Cloud Migration Demo Q&A Follow-up: Part 1 (Pre-migration)
Hi Community!
Thanks to all of you who have joined our ongoing bi-weekly cloud migration demo! We’ve received so many great questions, so we’ve broken the Q&A recap into two sections:
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Pre-migration: Cloud questions, the migration process and trials (you are here!)
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During the migration: User migration, tooling, app and product-specific migrations (click here!)
In each post, we’ll cover questions that get asked frequently (or those we couldn’t get to!) as well as highlight resources to bookmark.
The questions in this post are categorized by:
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Cloud product and platform
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Cloud migration process
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Migration trials
We’ll continue updating this post as new questions come through, so be sure to follow the post for updates. If you have more questions around cloud migration, comment below and we’ll get to them as soon as we can.
And lastly, if you’ve missed a demo or want to attend one in the future: register here for demos with live chat Q&A with Cloud Migrations Managers or watch the recording on-demand.
We also wanted to be sure you were all aware of the top cloud migration resources to bookmark if you’re planning for a cloud migration:
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Cloud Migration Center: central hub that includes a resources page, server to cloud migration guide, migration contact form, and more!
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Cloud migration trial: a great first step if you want to explore cloud or test your migration without double paying. And once you’ve migrated, the trial instance can become your cloud production instance. The trial lasts for the remaining duration of your server maintenance or a minimum of 60 days, whichever is longer. It’s completely free - no credit card required. Here’s a demo on how to claim it.
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Server to cloud migration guide: phase by phase info on how to migrate, with links out to more detailed documentation.
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Intro to migrations eBook: recommended reading for anyone starting a migration!
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Jira Cloud Migration Assistant and Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant: free apps that help you audit and assess your on-premise apps and migrate users, spaces, and projects. (Here’s a demo on how to use app assessment)
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Cloud Business Case Toolkit: includes checklist for preparing your business case, email templates to send to stakeholders, and a presentation template to communicate the value of Atlassian Cloud.
Thanks!
Kesha
Cloud migration process:
Want to know more? Visit the server to cloud migration guide or read the Intro to Migrations eBook.
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Is it possible to migrate older versions of Jira and Confluence? If so, what migration method is recommended? We recommend upgrading prior to your move to cloud for a less complex migration. We ask that versions are at or above 7.13.1 for Jira Software, 3.0.0 for Jira Service Management, and 5.10 for Confluence. You can also use the Jira Site Import method, for versions 7.13.1 or above.
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Is it possible to run a test migration with my cloud site and delete the data prior to the production migration? Yes, you can reset and delete data from your test site to run a new migration using the steps here, or you can setup a separate testing site than your production site to avoid configuration drift. Please note that if you're using the Cloud Migration Assistants, some data may not be reset.
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We have multiple on-premise licenses of Jira Software, Confluence, and Bitbucket. Is it possible to migrate multiple licenses one by one into one large cloud license? Yes, we would recommend a Phased approach for migrating multiple licenses of multiple products. For Jira, use Jira Site Import for the first Jira instance and Jira Cloud Migration Assistant for the additional instances. For Confluence, use the Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant. Bitbucket Cloud Migration Assistant is coming soon, sign up for the Early Access Program here.
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Can we test our migration in a cloud sandbox environment? We recommend testing your migration using a free Cloud Migration Trial. You can also test your migration using a standard 7-day free trial of our cloud products or purchase the Premium or Enterprise plan of our cloud products to use the Sandbox feature.
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Do webhooks get moved over during a migration or do they need to be reconfigured after the migration? Webhooks will need to be re-configured after your migration.
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Do customized workflows migrate seamlessly? Migrating custom workflows will vary on the migration method being used. If you are using the Cloud Migration Assistants, we recommend reviewing what data is covered for Jira and Confluence.
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We need to move from one cloud license (Jira Software and Jira Service Management) to another. What is the recommend approach? Currently, merging existing cloud sites isn't supported for Jira, but we're working to fix this. Cloud to cloud migrations is in Early Access and set to be available natively in Jira Software Cloud later this year. To merge cloud sites today, you can use a CSV import of the issues, or restore the cloud backups on a temporary on-premise instance, and move it back to cloud with the Site Import method. See our Merge Multiple Jira Cloud sites documentation to learn more.
