Migration to Cloud with only Active users Impact

Mahesh Kallepalli_u4afak

We’re planning a migration to the cloud and are currently considering migrating only active users. This aligns with our updated cloud onboarding approach, which will use automation and project-based groups (new groups created per project).

Could you please advise on how we should handle inactive users in this approach? Specifically:

• What are the considerations/risks of not migrating inactive users?
• Will we still be able to view and track inactive users’ issue history (and any related records) after the migration? If so, how?
• Do you have any recommendations or preferred practices for managing inactive users (for example, retention, audit, reporting, or reactivation)?

Arkadiusz Wroblewski

Hello @Mahesh Kallepalli 

Yes, that approach can work with JCMA.

If you choose migrate only the users and groups referenced in projects, Atlassian describes that as the minimum needed to keep the migrated project data intact. 

migrate-users-and-groups 

The part I would watch is the difference between disabled users and deleted users or users coming from an inactive directory:

- Disabled users can still be migrated to Cloud without product access, so they do not count as active Jira users for billing. That is the approach I used.
- Deleted users, or users from an inactive directory who are still referenced in the data, will typically end up as Former user after migration. The history is still there, but the named identity is gone in Cloud.

So for your questions:

1. Risk of not migrating inactive users: the main risk is around identity and permissions, not issue integrity. Referenced users are the minimum needed for intact data, but deleted users / inactive-directory users may end up as Former user. 
2. Will issue history still be visible? Yes, Atlassian says activity such as comments and history is preserved, but if the user is migrated as Former user, it will be shown under that generic name instead of the original user identity. 
3. Preferred practice: if you need historical traceability but do not want licenses consumed, I would keep those users as disabled rather than deleted before migration, or explicitly migrate them as Former user only where losing the personal identity is acceptable.