capitalization.

   • Site Collection Title ‒ Displays the title of the site collection.

   • Site Collection URL ‒ Displays the full URL of the site collection.

   • Primary Contact ‒ Enter the email address of a user to assign the user to be the primary site collection contact.

   • Secondary Contact (optional) ‒ Enter the email address of a user to assign the user to be the secondary site collection contact.

   • External Sharing Profile (optional) – Enter a site collection external sharing profile name to apply the profile to the site collection.

   • Storage Management Profile (optional) – Enter a site collection storage management profile name to apply the profile to the site collection.

   • Contact Election Profile (optional) – Enter a site collection contact election profile name to apply the profile to the shared mailbox.

   • Renewal Profile (optional) – Enter a site collection renewal profile name to apply the profile to the shared mailbox.

   • Keep Site Collection Storage ‒ Choose whether to keep the site collection storage during the import process. Select Yes or No from the drop-down list.

   • AvePoint Cloud Governance App Setting ‒ Choose whether to add the AvePoint Cloud Governance App and Cloud Governance Panel to the site collection. Select None, Only App, or App and Cloud Governance Panel from the drop-down list. The app provides Microsoft 365 end users with easier access to AvePoint Cloud Governance without having to leave the site collection interface.

   • Metadata ‒ If you have selected metadata for the export job, the metadata is included in the template file. You can remove the metadata that you do not want to apply to any site collections.

     Note the following:

     • If the type of the metadata is Hyperlink, the metadata value must be the desired text and the hyperlink address separated by a semicolon.

     • If the metadata type is Lookup, AvePoint recommends that you do not change the format of the SharePoint library/list column whose value will be retrieved as the metadata value. Make sure the metadata value is in one of the following types: Yes/No, Date and Time, and User or Group.

     • If the metadata type is Microsoft Entra property, the metadata value must be the user email address.

3. Save the template file after the configuration.

#3. Import the Template File

To import the configured template file, complete the following steps:

1. In Profiles & templates > Manual import, complete the following settings:

   1. Import job name ‒ Enter a name for the import job.

   2. Description ‒ Enter an optional description for future reference.

   3. Object type ‒ Select Site collection.

   4. Start time for object inactivity management ‒ Specify the start time to use for calculating the site collection inactivity time by choosing one of the following two options:

      • Object last activity time ‒ The last activity time of a site collection will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

      • Object imported time ‒ The time when a site collection is imported to Cloud Governance will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

   5. Import a template file (.xlsx) ‒ Click Browse to locate the configured template file.

2. Click Import to start the import job and apply the governance details.

#4. View Import Results

After you start the import job, go to Job monitor. When the import job status changes to Completed, it indicates that the site collections included in the template file have been successfully imported to AvePoint Cloud Governance.

If the import job status changes to Completed with Exception, it indicates that one or more site collections are not successfully imported. Follow the steps below to view the import results:

1. Select the import job and click Download on the ribbon to download the job report.

2. Navigate to the location where the import result file is saved and open the file.

3. The Result column shows the import result.

   • Successful indicates the site collection has been successfully imported.

   • Failed indicates the site collection is not imported. You can refer to the details in the Comment column for troubleshooting and modify the template file.

     When you modify the template file, remove the rows of the site collections that have been successfully imported and only keep the failed site collections. After modifying the template file, you can import the template file again to re-import those site collections.

   • Skipped indicates the site collection is skipped from being imported. You can refer to the details in the Comment column to find the reason.

#Note for SharePoint Root Site Collection

The root site collection for your organization is provisioned automatically when you set up a Microsoft 365 tenant that has the SharePoint service. The URL of the root site collection is typically contoso.sharepoint.com.

If you want to import the root site collection and use AvePoint Cloud Governance to manage it, make sure custom scripts are allowed in your Microsoft 365 tenant. For more information on custom script, refer to Allow or prevent custom script.

Complete the following steps to check or enable Custom Script settings:

1. Navigate to SharePoint admin center > Settings.

2. On the Settings page, click the classic settings page link. The classic settings page is opened in a new tab.

3. Locate the Custom Script section and make sure the Allow users to run custom script on self-service created sites option is selected.

4. Click OK to save your change.

#Note for Geo Location Changes

When your Microsoft 365 tenant has the Multi-Geo Capabilities in Microsoft 365 service plan, site collections can be stored in different geo locations.

If a site collection stored in a specific geo location is moved to a different geo location after you export the site collection template file and before you import the site collection, this site collection cannot be imported. You can export a new template file, and then re-import the site collection.