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What's the best approach to migrate Jira Service Management & Jira Software? The best way to migrate Jira Service Management (formerly Service Desk) is to use the Jira Site Import method, which will migrate both products at the same time. However, Jira Service Management migrations using the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant is currently in Early Access and set to launch later this year.
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Can you start fresh - then import at a later date? While it is possible to start fresh then import data at a later date, doing so will limit the migration methods available to your team at that later date. For example, doing a lift/optimize and shift using the Jira Site Import method will overwrite anything that’s on the destination cloud site. If you use Jira Cloud Migration Assistant, it will not overwrite your projects in cloud, but you may encounter other issues like project duplication. Depending on your timeline, it may be helpful to keep everything on-premise until you have a migration strategy and method decided for simplicity down the line.
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Is there a way to recover cloud data that was overwritten? If you have already performed a site import and did not backup your cloud site first, there is not a way to recover the data. If you have not already run the site import, you can take a site backup from cloud and restore it to either a new cloud site or a Data Center instance. If you have existing data that you want to retain in cloud, our recommendation is to use the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant which will not overwrite the data.
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For large enterprise customers, are you recommending the optimize and shift migration strategy or the phased approach? For large enterprise customers, we recommend Optimize and Shift. This gives you an opportunity to clean up your server data before moving, and move all at once. A phased approach is another great option, however, does tend to draw out the total time the migration will take as each phase requires its own test and UAT cycles. You can weigh the pros/cons of each approach using our comparison documentation.
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How long do migrations typically take? No two migrations are the same so it's difficult to estimate the time needed for migration planning and production. Your timeline is impacted by how simple or complex your migration is. Factors that impact your complexity include the number of apps and customizations you have, if site consolidation is required, how many users you have, which products you need to migrate, and more. You can learn more about assessing your migration complexity here.
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Is there any real difference between a test and production migration? If your test migration went smoothly, then you don't necessarily need to do a production migration. The instances when you would want to do a production migration are:
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if there were any data issues with the test migration, or users didn't migrate correctly
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if you didn't make your server instance read-only during the test migration, so there are now data discrepancies between what is in server and what is in your cloud site (ex. a user added new issues to Jira during the test migration so it didn't migrate over to cloud).
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What is the best way to clean up your site prior to migrating? Use the following documentation on how to clean up your server products before moving to cloud, including helpful tips, queries, and third-party apps.
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How do you change your on-premise instance to read-only? For Confluence server you would have to work through each space and remove all permissions for anything other than read. There is no explicit "read-only" mode in Jira server, but you can do it manually by creating a permission scheme that only allows "browse" permission and applying it to all projects. We'd also recommend updating your site-wide banners for Jira and Confluence stating that your site is now read-only during the migration.
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In order to run the migration assistant on our Jira installation, will the server need to have direct internet access in order to reach the cloud? Yes, you will need indeed need direct internet access. if you have restrictions to expose your server instance to the internet you'll need to allow specific IP addresses access to your customer server as mentioned on this page: "IP addresses and domains for Atlassian cloud products"
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If a site import is good for lots of custom workflows, does that mean that the migration assistant does not deal with lots of custom workflows? You can learn more about the benefits of the different methods on this page. Regarding the custom workflows, the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant will migrate Workflows scheme, basic links to the correctly migrated workflow scheme with status and transitions, Workflow functions. Check here for more info.
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Do you recommend we migrate Jira first or Confluence first? We recommend migrating Jira first. Migrating Confluence before Jira will result in your users being wiped from the cloud once Jira is imported.
- Our server licenses expired a few weeks ago. Will I be able to migrate to Cloud with expired server licenses? Yes, you don’t need a valid license to migrate to Cloud, and you can still leverage our Cloud Migration Trial license for 60 days. Please see this page for more information.
