Hi Charles
If you could give me a few rough infos, I can provide a few hints…
How many users do you have
How many groups?
Total mail volume?
Total size of NS7
Total size of File Server shares
Any potential “Over-Users”?
I have about three or four such “extreme” users.
Typical traits:
Firefox: 1 to several Windows open, each with 30-100 Tabs
Word/Excell: 30-50 documents open, hardly ever any closed for days or weeks on end.
Mail (No matter if Outlook or Thunderbird or Whatever) 20-100 Mails open. Hardly any ever closed or saved!
Yes, not everywhere, but such people (over-users!) do exist. 
A rough estimate would do.
If you do not want this info public, post it via a PM, I’ll anwser correspondingly.
I have converted 10 productive NS7 from my clients and my own home server.
All from a range of 1-30 users.
My largest NS8:
And this is the largest, a 1.5 TB NS8 VM…
At both clients a VM NAS (OMV) takes of the largest shares. This is set up with AD integration as “Member Server” so I can use AD groups for shares. These Shares are also used for NextCloud Shares. All NextCloud Shares are normal Samba Shares, some on NS8, some on OMV, others on Synology. This allows normal use via Windows Shares, and external or mobile use via Smartphones / Tablets with the NC Client.
This is the largest:
In case you’re wondering why the shown NS8 has the somewhat unusual disk size of 1115 GB…
If you follow my install HowTo
I use a single Disk (BtrFS!) and the “whole disk” option. This gives me - for example above a 1100 GB Disk - with a measly 1 GB Swap partition. I want at least 16 GB Swap on all Debian Servers.
- After the minimal install, I shut down the VM.
- Enlarge the disk by 16 GB (exclusively for swap)
- Boot the VM from ISO, using the latest SystemRescue ISO
- Start the GUI with startx
- Use Gpartx to enlarge the extended disk to use the additional 16 GB
- do the same for the actual swap partition
- Hit Apply.
- Check the results - should be all OK.
- Shutdown the VM (Simply log out!)
- Change the boot order to use the Disk instead of ISO to boot, and also remove the ISO
- Boot with NS8
Verify that NS8 is using the larger swap.
Do a Backup!
Now you’re ready to start migration!
You should use a SSD based disk instead of Spinners, at least for the System.
One of the reasons I “Offload” large shares to a AD integrated OMV NAS is Backup times, especially after a Kernel Update on Proxmox, this needs a reboot of Proxmox PVE. This entails a full backup on all VMs. These large VMs, over 1 TB can easily take 2-4 hours for a full Backup.
I do backups over lunch, so I must make sure the next day an incremental will be used for lunchtime backups. (15 Minutes for the huge site! For Full Backup, that VM NAS takes about 4 hours - for 8.5 TB, not too bad. But way too long for Lunchtime!)
→ If any Proxmox needs a reboot, I will manually trigger a full Backup to PBS, so any following Backup will again be incremental.
As you’re using Proxmox, make a full Backup (Snapshots are NOT independant!) and you’re on the safe side.
→ Generally, the migration tool as improved each time I used it. In the BETA phase, and for messy NS7 setups (less than 10 users) I did a manual migration.
Today, I would suggest using the Migration tool - at least for just Samba and File Server (They go together!).
But generally, the migration tool works better and better, so I’ld suggest do attempt 2 tries!
→ Make sure your DNS entries are in place for NS8 and whatever virtual hosts you might need. Don’t forget:
https://ns8.domain.com/nextcloud
will not work anymore, use something like
https://cloud.domain.com
Have your Windows Admin PC (with RSAT Tools installed) handy when you are ready to test and do fine settings in AD DNS and such!
I do not use WebTop (Nextcloud for Adressbooks and Calendars, Roundcube for Webmail), but as I’ve heard, it works better using IMAP / SMTP for Mail, and Sync for Adressbooks and Calendars. Using Sync for Mail is not quite as stable…
Offhand, I think I’ve got the major Tips and Tricks outside of that HowTo.
( Motivation / Humor ON)
Take the whole migration with a grain of humor and salt, the gaulish way (As in Asterix and Obelix!)
- I’ve got the brains to plan this
- I’ve got the familiarization with Debian to make this work
- I’ve got the time and fingers needed to do the job
- And lastly, the wisdom to know I don’t need to know everything, but I know who to ask!
I’m quite sure @mrmarkuz or myself will get you migrated to NS8!
( Motivation / Humor OFF)
Hope these help.
My 2 cents
Andy
PS:
If at any time you want to use a subscription (or even just for testing!), you can!
- Setup a Rocky VM analog your NS8 Debian.
- Join it to the cluster.
- Migrate all Apps and AD / Fileserver to the Rocky based VM.
- Shut down the Debian based one.
- Reboot NS8 on Rocky.
- Register for a subscription (Test or Productive).
Proxmox makes it easy, eg on a an isolated node or segment to test this independantly!
As always, better a backup too many
than one too little!