#Automated Import for SharePoint Site Collections

To set up profiles to discover newly created SharePoint site collections in schedule and automatically import the site collections, complete the following steps in order:

#1. Create a Scan Profile to Discover Site Collections

To ensure AvePoint Cloud Governance can automatically import the newly created site collections, you must create a scan profile first. Complete the following steps to create a scan profile:

1. Navigate to AvePoint Online Services > Auto discovery > Scan profiles.

2. Create a scan profile.

   • Select Microsoft 365 > SharePoint site as the object type.

   • If you want to import all site collections that will be created in Microsoft 365, you can choose Express mode.

   • If you want to import the site collections that meet specific rules, for example, the site collection Template Title is Team Site, you can choose the Advanced mode.

   • Make sure a scan schedule is configured in the scan profile settings.

   For details on creating a scan profile, see Manage Scan Profiles.

#2. Create an Automatic Import Profile

To configure a site collection automatic import profile in the Cloud Governance admin center, go to Management > Profiles & templates > Automatic import profiles, click Create on the ribbon, and select Site collection automatic import profile from the drop-down list. Then, configure the following settings in the Create site collection automatic import profile panel:

1. Profile name – Enter a name for the site collection automatic import profile.

2. Description – Enter an optional description for the site collection automatic import profile.

3. Automatic import method – Choose a method for confirming imported site collections’ governance details.

   • Predefine governance details – If you do not require end users’ confirmation for site collection governance details and you want to predefine site collection governance details, you can select this option. The import process for the site collections will be fully automated.

   • Require end user confirmation – If you require end users to confirm the governance details for the newly imported site collections, you can select this option. A task will be generated and assigned to end users. When end users finish confirming the site collection governance details, the import process completes.

     When end user confirmation is required, you can choose whether to Show guidance to confirm governance details task assignees respectively in the contact, profiles, and metadata steps of the confirm governance details tasks. If you want to show guidance, select a guidance profile from the drop-down list. You can click View profile details to view the details of the selected guidance profile. You can also click the create button to create a new profile. For more information about how to create a guidance profile, refer to Configure Guidance Profiles. To retrieve the latest guidance profiles that are available, you can click the refresh button.

4. Message to confirm governance details task assignee (This field appears only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Your message can help the task assignee to decide if they are the correct contact, as well as help them complete the confirm governance details process. To customize the message shown to confirm governance details task assignees for your desired languages, refer to the following steps:

   1. Click the edit button of your desired languages.

   2. In the Edit message panel, enter your desired message in the text box.

   3. Click Save when you finish the configuration.

   Default language – Select a default language. Note that only the languages that are enabled as available languages can be selected as the default language.

   If a user's Cloud Governance display language is not one of the enabled options, the message will be shown in the default language.

5. Scope – Define the scope for this profile to scan for new site collections. Click Add to open the Add containers panel. Then select one or more containers that were configured in AvePoint Online Services.

   NOTE

   • Make sure site collections have already been discovered and added into the appropriate AvePoint Online Services containers.
   • Containers that have been added to other profiles cannot be selected.

6. Automatic import schedule – Specify an interval and a start time for the automatic import process to define the automatic import schedule.

   • Interval – Enter an integer in the text box and select Days, Weeks, or Months as the unit of time to specify the automatic import interval.

   • Start time – Select a date and time as the start time for the automatic import process.

7. Assignment and duration (This field appears only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Select a stage profile from the drop-down list to define the assignment and duration of different stages that will be applied in the site collection import process. After the confirmation governance details task is approved by assignees of all stages, the site collections can be imported. You can click View profile details to view the details of the selected stage profile. You can also click the create button to create a new profile. For more information about how to create a stage profile, refer to Configure Stage Profiles.

8. Contacts – Configure the primary contact and/or secondary contact for the imported site collections.

   If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, configure the following settings:

   • Primary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Site collection owners group, or $Site property (“Property name”) as the primary contact who will be responsible for the newly imported site collections.

     • When you specify the role $Object admin as the primary contact, one of the site collection administrators will be randomly chosen as the primary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site collection owners group as the primary contact, a random one in the site collection Owners group will be the primary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site property (“Property name”), replace Property name with the property name in your site property bag. Note that you must enter the full role name, such as $Site property (“Manager”). Make sure the property value is a user or group.

     Choose whether to Notify the primary contact when site collections are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

   • Secondary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Site collection owners group, or $Site property (“Property name”) as the secondary contact who will be responsible for the newly imported site collections.