- Is there a recommended product for backups if we would like to rollback specific sites? We don’t have any specific product recommendation but you can check the pages below for details on how to create a backup for Jira and Confluence Cloud:
- Are references preserved after migration? Are they preserved during migration if only one component is migrated? The references are preserved during the migration but you might need to recreate the application links and ensure the products that are staying on-prem can communicate with the product that was migrated to Cloud. See this page for more details.
- Is a JSON import similar to the CSV one that exists? Yes, it’s a similar migration strategy when CSV cannot be utilized, but it is also an approach we do not recommend.
- Is a Jira/Confluence admin able to reset the instance to new state so that only default configs and no data is present? Yes, you can reset all data from your Cloud instance by following the instructions provided on this document . This will allow you to have a clean instance each time you prepare for another round of testing.
Atlassian Cloud platform and products
Want to know more? Read the “What’s new and better in Atlassian Cloud?” eBook
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Can we request our data should be hosted where the company operates? Yes, data residency allows customers to specify which geography to host their data in. Data Residency is currently supported in our Cloud Enterprise plan, and new Standard and Premium subscriptions for the US and EU. Existing Standard and Premium subscriptions will have data residency enabled by October 2021. To learn which types of data are covered or how it works visit our documentation. You can also visit our cloud roadmap to see which geographies are coming soon, and what additional features we are working on.
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For data residency, I've seen that within the EU data is kept either in Frankfurt or in Dublin. Is there any way to keep the data exclusively in Frankfurt due to data protection requirements? Currently we do not offer the option to designate specific countries for data storage within the data realms, however we are working on supporting this. You can see which countries we are working on via our cloud roadmap.
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Where can we find the pricing for cloud? To better understand the total cost of ownership of cloud relative to your current self-hosted setup, visit out cloud savings calculator. To compare your current server products and app portfolio to cloud, visit our personalized price comparison tool.
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How will accessing a cloud instance of Jira differ from our current self-hosted instances? Should we expect large changes to UI and navigation in the new platform? While our server and cloud Jira products provide the same benefits, there are some differences in features, functionality and UI. View our documentation to get a better understanding of those differences and what changes your end users can expect.
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How do I connect my domain to Jira/Confluence Cloud? You can verify ownership of your domain and connect your account in one of 2 ways:
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HTTPS—Upload an HTML file to the root folder of your domain's website.
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DNS TXT—Copy a TXT record to your domain name system (DNS)
Both will be need to be done via admin.atlassian.com. More info can be found here.
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What is the availability of your servers? Is there any guarantee agreement? Our Premium and Enterprise cloud plans do have guarantee agreements of 99.9% uptime SLA and 99.95% uptime SLA.
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With regards to ISO 13485 certification, how and where is my data backed up? Is there some audit logs or access to any logs or penetrations? For Jira and Confluence Cloud, Atlassian utilizes the snapshot feature of Amazon RDS (Amazon Relational Database Service) to create automated daily backups of each RDS instance. Amazon RDS snapshots are retained for 30 days with support for point-in-time recovery and are encrypted using AES-256 encryption. Today, Atlassian maintains data centers and hosts data in the US, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, and Australia. We provide all customers with secure, fast and reliable services by hosting their content in multiple regions around the world. You can access audit logs, view our documentation for more info.
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Do all cloud users need a myAtlassian account? By default, all users that have access to any cloud product will have a general Atlassian Account that they can access in id.atlassian.com. Learn more here.
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Do inactive users count against the cloud license? No, inactive users cannot log in and do not count against the cloud license.
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Can you explain the security of the Atlassian cloud and options to lock down access (two factor, ip restrictions, etc) to protect sensitive data? We've created the Atlassian Trust Center to publicly document all of our cloud security practices and how we protect cloud data. We've also created Atlassian Access, a product that provides Enterprise-grade security and centralized administration across all your Atlassian cloud products. Plus, we offer IP allowlisting as part of the Premium and Enterprise cloud plans that allows you to restrict access to a product based on a user’s IP address.
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Is there a dev environment or functionality in cloud? Yes, we have a Sandbox feature where you can test new apps and functionality as part of our Premium and Enterprise cloud plans for Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management.
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Are there any storage limitations for attachments? It depends on which cloud plan you're on. Free allows 2GB of storage, Standard is 250GB and Premium and Enterprise are unlimited storage.
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Can I continue using the existing domain in Jira Cloud? Unfortunately, we don't allow custom domains yet. Today, you can sign up for certain Atlassian cloud products (Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Confluence) under the subdomain of your choice. For example, if your company is Acme, you can host these products under supportcompany.atlassian.net, but it will always end with "atlassian.net". For more info see: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CLOUD-6999
Migration trials
Want to know more? Visit this page or watch the demo on how to activate and use your trial.
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How does the free cloud migration trial work? The cloud migration trial is designed to give you more than 7 days to explore and evaluate features and pricing plans in cloud, as well as test your cloud migration. The duration of the trial matches the remaining maintenance of your self-hosted instance, and matches the user tier. If you have 6 months remaining on your Jira self-hosted license with 500 users, you will be eligible for a free, 6 month Jira Software Cloud migration trial for 500 users.
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If I increase the number of licenses in my on-premise sites, will the cloud migration trial change? If you own multiple server or Data Center licenses, you are able to activate a separate cloud migration trial for each license with a unique Support Entitlement Number (SEN).
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I have a Data Center subscription with 500 users, if I start my cloud migration trial and half way I upgrade to 1000 users, will the cloud trial also upgrade to 1000 users while still being free? Yes, if you upgrade your Data Center license from 500 to 1000, your cloud trial can be upgraded as well, and still be free. For support reach out to our Customer Advocate team here.
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If I already have the free version of a cloud product and I want to migrate my on-premise data to it, how do I set up the 60-day free cloud trial? You can turn your Free site into the cloud migration trial here. If your site doesn’t appear here, please contact support to manually switch it for you.
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If your maintenance expires and you renew it, can you continue to use the cloud migration trial? Yes, you will have a cloud migration trial for 12 months as long as you have an active server license.
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Will our cloud migration trial extend if we end up renewing server maintenance for another year? Your cloud migration trial is attached to your server/DC SEN, so it will run through the length of your subscription, up to 12 months. If you renew your server license for another year, the migration trial will not automatically renew and will need to be manually extended by our support team.
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How do I update the site URL in my cloud migration trial instance? If you need to update the site URL, you can contact us at support.atlassian.com/contact and we can help you!
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Are all cloud features available in the cloud migration trial or are there any limitations? All features will be available in the cloud migration trial, there are no feature limitations. You can also choose to test Standard and Premium features throughout the duration of your trial.
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Can we use the trial license as our production license after the migration is complete? Yes, you can turn the trial license into a full license! At the end of the trial period you'll be prompted for your billing details and then you'll be charged as you would normally for a full license. Until then, you can use the trial as your full license for free. If you want to add your billing details you can do so at admin.atlassian.com
- Does the free cloud migration trial include Marketplace apps? The cloud migration trial does not include apps, but Marketplace apps include a free 30-day trial by default. After 30 days, Marketplace apps can be purchased while you continue to explore cloud and plan your migration using the cloud migration trial.
- Our support contact mentioned that we might need to activate the Confluence trial before the Jira trial, is this correct? You can activate the trials in any order, there is no dependency between them.
- If our license is already expired, and we renew it now, do we have the free trial for longer than the 60 days for Confluence and the 30 days for Bitbucket? If you renew your license before enabling the Cloud Migration Trial (CMT) license, then yes, the CMT will match the new expiration date of your server license, up to 12 months. Right now, the CMT is available for Jira products and Confluence only.
- Is it possible to wipe the Cloud Migration Trial instance in order to complete the production migration at a later date? Yes, you can reset all data from your Cloud instance by following the instructions provided on this document. This will allow you to have a clean instance each time you prepare for another round of testing or for your production migration.
- Is there also a migration trial to test Atlassian Access? For Atlassian Access, we offer a 30-day free trial that you can enable directly from admin.atlassian.com. Please see this page for more details and steps to enabling the evaluation license.
- Is it possible to keep the on-premise Server going while at the same time trying out the Cloud Migration Trial with the same dataset? Yes, your on-prem server will be unaffected and will remain active for as long as you’d like.
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Thanks!
Kesha Thill
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