     • When you specify the role $Object admin as the secondary contact, one of the site collection administrators will be randomly chosen as the secondary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site collection owners group as the secondary contact, a random one in the site collection Owners group will be the secondary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site property (“Property name”), replace Property name with the property name in your site property bag. Note that you must enter the full role name, such as $Site property (“Manager”). Make sure the property value is a user or group.

     Choose whether to Notify the secondary contact whensite collections are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

   If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, configure the following settings:

   • People picker filter profile – Select a people picker filter profile from the drop-down list. The filter settings will be applied to the site collection secondary contact people picker fields in the confirm governance details task. After selecting a people picker filter profile, you can click View profile details to view the details of the profile.

     You can also click the create button or go to Management > Profiles & templates > People picker filter profiles to create a people picker filter profile. For more instructions, refer to Configure People Picker Filter Profiles.

   • Secondary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Site collection owners group, or $Site property (“Property name”) as the secondary contact who will be responsible for the newly imported site collections.

     • When you specify the role $Object admin as the secondary contact, one of the site collection administrators will be randomly chosen as the secondary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site collection owners group as the secondary contact, a random one in the site collection Owners group will be the secondary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site property (“Property name”), replace Property name with the property name in your site property bag. Note that you must enter the full role name, such as $Site property (“Manager”). Make sure the property value is a user or group.

     You can choose one of the following options from the drop-down list to determine how to set the secondary contact:

     • Allow business users to configure this field – You can select the secondary site collection contact. Business users can choose whether to edit, remove, or assign the secondary site collection contact when they confirm governance details of the site collections.

     • Require business users to configure this field – Business users are required to select the secondary site collection contact when they confirm governance details of the site collections.

   • Choose whether to Notify the primary contact whensite collections are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

   • Choose whether to Notify the secondary contact when site collections are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

9. Renewal profile – A site collection renewal profile enables a renewal process for users to periodically review and change site collection governance details when a site collection goes through the renewal process.

   • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select a renewal profile for the newly imported site collections from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a site collection renewal profile, refer to Configure Site Collection Renewal Profiles.

   • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more renewal profiles for the newly imported site collections. You can also click Create and create a site collection renewal profile in the Create site collection renewal profile panel.

     Default profile – Select a default renewal profile from the drop-down list.

     Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the site collection renewal profile:

     • Require business users to configure this field – A renewal profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select a renewal profile and business users can change the renewal profile in the confirm governance details task.

     • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select a renewal profile and business users cannot change the renewal profile in the confirm governance details task.

     • Hide this field from business users – You select a renewal profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

10. External sharing profile – A site collection external sharing profile can be applied to site collections to enable external sharing settings for site collections.

    • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select an external sharing profile for the newly imported site collections from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a site collection external sharing profile, refer to Configure Site Collection External Sharing Profiles.

    • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more external sharing profiles for the newly imported site collections. You can also click Create and create an external sharing profile in the Create site collection external sharing profile panel.

      Default profile – Select a default external sharing profile from the drop-down list.

      Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the site collection external sharing profile:

      • Require business users to configure this field – An external sharing profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select an external sharing profile and business users can change the external sharing profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select an external sharing profile and business users cannot change the external sharing profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Hide this field from business users – You select an external sharing profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

11. Storage management profile – A storage management profile can be applied to site collections to allocate storage as well as set the storage threshold.

    • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select a storage management profile for the newly imported site collections from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a site collection storage management profile, refer to Configure Site Collection Storage Management Profiles.

      Choose whether to Keep existing site collection storagelimit during the import process.

    • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more storage management profiles for the newly imported site collections. You can also click Create and create a storage management profile in the Create site collection storage management profile panel.

      Default profile – Select a default storage management profile from the drop-down list.

      Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the site collection storage management profile:

      • Require business users to configure this field – A storage management profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select a storage management profile and business users can change the storage management profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select a storage management profile and business users cannot change the storage management profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Hide this field from business users – You select a storage management profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

12. Contact election profile – With a contact election profile applied to the site collections, an automated contact election process will start when the primary or secondary contact is invalid.

    • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select a contact election profile for the newly imported site collections from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a site collection contact election profile, refer to Configure Site Collection Contact Election Profiles.

    • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more contact election profiles for the newly imported site collections. You can also click Create and create a contact election profile in the Create site collection contact election profile panel.

      Default profile – Select a default contact election profile from the drop-down list.

      Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the site collection contact election profile:

      • Require business users to configure this field – A contact election profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select a contact election profile and business users can change the contact election profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select a contact election profile and business users cannot change the contact election profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Hide this field from business users – You select a contact election profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

13. Metadata – The metadata configurations vary with the selected automatic import method:

    • If Predefine governance details is selected, choose the metadata that you want to apply to the newly imported site collections. Click Add to open the Add metadata panel. Then, select available metadata in your tenant and click Add to list.

      If you want to modify the metadata value, click the Edit button and edit the metadata value in the panel.

    • If Require end user confirmation is selected, choose the method to determine what metadata will be applied to the newly imported site collections:

      • Manual – With this option selected, you can choose the metadata to apply to the newly imported site collections. Click Add to open the Add metadata panel. Then, select available metadata in your tenant and click Add to list.

        If you want to modify the metadata value, click the Edit button and edit the metadata value in the panel.

      • Dynamic – With this option selected, select a dynamic metadata profile from the drop-down list and the metadata to be applied to the newly imported site collections will be loaded based on the conditions or branches defined in the profile.

    Choose whether to Synchronize the property value from the site property bag as the metadata value when the property name is the same as the metadata name.

14. AvePoint Cloud Governance App – Choose whether to Automatically enable AvePoint Cloud Governance App. If you select this checkbox, the AvePoint Cloud Governance App will be automatically added to the site collections when the site collections are successfully imported to AvePoint Cloud Governance. The app provides Microsoft 365 end users with easier access to AvePoint Cloud Governance without having to leave the site interface. If you choose Automatically enable AvePoint Cloud Governance App, you can select the Automatically add the Site Information Card into thesite collection checkbox. AvePoint Cloud Governance will automatically add the Site Information Card into the site collection.

    For details, refer to Manage Site Information Card.

15. Lifecycle management actions (This section appears only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Choose whether to Allow the confirm governance details task assignee to delete a site collection during the automatic import process.

16. Start time for site collection inactivity management – Specify the start time to use for calculating the site collection inactivity time by choosing one of the following two options:

    • Site collection last activity time ‒ The last activity time of a site collection will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

    • Site collection imported time (when you choose Predefine governance details)/Site collection governance details confirmed time (when you choose Require end user confirmation) ‒ The time when a site collection is imported to Cloud Governance/the time when the site collection governance details are confirmed will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

17. Escalation (This field will appear only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method) – Choose whether to Enable an escalation for an overdue process. With the escalation enabled, choose from the following options to determine how to enable an escalation action:

    • Use the selected escalation profile – With the option selected, select an automated escalation profile for the site collection from the drop-down list.

      You can click View profile details to view the details of the selected escalation profile for team. You can also click the create button to create a new profile. For more information about how to create an escalation profile for site collection, refer to Configure Automated Escalation Profiles for Site Collections.

    • Automatically specify primary and secondary contacts for an overdue import process – With the option selected, the confirm governance details task will be automatically completed using the defined contacts.

      • Primary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Manager of object admin, $Object creator, or $Manager of object creator as the primary contact.

        Choose whether to Notify the primary contact when groups are imported to Cloud Governance. If you enable the notification, select an email template for the notification email from the drop-down list.

      • Secondary contact (Optional) – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Manager of object admin, $Object creator, or $Manager of object creator as the secondary contact.

        Choose whether to Notify the secondary contact whensite collections are imported to Cloud Governance. If you enable the notification, select an email template for the notification email from the drop-down list.

18. Administrator contact – Specify a user or group (Microsoft 365 Group, distribution group, or mail-enabled security group) to be the administrator contact to monitor the automatic import process.

    • Notification email for confirm governance details task assignment (This field will appear only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Select an email template that will be used to send a notification email to the administrator contact, when the contact has a site collection assigned for confirming governance details.

    • Notification email template for the completed site collection import – Select an email template to notify the administrator contact when the site collection import process is completed.

    • Notification email template for completed governance details confirmation (This field will appear only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Select an email template to notify the administrator contact when the governance details confirmation is completed.

19. Click Save to save all your configurations.

#3. Monitor Automatic Import Results

In Job monitor in the Cloud Governance admin center, you can monitor the status and results of automatic import jobs. When a job status is shown as Completed, it indicates that the newly discovered site collections have been successfully imported to AvePoint Cloud Governance.

If a job status is shown as Exception, it indicates that one or more site collections are not successfully imported. Follow the steps below to view the import results:

1. Select the automatic import job and click Download on the ribbon.

2. Open the automatic import result file to see the detailed import result.

3. The Status column shows the import result:

   • Successful indicates that the site collection has been successfully imported.

   • Failed indicates the site collection is not imported. You can refer to the details in the Comment column for troubleshooting.